Tonight we walk on own to the Ca'd Oro area where I have a gigantic Calzone while the others have great pizza.
Day 9 Today its serious rain . We walk a few yards and go in a water taxi to Murano for the glass making tour.The ride/ view would be wonderful if you could see ANYTHING. The taxi takes us to St.Marks. Now it gets interesting!!Italian workers are on strike and we land in the middle of a demonstration and it's raining so all several hundred of us are under the portico AND IT'S AQUA ALTA and water is lapping at our ankles and on the square and rising. We manage to enter the Doges Palace -out of the water. When we come out the rain has stopped , the water is receding and all is well.. Later we make our way thru San Polo back to our hotel.
Tonight it's the final dinner in the hotel.
Day 10 It's up at 3:30 for only 8 of us to take a private water taxi to the airport for ths flight home.

Summary. Tours are not for everyone. This one was perfect for us and we had a great time. The hotels were a little out of historical centers but they were good hotels. The meals were not gourmet but very good. On the plus side--ALL was arranged- tickets, transfers etc. We had a terrific guide to assure only good thing happened.----and they did!!!!!!

Fairhope,

Thank you for posting your trip report.I really found it very interesting. It sounds like you had a great time.

I haven't gotten to take a trip to Italy yet. I am planning on going in the spring of 2006. I think I may well take a Tour also. After reading about your trip, a tour really does sound like it could be a good way to go.

Thanks again for all the good information.