Off to Austria where the mountains were smaller but the people smiling and happy. From there, into the corner of Bavaria and the castles of mad King Ludwig. Neuchwenstein was his fantasy palace that Walt Disney modeled his DisneyWorld castle after. We did the tour thing and the headed off to Italy. Lindsay forgot here bathing suit so we stopped outside Innsbruck at a mall to buy her one. It was hysterical trying to navigate a non-tourist village shopping center with our lame handle on the German tongue. Then we were off to Trento and the hill country of the Dolomites. We spent a night the vineyard of one of Italy's famous grappa makers. Our room was 650 years old and the food on the balcony overlooking their grape vineyards was incredible. After dinner the owner joined us and opened bottle after bottle of grappa for us to sample. (yes, manny, we got some to bring home...) We hated to leave but in the morning we got back in the car for the drive to Venice. We parked outside the city and took a water taxi into the grand canal and he heart of the city. Our hotel was tucked into a tiny alleyway along a canal full of gondolas. The city has always seemed like such a cliche of gondoliers, canals and piazzas full of pigeons, but that is exactly the way life happens every day there. Work boats haul fresh produce and construction equipment, people go to work, stop in bistros for espresso and the old women enjoy gelato in grand cobbled courtyards in the afternoons. We wandered through maze fate maze of alleys exploring the mask shops, the hand blown venetian glass and soccer jerseys, and stopped t nearly every gelato cafe we happened upon. Dinner of razor thin pizza on the bank of the grand canal and then yet another gelato at sunset with accordion music in the background and the serenade of tenor gondoliers as they navigated tourists through the endless waterways. In the morning, we toured San Marco's cathedral, which was incredible. So much history and architecture. Then we took a final taxi ride down the grand canal, under the famous Rialto bridge, and to our car, where we headed south to Tuscany. While the kids enjoyed the pool, and Hannah raced a 17 year old french boy in various swim events of her choosing, I readied our bikes for the days head. Tomorrow morning we head off for a town about 25 miles from here on mountain bikes for a night in an agrotourismo villa in Palaia. Saturday we return to our car in Montaione, drop off the bikes, and head to Cinque Terra, with a quick stop in Pisa to see that tower thing before it tips over...
I'll update from CT when we hit the coast and the calamari! Love to all. See you soon.

P.s. When I get home, I am buying a 6-speed turbo Citroen station wagon. Whoo boy. Glad Kel can't convert kph to mph...