On July 6th we drove down through the spectacular alps on the Austrian/Italian border and west to Venice for a few days. Isa got lots of attention from friendly Italians who described her with words like bellisimo, piccolo, bella, complimenti...
We took a bus through the main canal to Piazza San Marco, pictured above with Tiffany. We spent the day winding our way through the streets and across bridges eating gelato, drinking cappuccino, and seeing some of the world bienniele art exhibits happening there now.
Isa's name, Isolina, came from our last trip to Italy, a long belated honeymoon. We were eating dinner at Pane e Vino in Cortona where the dessert menu gave credit for the confections to Isolina. We liked the name and it stuck with us and two and a half years later Isa was born. Finally we have gotten some clarification on its translation. we saw Isola on the map describing the islands of Venice and others nearby. Next, an Italian artist, Alesandro, who is here in Austria with us offered an explanation. Although the name is rare and probably isn't meant to be translated literally, the -ina suffix means small or tiny. Tiny island.
We have one more week in Austria! It has gone by so fast. Tiffany is gearing up for a performance on Friday and Marty is firing his new work tomorrow to be exhibited this weekend for the big presentation.
Ciao!
