WRA Tour Blogger Martha Miller reports from Italy

The WRA tour group arrived in Venice two days ago, after several hours on three different planes. We met up with our guide, and put our bags in the hotel before beginning our tour of the city of Venice. It's confusing! The streets tend to mostly all look the same, and the shops all blur together in a mish-mash of masks, food vendors and 'I -heart- Venice' shirts. We walked through the Jewish ghettos--the first ghettos in Europe--and finally got to have our first lunch in Rialto Bridge. Afterwards we continued to St. Mark's Square. A large group of us had the wonderful oppourtunity to go on a gondola, and it really sunk in that we were in Venice! After a delicious dinner we went back to the hotel to collapse into bed.

Our second day was spent mostly in St. Mark's area, taking tours of Doge's Palace and the St. Mark's Basilica. We also visited a Venetian glass factory, where we saw a professional glass-maker make a vase in about five minutes flat right before our eyes! Afterwards we were allowed to wander and visit some of the museums in St. Mark's Square. Finally it was time for our concert inside St. Mark's Basilica for mass. Although it was absolutely freezing inside and the crowd was small, the concert sounded beautiful and we moved off to our celebratory dinner. Finally we went back to the hotel to fall back into our beds.

Today we are driving two hours by bus to Verona, and after the long walks around the winding bridges of Venice we're looking forward to some time sitting down!

p.s. Our apologies for mixing up Martha's first name