June 18- 24- First week in Italy

After a grueling- LOL- 8 hour flight, we arrived in Venice, Italy at 1:10PM. We had left Toronto the night before at 11PM for an over-night flight. Neither Uwe nor I are good at sleeping on planes no matter what or how many pills/booze we consume, so we were operating on close to a 24 hour day.

Going through customes was a breeze, barely looked at our passports. The airport was modern however it took forever getting our luggage- must have caught them during siesta time.

My daughter, Nicole, was there to meet us for the 45 minute car ride to Fiume Veneto, the village where she and her husband Fab lived.

                                        This is the front of their 2 bedroom , very modern house.

And the side yard- lots of lawn. There are palm trees, Magnolia trees, evergreens, oleander..

And a view of their residential street.

On Sunday, we took a car ride to Maniago, a nearby town where Fab's parents have a house. Maniago is at the foothills of the mountains on the north of Italy- part of the Alps .

The roadways are modern, well-paved. This is one of the many routes to Maniago.

Notice the foothills in the background.

A tree-lined street in Maniago.

Fab's parents' house in the footshills overlooking Maniago

Uwe, Fab & Nicole in front of house.

The top floor- 2 bedroom is rented to a US airforce couple stationed at Aviano Air Force base and the bottom 1 bedroom is used by Fab's parents when they visit Italy from Canada.

In front of restaurant where we had a huge lunch- all Italian meals consists of 3 courses, pasta, meat & veggies and desert. Strange enough- at least in northern Italy, there are very few obese people.

On Monday Uwe & I took a walk into downtown Fiume Veneto- a mere 10 minute walk along the bike path paralleling the main road.

Of course it was reposo time- every day between 12 and 3PM- where everything is closed.

Here is a quiet downtown street.

                                         And the same main street crossing a river through town.

                                                     And the town square in front of church.

On Tuesday, Fab had to go to Trieste, a city at the border with Slovenia. He works for a car dealer selling cars to the US Airforce personnel stationed at Aviano and because Slovenia is the closest border, Trieste is used to arrange custom/imports for the vehicle documents.

We decided to go with him- a mere 1 hour drive- to check out yet another city.

Trieste is on the Adriatic sea and half is in Italy & the other half is in Slovenia.

It has an absolutely beautiful sea shore with many marinas and a cruise ship dock.

Here are several pictures of our walk .

And more eye candy

                              And some of the buildings on hillside surrounding the sea

                                                              Kids learning how to skull

                                                The main city square- lots of cafe/ bars

                                          
                                        Lots of old buildings with beautiful statues

 On Wednesday after dinner, we drove to yet another nearby town called Pordenone. Here we sat at a bar ( us, sit at a bar-LOL) for a spritz- wine & sparkling water & a slice of lemon, very refreshing.

The downtown area has all been turned into pedestrian walkways.

                                                                                And more

All lined with lots of high end stores- shoes, clothes etc plus more bars and restaurants. We came back here on Friday for Pizza- you haven't tasted pizza until you come to Italy!!!