When Trent and I arrived in Padova (pronounced Pa-do-wa) we were not expecting to find such beauty. Behind me and to the right is the Prato della Valle. There is a huge park devoted to greenery for people (or pigeons) to enjoy amidst the lovely statues. These statues line the moat which forms a huge circle around the park.

This is the first pic of when we arrived in Venice. It was taken near the train station which was remarkably beautiful!!

When we arrived in Lido from Venice (a trip that was supposedly just 30 mins, turning out to be 2hours) we were as you can imagine starved. So Masha was the first to show signs of severe hunger in this pic where I truly believe a fork was in order. Damn New Yorkers!!

Not much better, here is Penny who cannot seem to figure out how to approach this stringy piece of proschuito. So why bother eating it, savour that flavour and let it slap against you face while locals look on with worried look of what we might do to their previously quiet little town.

The trophy of the day was displayed by Gail and Masha.

After having satisfied our needs for essential nutrients we decided it was time to dance around a while to make room for all of the great wine we purchased. The dance was highlighted by Jessie's elaborate drinking techniques believed to have originated in the west, Masha's Russian falling dance, Pennie's non-stop laugther, Gail's laughter at Masha, and Trent's laughter at all of us.

Well you all know that all that dancing has got to make a person thirsty so of course being in Italy, wine was the only plausible form of refreshment available (aside from Evian, Gatorade, and numerous fresh squeezed juices). So here are the girls taking care of their thirst followed by us guys having sips of sweet Italian nectar. Oh, and yes that is Jessie posing for you once again.

Just to prove that Jessie can indeed be outdoen I give him my best impression of what posing is all about. Eat your heart out Cindy Crawford!!

Needless to say, the evening was a great one!!! Didn't even finish the wine, bit here is a pic of us all at the breakfast table at Camp Campraro. The best campground in Lido-Trent has brochures if you want more info.

Having enough of the beach we decided to head back to Venice and spend some quality time being tourists. We were rewarded for our efforts when we arrived at the San Marco cathedral. This amazing cathedral is lined in mosaics of gold. It is absolutely breathtaking to enter and walk upstairs to see the view from it's balcany where you will be dazzeled by the view of the Riva degli Schiavoni (waterway leading to Lido and the Adriatic) and the view of the Piazza in front of San Marco which you will see Trent and I in front of.

After seeing the most popular sight in Venice we took for our own wandering tour which brought us to many narrow cobbled streets and canals lined with gondolas. We enjoyed the view since the cost of taking one would have cut my trip short by about a week.

Later we came to the Grand Canal and admired the view from the bridge. Shortly there after we went out to eat-had pizza with an accordian player to serenade us in the background. Here is a pic of me on the Rialto bridge in the event you did not believe I was present.

And just as we were leaving the city we took a pic of the main dock leaving Venice.

While we stayed in Treviso, Trent hooked us up with an excellent Italian house we laxed in for a couple of nights. It was so nice to stay in such a beautiful home with everything from a huge garden of fresh veggies to cook with and then relax to the sweet sounds in the piana room-if only I could play the piano...

After relaxing for a long period of time in the house we headed off to downtown Treviso which was a very slow-paced town with many small rivers (like this one) that added to it's already amazing atmophere.

On the way back from town we stopped by the local grocer which was a novelty considering I had been sleeping on pines cones and Trent's dirty cloths just to keep warm at night. Anyway, we were so impressed with th local produce that we decided to take pictures with the stuff. Weird...Yes, but when you have been eating non-perishible food for two weeks on end you would take pics with peppers too.

We then decided to move back to the tent life and went to a town called Levico where we discovered the largest and most well equiped campsite in central Europe called 2 Laghi (no that is not a typo, means two lakes). So here is Trent after setting up the tent for what would prove to be yet another great stopover. Please feel free to comment on the huge capacity of the tent (by the way we actually found the tentback in London).

By the time Trent got the tent up and ready for the night it was time for a drink. If it wasn't for cheap beer in Italy we would never have drank water.

After finishing a couple of the local lagers Trent took it upon himself to get acquainted with the neighbors across the way since it was pouring rain and we were huddled beneath the thickest tree we could find... the were very kind Dutch people who invited us to stay over with them under there canapy while we drank the rest of our beer. So they told us about there lives and introduced us to their son who just so happened to be going out with many of his friends from the site to a disco that night. Here is a pic of us all near the entrance to 2 Laghi campground just before we left for the disco.

Once arriving and rifling down bottles of the recommended Frizzantino we headed downstairs to see where the rest of teh gang from the campsite went too. Here is a picture of some of the gang at Levico disco the last night of our stay in town. Another night of firsts - does anyone know what mais diving is? If so write me and tell me how long it took for the bruises to heal!!!

Here are the first of a couple of my favorite geographic sceneries in Italy. They were shot in a small lakside town called Torbole on the northern tip of Italy's largest lake-Lake Garda. Known for consistently strong winds, Torbole is a popular tourist spot for neighboring German and Austrian windsurfing lovers. As you can see behind Trent and I the lake is speckled with sails from all the water enthusiasts while Trent and I tackle the land.

Here is yet another pic of Torbole minus our mugs. This was taken from about 600m and although it does not look that high, you had to see what terrain we covered to get this snap. It was such a beautiful view that I did not want to come down, well, at least my legs were not up to it. Luckily I had Trent along to convince me that staying in the mountains was not a good idea.