We arrived at the hotel to learn that it was too early to check in, the rooms were not yet ready. Huh, c’mon?! I mean, after an overnight flight I was ready to rock and roll, zoom up to the main stage like in rest a bit, shower, put my feet up before adventuring out into the world but nope, we had to wait somewhere in no men’s land, with not enough couches for all thirty plus individuals to crush at once and I was about to eat red pepper. That was not part of the menu and it made me growl like a Chihuahua.

After careful negotiations with the hotel folks, they allowed us to stash our luggages in a corner room and because we did not come to play or waist any time, went searching for food. While we were there, we decided to check the area, humm the stores, I mean the bargains. I wish there was something to say in that department but I am afraid there isn’t, nothing exciting to report other than it is a town and people live in it, some Moms N Paps, a supermarket, some car dealerships and that’s all folks.

We broke up into groups going from door to door feeling the menus around Mestre but in the end, in some odd reason, all thirty plus of us ended up at the same place. I felt sorry for the waiters at the restaurant as they were not expecting that many people, scrambled at first but managed to sit us all plus others who also invaded the restaurant for lunch. Trust me, we left happy, our bellies were full, the food was to die for.

We returned to the hotel, checked into our rooms, given sufficient time to powder our nose and hopped on the bus straight to the main stage, Venice.
It was a gray, rainy day out but we didn’t care. We were on a mission. Everything was sunny out. Perhaps, I should have researched Venice better, learn about it’s surroundings, history, products, what to see, where to go, be a tourist. I knew about the arts, gondolas, the islands but my mission on the trip was to enjoy as much I could, experience the trip the joy of traveling as a tourist in a tour bus, go wherever the peeps were going. Yes, basically I let someone else do the ground work for me, Amber, our beautiful tour guide and why not? So, it did come as a surprise to me, I was not aware of and yes, I should have informed myself a bit, that the area is big in seafood, particularly oysters.

I was in awe while driving towards the islands. It did not escape me as I came across a sea of oyster reefs propagating the landscape, looking like a wave of choreographed lines in the bay. It was ridiculously cool even though the day was more conducive for a funeral then a delicious trip.

Almost there….

Crossing the bridge into the main island

Arriving at Stazione Marittima!

Arriving in Venice, we were greeted by our tour manager, Ambra; beautiful italian name, it means Amber in English. We claimed our luggage and hop on the bus to Mestre, a suburb of Venice region and met Lucas, our bus driver. An interesting gentleman to say the least. Sorry, I don’t seem to find a picture of his. He reminds me of a younger french actor, Gerard Depardieu.

Silly me. I though we were going to have different tour guides and drivers for each of the cities we visited, which we did have local guides but were attached to the hips to Ambra and Lucas for the entire the trip. They were the main guides and no complains here. Well, at least from me. There is however, one or two people who were not happy. Oh well, you cannot satisfy everyone. And moving right along we did, discovering Italy we were on our way.

The weather was beautiful with bright sunshine and clear blue skies. It was hard to believe that we were actually in Italy after looking forward to this trip for more then a year. We had many pancakes scrambled eggs, sausage, orange juice breakfasts, count eight, garage sales and an Italian night dinner fundraiser to help us achieve our dream, but like troops, they came rushing supporting us all the way.

We finally arrived at Antony Hotel in Mestre, a suburb of Venice.