We’re here !! On the 20th November at around 4:00pm we arrived in Fusina having cycled from Legnano. Tom had caught a ferry from Fusina to Venice. True to form, that ferry only runs during the summer, so off season again.

The following day we caught a Vaporetto from Lido, where our hotel is, to Venice itself. We had planned a dramatic landing at the Rialto bridge, but we had to change boats and therefore the first foot on Venice was at around 1:00pm 21st November at a random vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal.

We are expecting to leave Venice on Sunday to start the journey home, so, we should be back in the UK at the start of December.

How do I feel ? tired, relieved, a little empty, ready for a drink and excited about the next stage. It really hasn’t sunk in yet.

However, Venice is really spinning her magic. We have had bright sun, stunning sunsets, the intrigue of nighttime Venice and today it has snowed.

Pictures and posts will follow, when I remember to bring the memory card adaptor.

I’ve just recieved an email from Mark in Paris, he’s the American writer/ teacher I met in a Parisian youth hostel. He writes some fantastic emails on his life in Paris. They always make me laugh.

Hit the deck!
Holy hell, France is on fire!
I’ve been scared to leave the security of my own apartment. The streets are foggy with the black smoke of burning cars and the little thugs are out in full force! Just the other day I was almost set on fire, luckily I knew the stop, drop, and roll technique! Very dangerous here, don’t come anywhere near Europe, the flames of unrest are spreading.

Ok, didn’t even realize there was a riot going on until I was informed via telephone from the states, and that was 3 days into the maelstorm. Don’t believe what you see on the t.v., everything here is copesetic. Watching CNN to get your news is like going to a whore house to cure the clap; it just don’t make too much sense.

Gotta run, Paris is…well, it’s Paris.

Peace (that’s all this Parisian blow-hard really knows),

Mark

We didn’t want to rush through Italy, so have made the most of being in a fimiliar place we love, therefore still in Verese.

Good to see that Italians haven’t lost any of their passion, we’ve just found ourselves caught up in a student march - the smell of fireworks was quite prominent, but there was a strong police pressence with the riot van on stand by.

Heading off for Mantua today. It’s a place that Tom fell very much in love with, to the point where he commented that this is a place (second to his beloved Odcombe) that he could live out the rest of his days - it will be really interesting for us to take a look around.

Last nights wind has finally kissed goodbye to the fog and grey skies, we can actually see the stunning mountains. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the weather holds out, which will really ease our journey to Venice.

We’ve just had a rare moment in this trip and booked ahead for Venice, there’s some good deals going on at the moment £22 per night, which can you believe is cheaper than the campsite. Just shows that sometimes it does pay to be doing everything out of season.

It’s getting both exciting and tense at this stage! Will add pictures of Italy and the journey ahead on our next update.

Days to go now until we get to Venice. Having taken time off and met up with friends this week, we’re feeling ready for the final leg - just need to keep our fingers crossed that everything holds up. Our arrival day should be Sunday - so here goes!

We have had some feedback about the site, and it’s time to give a little insight into our feelings, both as we approach our major milestone and how we’ve been feeling over the last couple of weeks.

We’ve both experienced very mixed emotions; walking through the Alpes was amazing - fantastic weather, breath-taking scenery and a real feeling of achievement. John joining us for that part of the trip was as uplifting as the views.

Arriving in Italy however, I felt that here we go again, another country, another culture that we have to quickly get into the swing of. We had both managed to find our feet in France, had gotten used to it’s quirks, routines and people, it had began to feel very comfortable and natural traveling around.

Since being in Italy the weather has been very bleak; foggy and grey; this coupled with the nights drawing in, has had an effect on both of our moods. We have gotten fairly low at points recently. Getting to Turin was a massive boost, as we were able to wonder around getting to know the city and become accustomed to Italian life again. (Tom himself didn’t see much of Turin as he fell sick, I don’t know what he would have made of the museum of cinema! I’m sure the mere concept in his day would have blown him away)

Giving up not only your job but your creature comforts can have quite a dramatic effect. The physical demands can be tough on there own, but that’s all a case of building muscle strength, stamina and a good diet. It’s the emotions and mood swings you go through which are the toughest part, you can have several mood swings in one day, and not just one month! The littlest thing can get you down or perk you up.

For me the trip so far feels almost like going into rehab, for the last 4 months we’ve been stripped of the usual things that clutter your time and mind. You have a lot of time to think, clear your mind and concentrate on the things that really matter to you and your life. I’ve found it has been both exhausting and refreshing.

We’ve managed to grab another hour at a post office before we head for Italy tomorrow. So I thought we can give you a quick summary to our next steps.

As Putty-man has informed you (thank you PM) on the last post, we have got to St Jean-de-Meurienne on the route. It is about 60 kms short of where we started the walk over the Cenis Pass. In that 60 kms is a 1000 m climb, so for me this is going to be bloody hard work. Then, we will drive over the pass into Italy to get to the next available campsite, stopping on the way to complete a short bit of walking. We will then start in the town of Susa and bike back up the mountain to join up with where we had walked too with kitman.This will complete the pass into Italy, walking the bit Tom walked and biking where he rode a horse. Clear as mud ? it is all a bit tricky in this area.

HOWEVER, this is all weather permitting, It is raining In the Chambèry area right now, and our current forecast is that nightime temps are going to get below freezing at 500m, so we will find out what the weather is like at 2000m when we get there.

From Susa it is balls out biking all the way to Venice along the Po valley as Tom went in a mixture of horseback or cart along the entire route. We will be taking in Turin, Milan (with a quick trip up to Varese), Cremona, Padua and then to Venice.

We may be unable to get to the internet in the next week or two, so for those of you who are in text contact and if you get the time, could you add to this post where we are and where we’re heading - thank you.

Just to mention, Colin Sandall has been kind enough to put a link on his website to ours and to return his pain staking efforts we have now updated our site with a return link (under Misc in the links page or just here). Colin is a fantastic teacher of IT and taught me all I know (anyone got a map of Burma?!) Seriously he’s very good and patient!