Pam and I visited the Peggy Guggenhiem collection today – entry was 12 euro each.

There was a collection of sculptures outside and a lot of original works of art inside – mostly around 1910-1930

This lady obviously had some serious money to buy all of this art herself – including original Picasso.

I really liked the painting above, it is by Richard Pousette-Dart (1916 – 1992) titled “The Atom, One World” painted in 1947/1948 – oil on linen

A close up of the a part of the above painting

I found out later that you were not allowed to take photos…

I wake up to find it still raining but not as much as during the night. We start our day with a trip to San Marco square which is about 200 meters from our hotel and quite easy to find.

Looks the same to me as 6 years go, but do the normal tourist thing and take photos. We walk around and look at some super priced Murano glass in the shops at the edges of the piazza.

Coffee is a stupid price – 5 euro 70 cents for an espresso if you sit down. We found a cafe (Cafe Lavena) where it was 1 euro to stand at the bar and drink your coffee and they even gave you a chocolate with the coffee. There was a small orchestra starting up at the end of the bar as well. The coffee was pretty good as well.

The day then started to dry up and the sun even came out and we had a nice afternoon walking around.

A look down the grand canal from the Accademia Bridge towards the Basilica Di Santa Maria Della Salute (near San Marco)

Do you like my artistic styling to the photo? well if not keep quiet as Pam & I like it.

We arrived in Venice at about 2pm in the afternoon and it was hosing down with rain which is a real pity. We grabbed our bags and then went to catch a vaporetto .

As you would expect in the rain people are trying to sell you umbrellas for 5 euro.

We buy a ticket on the vaporetto which gives you 1 hour travel + 1 bag for 6 euro and 50 cents each. The vaporetto are full with people moving around the grand canal. It took about 25 minutes to get from the train station to our stop which was Santa Maria Dell Gilo.

My job was to find the hotel, I did my research well before I left and “assumed” it would be good. We followed my directions and found the hotel first pop which was very good since it was still raining very heavy. Even though the hotel is just a door with a number – no sign at all. We are on the 3rd floor – no lift.

I had arranged to met with a lady (Verna) from our Italian language class in Christchurch. She had left a note on the hotel door for us to see if we wanted to catch up for a  drink.

The room is very nice and decorated with a quite venetian look.

At 5:30pm we met with Verna and her husband Dan and went walking (in the rain) to a bar and had a drink. I had a beer in a glass boot – very odd.

Pam & I ate at a restaurant in a square that Verna recommended. Pam had a risotto and I a pizza. The food was very good and not too expensive for Venice – 21 euro all up.

We walked back home along unfamiliar streets and only got lost once. I crashed as soon as I got back to the room, which was a pity as San Marco flooded that night and it could have been good to see that.

Today is Monday and it is time to depart Poggioraso and drop the car off in Bologna and catch the train to Venice.

Well we woke early 6am, and cleaned up the house, and packed up the car and drove to Bologna. Just as we were leaving town the fog started to cover the mountains and the road.

As we have driven a lot in Italy we have seen a lot of signs on the road with a photo of Deer. Well we actually saw a wild one today cross the road about 50 meters in front of us, just after leaving Poggioraso. Sorry no photos…

We arrive in plenty of time in Bologna and fill the car up with fuel ready to drop off at the Rental Car facility.

Some stats on driving:

We had completed dropping the car off at 9:20 and got them to phone a cab which they said would 5 minutes, but it only turned up about 25 minutes later. I assumed (wrongly) that the station was only about 1km from where we were but in fact it was a long way away. It cost 16.5 Euro to get to the train station.

We got there at about 2 minutes to 10 and we were planning to catch the 10am train.  We missed that and I was pissed off since I thought we would have had plenty of time.  We checked out the times for the next trains and there was one at 11:36am and another at 11:56. The 11:36am was a EuroStar fast train and the next a regional train.

We checked out the prices for the different trains:

We took the cheap option and waited 2 hours – We waited outside the train station and also in McDonalds which was clean and tidy but no Toilets that Pam could find.

I went across the street while Pam looked after the bags and had a espresso coffee 1 euro, and also a cappuccino 1.30 euro. The cappuccino was very nice but quite mild as far as the coffee portion went.

Remember: You must validate your train ticket or you can be fined! (we already validated it after we bought it). As soon as we got on the train and it departed the conductor came past to check out tickets. All OK

So we are in a regional train which is fine, it is comfortable and we could put our bags above our heads. I helped some American ladies who had very heavy bags to put them on the rack above the seats. I guess I will have to help them take them down when we get to Venice?

In the regional train 1st class has a 2x1 configuration, whereas second class has a 2x2 configuration per row.

I am writing this as I am sitting on the train.. It is very cloudy outside so I guess Venice will be cool as well.

It is nice to not be driving……

Today is Sunday and our last day in Poggiorao. I woke early as I do, and continued to read a book I started yesterday called “The Lake House” by “James Paterson”

It is quite cold today as it has started to drizzle rain and we plan on staying home all day and have a rest day. The rain basically stays all day….

I finish that book at about 2pm, quite interesting about children with wings and a mad doctor – I have left in the apartment in case someone else wants to read it.

Just before Reberto and his family leave to go home to Bologna they invite us over to his house to have a coffee and say good bye.

We pay for our accommodation (50 Euro per day + 10 Euro for Towels & Sheets + 28 Euro for gas heating) – all up 186 Euro.

We start talking about New Zealand and other places in Italy. They invite us to biscuits that Louisa baked and gave us coffee. Some how we started talking about drinks and they opened the drinks cabinet and invited us to some drinks.

• Blackberry Something (I never really got the full name, but the bottle had little blackberries at the bottom) – quite strong.
• Brandy
• Lemonchelo

It was a nice way to say goodbye – they are a very nice family – thank you very much for your hospitality.

Once they all left we are here by our selves, we were told to lock up the doors as there are some bad people around who break in to the houses in the area.

We head back to our house and shut up the shutters and lock the front door. I make a simple dinner of salad leaves, prosciutto, beans and pasta with baked potatoes done in the fire. Pam hates it – oh well life goes on…

We have stoked the fire and are warm and well. We leave here early in the morning as we need to drop the car off in Bologna by 10am. We then need to get a train to Venice.

So we are planning to clean up, shut up the house, turn off the gas and power and leave about 7:30 for the trip to Bologna. There is a train at about 10am to Venice so if we get into town around 9am and get rid of the car and get to the train station we hopefully will get to the 10am train.

Today after Pam and I checked out Sestola I went for a drive to find snow – well I never found snow – I did however find a waterfall and that had to be it for me.

I drove for about 30-40 minutes on some very small roads which ended up being one lane and then gravel. The rental car is very low at the front and I was not too keen to drive on the gravel. Near the start of the gravel was a nice waterfall so I decided that was the end of the trip and took some snaps.

After getting back from the snow I meet Luisa who is Roberto’s wife and their two daughters. We chatted for a long time about lots of things and had a coffee with them. They are very nice and friendly people and it was a real joy to talk to someone for a change as normally you are just the tourist who is buying something. Louisa's English was very good, far better than my Italian.

Sestola is very close to where we are staying and is only 2.5 km from Pogioraso. It has quite a few shops and is skiing oriented and would be very busy in the winter season. It was also very popular with motor cycle riders yesterday with a lot of people probably doing day trips to the mountain villages. Most of these bikes are huge, 1200cc BMW, Triumph, Harley Davidson etc..

There is a castle at the top of the hill above town as can be seen in a lot of these photos. There is a lot of restaurants and bars in town as well.