Our first parking ticket...bummer!

Today was a nice day with the girls in the morning. We went swimming in the pool and had delicious fruit tarts and eggs for breakfast. After lunch, we put the girls down for a nap just in time for Gianna to get home and then we were off to the beach! Caorle is only 1 1/2 hours or so away but we wanted to stop in Conegliano first to see the castle. It was nice but we couldn't go inside so we walked around for a few minutes and took pictures. When we arrived in Caorle, we tried to find a place to park and we finally found a perfect spot! It was right in front of a building called Vittorio Veneto that had the nicest bathroom I have seen in Italy so far! We didn't see anywhere that we could pay for a ticket so we thought it was okay to park there. We were right next to the beach so we brought our umbrellas and all the beach stuff right by the water. The umbrellas were really hard to get into the sand...we must have looked very desperate because two older men came and helped us dig holes to put them into. They were very nice but I was a little embarrassed! We went swimming for awhile in the cool water. It wasn't deep at all where we were. We swam out pretty far and I could touch for a long time. We read our books on the beach in the shade and it was just beautiful. When we went back to the car, there was our ticket...42 euro!!! Well, that was definitely a bummer for the day but we laughed it off and chalked it up as a learning experience...parking is never free! I will have to show it to Gianna and Angelo and have them read how we can pay for it online. It is all in Italian and we don't know what it says. We were off to Portogruaro around 8:00 and made it there in 30 minutes. We were trying to find a festival but it looked like we were too early. There was hardly anything on the streets and no one was there yet. While we were walking around, we stopped for dinner at a kebab restaurant. I thought it was amazing! It was interesting to watch how they made it because they shave off the meat right in front of you as it is cooking. The flavors were excellent and I want to eat another one before I go! The festival was kind of a dud, not too much going on but there were a lot more people there when we were leaving. All the shops were open so it was a nice night for the locals to be social and shop around. We got back home at 11:00, which is early for us! Man, I am really tired but tomorrow will be even crazier because we are getting up at 4:30 to make it to the Rifugio in time for the sunrise. It should be an amazing view! Supposedly you can see Venice from the top! Ciao!