A blog like topic of our trip to the WSA in Venice. We wil add photos and posts when we can.

The shops were glorious; we walked past this mask shop every day.

I loved the Rialto Market! My son Liam is a great fan of pigs trotters and these were just beautiful!

The Mayor of Venice invited the attendees at the Global Forum to a night at the Opera. We went to the gorgeous rebuilt Opera House in Venice .... what a night! The surroundings were gorgeous, the music was gorgeous and just look at this ceiling!

San Marco ... what a magical place. Every night the square was lit up and two restaurants of either side had orchestras playing beautiful, beautiful classic music. We never stopped to eat and listen but walked through the square many times and enjoyed the ambience.

It is a family tradition that whenever I go overseas I have to bring back a gorgeous box of Belgian chocolates for the children.

Well, Venice had beautiful shop windows, and I photographed this window to show the kids the chocolates. Unfortunately I didn't buy these chocolates. I kept intending to buy them and never did, and ran out of time in Dubai, Melbourne and Auckland duty free. Poor cherubs...... I ended up buying some in the Chocolate Zebra in Levin!

This was the gorgeous canal that we walked alongside to get to our second 'hotel' in Venice (and I use the term loosely), the Locanda Silva.

I do believe that the universe provides ....

Our first promotional work for Kete was a powerpoint slideshow which developed an extensive metaphor about Knights and maidens and quests etc. . It featured pre-raphaelite and medieval paintings, and had a dual storyline running throughout the presentation. The headlines took the form of an Arthurian-legend telling of how the library saved a town, while the body of the text told the Kete story. The CD was packaged in a wrapper showing the final image: "The Arming and Departure of the Knights" by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, which was the final slide in the presentation had the caption "and the townspeople were happy".

The presentation was an application for the 3M Award for Innovation in Libraries 2007 - which we went on to win.

Back to the story .... after 43 hours of travel we finally arrived in Venice, at the San Zacharia vaperetto stop, found the alleyway and then the wee path to our hotel. At the entrance to the alley was the first shop window we had looked in since leaving home, and guess what was in the window? OUR TAPESTRY!

Given that we got to Venice because our community made it happen it was a wonderful welcome ....