July 19, 2011 -- Tuesday, Venice Italy. We started out the day with a re-visit to the Academia Gallery and a chance to see Michaelangelo's David. After an hour wait in the "non reservation line", we were able to get a ticket and wandered through the Gallery. In addition to the Michaelangelo collection, there is a magnificent collection of works by Botticelli. We stayed for about an hour or more and went back to the hostel for our baggage.

One interesting experience of note is when we met Manuel and his family. He is a retired Filipino soldier now living in Austria. He and his family emigrated to Austria 14 years ago. In additional to Tagalog and English, he and his family speaks fluent German. More interesting is when, during our discussion, he said how much he really liked a film called The Sound of Music. With that, he began singing the song in its entirety!! So, picture this , a Filipino now living in Austria who speaks German singing the Sound of Music in English. It was great fun...

We found our way to the "Stazione" and boarded the train at 2:30 p.m. As luck would have it, it was a modern Euroliner -- a beautiful high-speed train with luxurious seats, free coffee and air conditioningIt took the train 2 hours to travel from Florence to Venice. Here again, Linda and I had the good fortune of meeting a delightful couple from India. His name is Shashank (we didn't quite get his wife's name), and for the next two hours or so, we all discussed a variety of interesting topics -- but especially a philosophical discussion on the subject of "truth". The most interesting part of this is that, coming from India, Shashank had an entirely different point of view -- one based in "eastern beliefs". Both Linda and I found it very stimulating and the time passed quickly.

Once we arrived in Venice, we found our lodgings and settled in. After a bit of dinner and exploration, we'll called it a night and will get an early start in the morning.

So, as usual, stayed tuned.....