New Year's Eve - Murano

When going to Venice for our final day in the city, we decided to go visit the glass factory of Murano, famed for his hand-blown glass.  It was definitely a quieter scene in Murano - and we enjoyed a wonderful New Year's Eve meal on the island.

On the way back, Tracy and I thought we would walk across the entire town while the grandparents stopped for Gelato and made their way back.

Due to some missed water taxis and taking the scenic route, the parents ended up beating everyone back to the house - which just meant a bit of waiting for the key to arrive.

New Year's Eve!  What a day!  What a year!  Praise God for abundant blessings and the chance to be together with family.  These last two days in Venice were a bit of magic - and so gratifying and wonderful to see dad doing so well walking around the city. 

Wrapping up the Day in Venice

To wrap up the day in Venice, we enjoyed seeing the Piazzo San Marco.  And as we left, the sun was just setting over the Square. Quite a day and we all got a chance to walk around a major part of the city.

Venice

Wow!  Pretty amazing to be in Venice!  A city that is unlike any other.  Just by looking at a map, you realize how unique and different Venice really is - there are no roads. . .just canals.  Certainly, with rising sea levels, Venice is at a threat like few other places on the planet. 

We were grateful that there were no predicted storm surges that might have put many of the areas under water.

We finally figured out the water taxi system after mistakenly thinking that the bus ticket pass might cover transportation in Venice (A Venice pass covers all buses and water taxis; so it was silly to buy extra bus tickets - something to be learned for next time - and a price for not speaking enough Italian at the local tobacco shop.). 

To get away from the cold wind and the bitter chill which we were not accustomed to, we managed to duck in for the most expensive hot chocolate we may ever have!  Right on the Venice square it was a welcome retreat from the elements.

A Short Hike

While we were cleaning our AirBnb and before setting off over the mountains to head to Venice, we went for a little walk to take the trash out and to enjoy some of the best weather we had during our short and rainy time in wintry Tuscany.

Beautiful skies and nice to get out and walk around the neighborhood a bit. You can see why walking tours of Tuscany are so popular. . .though perhaps not in winter so much.

We drove up over the mountains, seeing a bit of snow (but nothing on the roads - so no need to use our chains which we had rented with the vehicle just in case).  It was a pretty drive to head to Venice.

Electricity Battles & A Quiet Day

When the power went out again, the instructions were to hold the reset button for "15 minutes."  Despite thinking this was wacky, we tried it.  Ha!  Strangely, that didn't work.  Thankfully, the technicians were able to come and reset the electricity to get our hot water back on.  Strangely, if you plug in more than one appliance at a time, the power in the house trips.  It reset easily enough, but getting the hot water heater to function was a different story requiring some crazy German re-programming. . .or something.

At least there are some good books to read!

Statue of David

It's hard to really put words to the magic that is seeing Michelangelo's Statue of David in person.  Wow!  It is so much larger and more imposing than any pictures can do justice.  Thankfully, we had good advice and managed to get tickets ahead of time so we had a timed entrance to see the beautiful museum where the Statue of David is housed.

The rest of the day was incredibly rainy, so we dodged the raindrops, got some hot chocolate and made our one questionable decision of the trip - thinking we could visit the Uffizi since it was low season.  Ha!  With a several hour wait to get in, we could have gotten advanced tickets - but not really sure it was worth it given the museum fatigue from some of our kids!

Viewing the Tower

Of course, we had to take the obligatory Leaning Tower of Pisa shots - thankfully, we were there to hold up the towers. . .schew!  Would not want them to fall!   Reeve wasn't so keen on another sight seeing tour, so decided to stay home and enjoy some chill time. 

 We showed up with a bit of rain, and then the skies cleared and we ended up with some pretty good weather for most of our visit. 

What a nice day and delightful drive through the valleys of Tuscany. 

Up the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Thanks to low season and the chance to take drive through Tuscany, we went to the learning tower of Pisa - and went up to the top. . .which was a bit disconcerting - narrow walkways, plenty of heights.  Plenty safe, for sure, but not for the faint of heart! 

Quite the views from the top! (And of Grandpa and Grandma taking pictures while we were on the top.)

Christmas Day & Christmas Dinner

With everything closed for Christmas, we enjoyed a quiet day at home.  We enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner as we managed to deal with the oven.  (There were some crazy electricity challenges which we had to navigate, especially that evening when the hot water went off! See tomorrow's posts for that fun - and trying to follow those directions - ha!). 

 There was also some miniature ping pong and some epic matches between Grandpa and Reeve. 

 We also had a chance for getting the Florence puzzle completed - a bit warmer view that what we were enjoying on this Christmas day while trying to stay warm. 

Christmas Morning in Tuscany

We woke up to a nice fire in the fireplace and an enjoyable Christmas morning with a few stockings (we had celebrated most of Christmas back at Grandma's place in Rome. 

Lucky that we had a chimney so that Santa could find us in Tuscany.