Day 13 - Arrive in Venice

‍‍We said good-bye to Florence and took the high-speed train to Venice.  The train ride to about 2 hours.  From the train station in Venice we took water taxis to our hotel.  At the hotel we had a buffet lunch.  On the buffet was a penne pasta with pesto sauce.  We were being served and without thinking I accepted the pasta or on my plate.  I also got chicken and green beans.  As I was heading for a table, our Program Director, Florence, stopped me to give me a plate of pasta in tomato sauce since I am allergic to the pine nuts in the pesto.  Thank goodness to Florence for looking out for me, since it would not have been good if I had eaten the park on the penne pasta.  And up to that point I had been so careful.

Once lunch was over, we meet or our local guides and headed for St. Mark's Square and the Doges Palace.  There were a lot of steps and it was hot and the building was not air conditioned.  Our group was fine but the other group did not do well and some cut the tour short and returned to the hotel.

After the tour we returned to the hotel to check-in and get our room keys, go to our rooms and shower and meet again to go to the restaurant.  This was our farewell dinner so the attire Evening Smart (aka dressy).  Our meal consisted of three courses.  For my first course I selected a vegetable roll.  Since John didn't think he wanted either, he selected the Caprese salad. The vegetable roll was like a spring roll, so I let John have that and I took the Caprese salad.  For my second course, I chose the vegetable lasagna; John chose the steak.  For our third course, we both chose the gelato.  It was a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate.  And there was lots of wine, of course.  Then it was back to the hotel and time to relax and then go to bed.

John called the hospital and Matt was doing better.  The nurse said that they migh discharge him on Saturday, but they still hadn't gotten word back on what bacteria was the culprit.

I was struck today by all the different ways there are to turn on the water in sinks; get soap for my hands; and dry my hands.   Read more