John and Jennifer stood outside in the back of the boat, looking at all the beautiful scenery as they sailed by. Jennifer looked over to John. "All of the photo's I've seen of this place are great, but this is so much more incredible in person." Both of them stared at the buildings, bridges and all of the small boats and gondolas that navigated the waterways. Five minutes later they pulled up to the dock in front of their hotel.
As John stood in front of the hotel, staring at its beauty he looked over to Jennifer and noticed that she was doing the same. "You were right, this is incredible. Let's go in and check out the inside."
They walked over to the Registration desk to check in. The man behind the desk spoke excellent English. He welcomed them and said their rooms were ready. He pulled two very large ornate gold keys with burgundy tassels attached to them and handed their keys to the Bell Hop who had their suitcases in his hands already.
They went up to the second floor. The bellhop guided them down to Jennifer's room first. He opened her door and set Jennifer's suitcase on a small stand near the door for her. He showed her around the room noting all of the features and then took John to his room next door doing likewise for him. John thanked him and then tipped the Bell Hop handsomely.
As the Bell Hop was leaving John's room Jennifer came in bouncing like an excited schoolgirl. "Isn't this incredible? Did you see the view of the canal from your window, its breathtaking?"
John couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. "No, I haven't' yet." He walked over to the window and looked out at the activity on the canal below, several gondolas were ferrying their passengers along the canal. Several more were tied up next to the buildings along the canal. "This is incredible. I didn't think I could enjoy any place more than Rome, but this is going to beat it hands down." John looked at his watch. "It's only seven ten, are you hungry, want to get some breakfast before we start off on our first adventure?"
They both sat eating a sumptuous breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel. Halfway through their meal, Jennifer put her fork down and looked off to one side, staring at nothing, a sad look on her face, John noticed and stopped eating. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Her voice sounded thin and shaky. "I promised not to let Michael's indiscretion get in the way of us having a great time, but I'm finding it to be more difficult than I imagined. Have you ever gone through a situation like this?"