Alone again, naturally

I'm back in Bari today, on the second leg of my three cruise adventure. This time I'm without my favorite sister, Mom and Brenda. I waved goodbye to them yesterday in Venice after an exceptionally internationally cosmopolitan afternoon. We four were having lunch on the Campo San Polo (I just love the whole idea of being able to say that!) when Brenda's cell phone rang. It was my cousin Bernhard from Germany. He and his wife Marion were in Venice, we told them where we were eating and they arrived at our table about 25 minutes later. Now the conversation began to include some German, along with our normal American. After about an hour, Brenda's cell phone rang again. This time it was her friend, Christina, from Pensacola, who happens to be Italian and had been visiting her mom in Genova. The two of them (Christine and her mom) were now in Venice, so Brenda told them where we all were and they soon arrived to join our little international club. Christina's mom speaks only Italian, so a great time of charades was had by all as we spent the afternoon chatting away (in various levels of American, German, Italian and universal sign language) in a little outdoor restaurant on a plaza in Venice. Amazing!

This Costa ship is a little smaller than the last - I think it only has 1750 Italians on board instead of the over 2000 on the last ship. This group either doesn't seem quite as pushy or I've just gotten used to it all. I woke up about 7am this morning, got dressed and went upstairs for coffee (I'm in a tiny little inside cabin hovel this trip. I thought it would be dreadful, but it's not too horrible afterall), then back to my cave to change into a swimsuit (thank you Brenda) and upstairs to lay in the sun and people-watch until noon. I've just finished lunch and now I'm off to find a quiet place to get in some good reading.

It's a rough life, but someone has to do it!