Through the Alps

Rachel assigned me responsibility for the blog today. It was mostly a travel day as we travelled from Munich to Venice. But we did have a couple of hours in Innsbruck. The city is on the Inn River and the German word for bridge is 'brucke'. The buildings in the city center had beautiful pastel-colored facades....we were told that was to help the residents manage the drab, snowy winters. 

The trip through the Alps was impressive although is was a drizzly day and the clouds obscured some of the snow-capped peaks. We saw many castles and vineyards along the way.

 As we crossed into Italy our tour director became excited as this is her home country. She was anxious to teach us the universal sign language of all Italians. Since they have many local dialects they developed the signs to communicate throughout the country.  She also shared with us some of the American movies that have become Italy's cult favorites: Trading Places, Pretty in Pink, Easy Rider - all of them old movies. 

We finished the day at our hotel in Venice where the group agreed we had the best meal of the trip.....pasta followed by turkey with vegetables - and of course gelato for dessert!