We are back and finally sober enough to comment. Needless to say we are hideously depressed. Venice - where we want to live, and have spent the last two + weeks - is heaven. The photos above are just a sampling of the 500+ we took. And yes, they are all real - it is that beautiful, day after day. It is a completely different world from where we live. It is clean and civil and happy and the people are polite and kind. The streets are safe and clean, the air smells of warm, salty breezes and everything stops at sunset. It is the perfect place for Michael and I. It was like the entire town stopped in 1950 - back when people gave a crap - and decided not to move on. The stores close at 5, the restaurants at 9 and EVERYTHING is closed on Sunday! At night everyone goes to the beach and watches the sunset - nature and the show she puts on is your entertainment, not tv, not the computer, not video games. After that, if you hurry, you can make it to one of the 5 ice cream shops for a late night (8pm) scoop before close, then home to bed. Down there, you want to get to bed early, the sunrises are as breathtaking as the sunsets ans should not be missed.
Everyone we met was delightful and reitterated what we believe, it is a grand place to live and they wouldn't go back to their old life for anything. We met the garbage man who picks up at the beach - he used to own 2 restaurants in Detroit, live in a Mc Mansion and make six figures - he told us picking up trash in Venice was the greatest job he ever had. You couldn't pay him to go back to his old life, what he had now - picking up garbage, living in a rental, making nothing - was a step above his old life by far. We were so jealous.
We are still hoping to move this year. We know it will be hard, but we also know we made the right decision of where to go. Venice is the place for us.
