The longest day

    We boarded our flight in Gulfport around 115pm Saturday and arrived in our hotel in La Spezia around noon Sunday.  In between was a sleepless night, though Carlos did manage to watch the movie the Tourist, so he can say he has at least seen Venice in the movies.  There was sudden panic in Rome first trying to determine if our luggage was going direct to Pisa or needed to be picked up and checked back in at the counter.  (Crisis averted.)  Along with a long bus wait, which made us think we were surely going to miss our connecting flight.  Thankfully the Italians are really laid back and they were still checking in when we finally arrived at the gate.

    We skipped the leaning tower of Pisa for more urgent showers and a well-earned nap.  (But not too long of a nap.)  We still had to do research into the train for Monday's trip to Venice.  Additionally, there was the need to find food. At 430 pm on Sunday, La Spezia was fairly deserted. After running the errand to the train station and searching for a restaurant for an hour we finally returned to the hotel for directions to any open restaurant.  Funny by 6pm the streets were rapidly filling with locals and tourist to search out sustenance also.  (Yes, it does appear that soda is more expensive than wine, sort of like the coca cola being more expensive than Cruzan rum in Saint Croix.)  Also the news that people don’t wear white and or don't wear jeans and sneakers is false!  Clearly ninety percent of the population was wearing jeans and sneakers.  Oh and don't forget that we actually saw a man in a dark suit with green CROCS on! I think he was from Vancleave.

    Dinner was at a restaurant called "La Tavernetta" it was a smoke free establishment. Normally, we would have searched for such a place but we had read that we would have to put up with smokers everywhere.  Well our first choice was exceptionally lucky and dinner was a treat.  Angel had the Seafood Special which was local mussels for an appetizer, first  course of spaghetti with mussels, followed by a second course of fried calamari, shrimp and sardines.  Carlos had the special which had an appetizer that looked like a thick crepe but had more of a cheese flavor.  It was great.  That was followed by a pizza made with mozzarella, mushrooms, thinly sliced ham and a very light hint of tomato sauce.  There was barely room for tiramisu and lemon gelato.