I forgot to make an entry for the morning of the 6th day, yesterday. There wasn't much to mention. After a nice breakfast (free breakfasts in Italian hotels), I got a taxi to the airport. The flight from Bologne to Vienna was about half full, on a propeller-driven Dash 8. There was one last highlight though. It was a clear day and the flight travelled up the Adriatic coast. I was reading when I looked out the right window and recognized a big round lake right on the coast a bit behind us. Lake Commacchio was on the war maps, just north of Ravenna. Then as I was trying to remember what was further up the coastline, I remembered: Venice! On the map, Venice is very unique geographically because it is an island in a big rectangular bay that is protected by long thin tentacles of land. Out my right window I saw the land vanish under the plane, so I jumped up two rows to the 1st class seating, and found the island of Venice out the left window. I tried two photos through the airplane window, and the island is detectable. So I got two bonus pictures of Venice!
It was a great trip, and very personally rewarding to see the stretch of land in Italy where Grandpa and many other Canadians participated in the Second World War.
Sincerely,