3 June

We bought fruit and juice at the local grocers and had breakfast on the train to Venice. Upon arrival, we checked our bags at the station and walked around town for about four hours. The main product of Venice seems to be strange ceramic masks, like people wear to bizarre balls in movies – and maybe in Venice, for all we know. They also sell endless amounts of assorted glass dust-catcher type geegaws and gimcracks. We passed on all of them.

Venice was nice, with interesting buildings and, of course, the canals and boats, but by mid-afternoon, we'd had enough and took a train to Trieste. Trieste seems like a nice, fairly clean city, with a minimal amount of beggars. We got a seedy hotel for nearly what we paid in Termoli. The toilet is down the hall, and we can't use the shower because the sewer backs up in it, but there's some sort of convention in town, so rooms are a bit scarce. Oh well, all part of the adventure, I guess.

We've decided that before we can say we've officially been to a city, we must be panhandled and we must see a "Hello Kitty" display in a store window. We officially visited Trieste within the first thirty minutes. Janene's pedometer crossed the 400 mile mark today.

Montegrotto Terme

Roman Spa ruins

onward to Venice

NOT diesel-powered!

Venice

Janene at Ponte degli Scalzi	other direction on bridge	drinking fountain	Loris Marazzi sculptures
Joe on small bridge	gondoliers on Grand Canal	pay toilet (close-up of sign)	Joe at Ponte de Ca' Balà
a wild thing	Grand Canal	Church of Saint Stephen	narrow alley
	rush hour	wider shot of canal
Pont di Rialto	Rialto Bridge crowds	Joe on Rialto Bridge	Church of Rialto

Trieste

Piazza Sant'Antonio Nuovo from hotel room