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Ciao, Buster!Venice, ItalyItaly was great! We visited the ancient city of Venice. It's located on an island just off the coast of northern Italy. Island cities are the coolest!  Everywhere in Italy, you hear people say, "Ciao!" ("Chow!") It means hello AND goodbye. Los Viajeros wrote a song about it called Ciao! Ciao!
Venice doesn't have any streets - just canals - so there are no cars. You can walk on sidewalks, but to really get around, you need a boat.
 Binky e-mailed me. For his Venice project, he wants to fill the school halls with water, and paddle gondolas to class. Uh, Binky? I don't think that's the best idea...
EVERYTHING moves around on boats: people, groceries, flowers, the mail, trash. They even do construction from boats.
We rode on a motorboat, and a vaporetto - that's a boat called a "water bus" - and a gondola, which is like a big canoe moved forward with only one oar.
 In Venice, we met Zoe, whose parents are Italian and Australian. We stayed at her family's inn. Zoe's favorite food is pizza. (Pizza - flat bread with tomato sauce and cheese - was invented in Italy.) Zoe says, "Pizza makes everything okay." She is very wise! Here's a great pizza recipe.
Murano (a small island you get to by boat from Venice) is famous for its glass (which is good, since Arthur and I broke his dad's glass fish; I bought him a new one here). We visited a boy named Nicola. His father makes and sells all kinds of glass cups, vases, and art. Nicola showed us around. Very colorful!
 We watched glassmakers create glass sculptures by blowing them from a long pipe. When glass is hot, you can cut it with scissors! Take a look at how cool - or hot - glassmaking is.
 In Italy people speak Italian. Here are a few Italian phrases that came in handy.
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