That is the question our vast following here on the web must have been asking.  Alas, we were unexpectedly stranded without internet access.  And it often seemed so close!  While our hotel in Venice had internet access, we have an older computer that could not connect with their system.  They even had an older system but our computer did not have a strong enough wifi receiver to make it work.  Ahh, the challenges of travelling in the internet age!

Since our last post we've been to Venice, returned to Florence, seen Tracy off to her workshop on the Spiritual and Art Practice, and Richard off to Pisa where he writes this on the hotel PC (with its European keyboard) shortly before heading back to SF.  Much ground to cover and little time.  In short:

Venice is wonderful, marvelous, amazing, and many other over the top positive adjectives.

Light, color, sky, architecture, art, and history are some of the dimensions of the above.

We got to spend an afternoon and evening with the Grubbs-Rider clan!

St.Marks is a wonder of the world.

The Biennale was so wonderful Richard dropped all plans to sightsee and spent all day for for two days at the show.  The exhibition spaces alone were incredible and much of the art just amazing.

On the day we left we saw a separate exhibit, Infinitum, that knocked our socks off.

Food highlights were our first italian pizza, lemon-basil gelato, and a seafood-green bean salad.

Technology caused Richard a small heart murmur when the GPS on his iPhone told him his train was headed to Rome instead of Pisa – fortunately it corrected itself before more serious health consequences ensued.

Pisa has a botanical garden that allows you to photograph the leaning tower emerging from jungle vegetation much like a Mayan temple at Tikal.

There you have it!  There may be some more reflective posts after a few days.  We shall see. 

Thanks for reading!