.......Venice is WONDERFUL in so many ways, but I'd like to start in ROME because that's where our trip began, on October 6, 2007. Naturally, we didn't actually arrive til the next day, October 7 ! Our 2 flights from Chicago to Toronto, and then from there to Rome were on Air Canada and were very long and tedious, but uneventful. And UNEVENTFUL is the way I like 'em because this was the FIRST time we conquered our fear of flying, (developed only over the last 23 years), long enough to fly that far again. So SAFETY was our main concern, and that went beautifully, THANK GOD!! ...Well.....if you don't count the fact that I, exhausted before one flight, tripped over my luggage, then off-balance (still holding onto my heavy bags) staggered zig-zag downhill quite a ways down the boarding ramp, then finally "landed", finishing off this "class act" by slamming my head very hard on the wall getting into the plane! There was a big swollen bump on my head for a week, and my knee didn't fare too well either!! But from my family's hysterical laughter afterwards, I understand that it was all a pretty comical sight! (They all know how "accident prone" I am!! I fall more than once on every trip!)

Also, later on that same flight, someone spilled a whole bottle of red wine on the plane, and wouldn't you know it was ME who stepped in it with only my socks on! But apart from that, and some MAJOR "R.L.S" (Restless Leg Syndrome) which made sleeping on the 10 hour flight impossible - NOTHING BAD to report!! This all just made me wish I had gotten SOME sleep the night before, instead of spending the whole night PACKING!! OH, there was JUST ONE movie shown on board and that movie really sucked too---but that's neither here nor there.

After meeting family and friends at the airport for our happy reunion, we all took 2 taxi cabs (we needed 2 taxis to accommodate all of us) to our rented apartment in Rome. Even though this apartment was a "no frills" experience (described more fully later) it couldn't have been better located, very central to all major tourist attractions, and that was most important to us. In fact, it was just a few blocks from PIAZZA VENEZIA (one of my favorites, pictured ABOVE), where sits, like a noble Roman Emperor, an enormous and magnificent monument to "celebration and victory" and where the "tomb of the unknown soldier" is always faithfully guarded. Many tourists call this beautiful white monument the "Wedding Cake", due to its appearance.

OK, a bit BELOW you will find the "IMPORTANT INFO" that I somehow felt was "necessary" for you to know (but probably isn't!) I'm sorry if any of this is repeated elsewhere, but that is probably OK, because nobody is going to read even 1/10th of this Blog anyway! LOL .... But I'm going to forge on ahead anyway, and hope you will too! :-)

**** INTRODUCTION TO ROME ****