VENICE

3rd stop - VENICE
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Venice is such a beautiful & romantic city, with is gondolas, canals, music - particularly operatic, and art & historical buildings, and its most famous son in this field, Antonio Vivaldi. Even the children's story of Pinocchoi was written by Carlo Collodi, an Italian; just look at all the beautiful dolls of Pinocchio and friends, gondolas, canals, masks, etc..

At St. Mark's Square, which is surrounded by art & historical buildings, we saw the orchestra that plays at the famous Florian Cafe, flooding when there's high tide, and the famous pigeons scrounging around for crumbs.

Lovely cool to cold weather made walking around in the fresh air wonderful and this is one city we'd love to visit again, as there is so much more to see and appreciate.

FLORENCE - Pastamania & Temptation !!!

2nd stop - FLORENCE
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Sweets & confections ... they were everywhere! Strong-will needed !!!
But if you did as much walking as we did, extra calories were not a problem at all :))






















There is no way I can visit any city without checking out its markets, and this one in Florence was no let down. I've never seen so much colourful pasta in so many shapes and sizes, that I wanted to get them all!


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TRAIN RIDE Rome - Florence

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Spent a few days checking out Rome on our own. It was wonderful walking around, discovering places not on the tourist belt, enjoying wonderful pizzas, trattorias and restaurants.
Mostly enjoyed talking to people, who are truly the soul of any city.
Met up with our wonderful friends after a few days (which was great coz everyone had their own leisure time) to take the train to Florence. So scenic and beautiful!
These photos originally looked like the single stand-alone one above this, but after montaging them then transporting to Flickr, something botched up with the colour ... aaaaargh! Will try to fix this

ROME - "Nice to See you Again" .....

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Seems like loads of Religious came from all over the world came for this great Celebration, and everyone was catching up with each other after the "Canonization" Mass outside the Basilica.

Canonization of 5 New Saints

1st stop - ROME
As this was our first visit to Rome, to begin our vacation with a Mass celebrated by The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, was the biggest gift we received for our 25th Anniversary !

We took this shot from where we were standing, just like everyone else around us.

Upon return after our holiday, we checked out the website of the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations which has the most awesome photos of the actual event inside the Basilica!

www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/index.htm

25th Wedding Anniversary & our Cuddly daughters

1st stop - Rome
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Fantasies of how we'd celebrate our Silver wedding anniversary were on my mind for many years ... yeah ... we gals are all alike :)

We reached this significant milestone of our marriage last June 2008, and all my fantasies became reality when Mass, celebrations and 2nd honeymoon were in place.

However, 3 weeks before this joyous occasion, we were bomb-shelled with the devastating news that SASHA, our Golden Retriever of 13 years was in great pain with colon cancer, and very little time left with us.

Without a second thought nor hesitation, we cancelled everything so that we could care for the special gal who brought so much love and joy into our lives.

She crossed over Rainbow Bridge in our arms a week after our anniversary, and I went into deep depression.

Then along came a cheerful, mischievous little rascal we named TANIA. Again, all plans for "the" postponed Silver Anniversary which was to be celebrated this June, were shelved once again, due to little madame's two severe H.D. operations earlier this year.

Being the tenacious, bright & happy little trooper that she is, her recovery process was quite rapid as she worked hard during hydro-therapy sessions 3x a week, and her "human slaves" .. haha .. made sure that she never missed her regular hydro & physio therapy sessions.

By September TANIA had reached a point where our Vet was amazingly impressed and happy with her progress, and both he and our family "shoooooed" us out of Singapore.

We left with peace of mind knowing that our little Princess was in the good hands of my sister Karen, who is her No. 1 Most Favourite Person in the world and in whom I had full trust to follow-through with the hugs, kisses, swimming, disciplining, etc., etc. :)))))

And so .... our romantic 2nd honeymoon finally started.

11 October 2009:
1st stop - Vatican City - Rome, to give thanks to the Lord for all His Love, Blessings, Protection and Guidance.


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