Leaving Italy

 Too soon it was time for us to leave Italy. It felt like we had blinked and the trip was over! We woke up early and had breakfast one more time. Our group had different departure times but we were able to talk to some of our group before we left...and Little Man was so sad to say good-bye to Simone the tour manager. He had loved being a "junior tour guide" and feeling like a big kid carrying the tour sign. And Simone was funny and reminded Little Man of my brother Marcus who tells fun stories.

When it was time to leave for the airport our ride arrived via water right outside the front door of the hotel. It was fun to ride the Venetian water way. They have a highway of sorts marked where boats travel.

We flew from Venice to Istanbul where we had a layover and then, we were off for New York. By the time we arrived and had our luggage it was almost midnight. We stored the majority of our luggage at the airport and took overnight bags with us to our hotel for the night.  We were all so exhausted we barely had enough energy to brush our teeth and change into our pajamas before we collapsed.