Visitors continued

Okay, it is Colombus Day and we take everyone to Venice (but leave Michael and Julia at home as changing diapers in Venice is challenging). I am in short sleeves just shaking my head at the weather these Texans brought. We stumbled accidentally into a store a g'friend had told me about. The woman who owns it is British and gives Americans a ten-percent discount on anything in the store. She was wonderful to chat with. Trish stocked up on Christmas presents and the others, including myself, bought a few things. We parted ways with Adriana and Claudia since they left their kids at home and didn't need to be bothered with ours. We had fun watching all the boats bring merchandise to the docks and unload it. Who knew that could be so interesting?
We found a good place to eat sandwiches except I needed some caffine and a Diet Coke was 3 euro! YIKES. We met up with Jan Benson from KBH's office at San Marco and then went around the corner to get her something to eat. Her hubby couldn't believe we found each other since the crowds were pretty thick with 5 cruise boats being in port.
We all enjoyed getting on the Vaparetto back to the train station.
Monday night the 8 adults went to Raffa's to eat. They had to experience her cooking and personality! We ate polenta with Mantasio cheese, zucchini crostini (and something else) then her famous bruschetta. She made melt in your mouth pumpkin risotto. Our main course was lemon chicken -oh so easy to make. For dessert, tiramisu with limoncello to top it off. Claudio and Raffa enjoyed the evening, which was full of much laughter at Patrick's expense as they know Spanish and three of the women at the table speak it fluently. Patrick only knows how to speak Tex-Mex...terribly.
Tuesday I took Trish et al to the train station to go to Sorrento and Rome then Jan and Butch to Sacile so they could head back to Venice. Jan, Butch, the girls and I sat at a nice cafe across from the train station sipping our coffee's and hot chocolate. A man sitting there just loved the girls and gave them candy. This happens often. I try to steer clear of candy, but people are just always handing it to them b/c they are so darn cute.
Julia is adorable right now with her little "ciao." I can't believe she is 2 next month. I am afraid, very afraid! Plus sad at losing my baby to toddlerdom.
Adriana and Claudia went into Venice on Tuesday. They had another terrific day there falling in love with Venice as I have.
Wednesday I put them on the train to Florence very early! Then back to "real life for a few days." I had key spouse training (helping out other spouses in our FW) then Love and Logic, spouses club, and a dinner over the next days.
Love and Logic went out the window on Wednesday as I went to p/u JDW at school. I was thrilled to see her then stopped in my tracks. She was wearing my brand new Murano glass ring! At school! On the playground. I was so shocked I just told her the answer today is no to everything! I couldn't remember any Love and Logic gems. She saw a little girl getting in trouble later in the day and she said, "look Mommy, she's in trouble too." At least she got that part.
Now she says she can't hear me sometimes b/c her ears are too small. Ohhh. Can't wait for those teenage years since this reasoning is pretty good now.
The guests came back and on Saturday we went to Padova (barely making it). One of us was in charge of getting the tickets, which must be validated before getting on. I was standing by the train getting on with the girls when we discovered they weren't validated. The ticket puncher made Claudia run back downstairs instead of using the one on the platform. Everyone is yelling at her about where it was. Thankfully, they held the train for us or we wouldn't have been going. Let's just say it took awhile for all of us to calm down. We also barely made the train leaving Padova too!
Another beautiful day. We walked down to the cathedral of San Antonio which was built in the early 1200's. It is a place of pilgrimage for the sick. It was very crowded. Now, if you read this regularly, you know Italian art is not my thing; however, this church is spectacular. The frescoes, statutes, and mosaics are beautiful. Jacqueline throughly enjoyed seeing the relic of his tongue and vocal chords. A priest also saw JDW and sprinkled holy water on her and gave her a blessing. Out of all the churches we've been in, I've never seen a priest and at this one, I couldn't keep track of how many we did see!
We had a good lunch at a place where Rick Steves recommended. My bean soup hit the spot. We then headed to the Botanical Gardens, which is the oldest in Europe. One of the trees was placed there in 1640 and I can't recall how old the palm tree is/was/
The girls insisted on the pizzeria - 3x in a week!
Our house is now sadly quiet, which is probably why I haven't minded JD missing school these past two days.