Greece Part I: We flew from Milan to Athens, Greece. When we arrived in Athens, we were surprised at the cleanliness and moderness of the airport. Most people spoke fluent or basic English, so language was not a problem. In addition, all of the signs were in roman as well as greek letters, so reading was not an issue. We went to our car rental place and received our compact car a "Roomster." We asked for directions out of the airport and headed on a 3 hour drive to Tolo. Tolo is on the Pelopennesian Peninsula on the mainland of Greece. It is a small fishing village that in the last ten years has begun to develop a toursit trade. The ride was pretty easy and we made it to our condo on the beach. Here is the picture of our condo Helitopos run by a nice German woman, Gunda.

We had dinner on our balcony almost every night since our condo had a kitchen.

This is the view from our condo balcony.

Our condo had a rooftop bar and pool.

Our German Hostess Gunda made the best milkshakes in Greece! Here is Ethan enjoying one. Ethan scoots around Tolo.

We did lots of swimming and snorkeling at the beach in Tolo.

On our last day in Tolo, we rented a boat for the day to snorkel and explore some of the area beaches.

Lunch on the boat.Ethan drives the boat!Beautiful, crystal clear blue water with lots of sea urchins and star fish!

If you look closely, you will see there is a funny sea creature in this shell. Ethan called him "creature."

We left the Veneto to head to Milan to catch our flight to Athens, Greece. On our way to Milan we stopped to spend the afternoon in Como, Italy on Lake Como. Here are some aerial views of the town.

Ethan by the lake.
We took a funicular up to the top of the mountain overlooking Lake Como. Here is the car.

Here is a shot looking down the track.

William looks out of the scope at the top of the mountain.

We actually walked down the mountain on the "walking path." If you ever go to Lake Como, take the funicular down. The path was really overgrown and very difficult to navigate (especially in flip flops!). We were probably the first people in 5 years to actually walk down, but we made it!

Hiking in the Pre-Dolimites - We left the Vento for a day trip/hike in Northern Italy to the pre-Dolomites. William picked out a route for us on Mount Bondonero. It was about a three and a half hour hike. We also stopped for a picnic lunch on the way. Here are the guys on the top of Mount Bondonero.


Eating our picnic lunch ...

Ethan enjoys his sandwich!

Here are me and William on top of the mountain.

Here is a view from the top.

After our hike, we came across a great ski bar. There was a friendly goat and donkey at the base of the ski lift near the ski bar.

Here is the Ski Bar - Il Bondonero - named after the Bond family of course :-)

Here are signs in Italian pointing to the different hiking trails.

Ethan and William play a game of ping pong at the ski bar.

Ethan points to the top of the mountain. This is where our trail goes. We did not hike the entire way to the top.
Goat...

The Veneto Part II -

Even though we are back, I would like to finish out the stories of our travels. We visited the town of Verona once home to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Verona is a beautiful town with some old Roman ruins such as a great Roman ampitheater (third largest in Italy). I would definitely recommend a visit. This theater is still home to open air opera. Notice William walking in the square and Ethan with his scooter in the background.

Here are some opera props outside the amphitheater.

Here is a picture of the Adige River which runs through Verona.

We visited Castle Vecchio. An old Verno castle renovated to become an art museum by Carlos Scarpa.

Here is the amazing interior courtyard of the museum/castle.

This bridge connects the castle with the rest of Verona.

Here is a typical street scene in Verona.

Here is the town market where we got Ethan a wooden Pinocchio.

Of course, no visit to any Italian town would be complete without sampling the local Gelato!!