Italia Here We Come?

A couple weeks ago Tom asked what I wanted to do over the long Memorial Day weekend.

Shortly after we moved to Germany we learned that one of Tom's old Army buddies, Tony, and his family are currently living in Vicenza, Italy. It had been 15 years since they last saw each other. I suggested we travel down to visit, figuring it would be a good first trip to Italy.

After confirming with Tony that they would be home and were open to company, we made our plans to drive down Friday and come home Monday.

We decided to drive, taking two different routes. Going down we drove through Switzerland and Liechtenstein, coming into Italy north of Milan and then driving east across northern Italy. Coming back we drove through Austria, heading north from Verona and driving through Bavaria. Both routes involved driving through the Alps and we had everything from sunshine to rain to snow.

Here are some pictures from the drive.

Is it what you envision when you think of the Alps and Europe? It was really pretty. I'm glad we decided to drive but taking the train would have been nice too. Driving gave us the freedom to get on the road when we wanted, stop when we wanted, and we didn't have to transfer trains.

Talking about driving reminds me of something I was going to include in this blog. I had a few friends tell me I dimed Tom out several months ago when I shared that he didn't pass his driving test the first time. My blog followers don't know that I could have gone back to the post and added a note that when Tom returned from his two months of travel that he had to take the test two more times. Okay, now I have TRULY dimed Tom out :)

But all's fair in love and marriage so I'll go ahead and dime myself out.

I traveled across the borders of five countries and did not have my passport!

Now wait. It's not that I purposely left it at home. Seriously, I didn't think when I was packing that I should grab my passport and then decided I wouldn't need it. I didn't think about it AT ALL. It was only about two hours into the drive when we were nearing Switzerland that Tom turned to me and asked if I had my passport as he thought we might be nearing a border check point.

His question caught me by surprise and then my stomach got anxious as I realized that I did not have my passport. I didn't pack it.

I broke the news to Tom. Tom was speechless for a second, from the shock I think. He was completely amazed that I would pack for a trip through several European countries and NOT bring my passport!

I can make no excuse for myself. I don't know what I was thinking. If we had been flying or taking the train I would have surely remembered to take it. Would have been required if we'd been flying.

But a road trip. I guess a road trip felt too much like traveling in the United States. We freely drive from one state to the next back home. Was it that freedom of maneuver that I'm so used to back home that was my consciousness while I was packing for our first European road trip? Who knows!

But, as Tom likes to say, the Lord takes care of fools and children and He certainly takes care of me.

After the revelation that I was a paperless traveler, we were really too far into the trip to consider going home without being forced by some customs official. So Tom determined that we would just keep on driving and see if we got stopped at a checkpoint and told to turn around.

I felt pretty uneasy for the next few hours. I was paperless! I feared that I could get caught in some type of no-man's land where I couldn't get back into Germany but we couldn't get into Italy. Would the U.S. Embassy have to be contacted to assist me?

We continued on our trip, leaving Germany and entering Switzerland. No checkpoint there. The European Union has really eased traveling throughout Europe. Your passport doesn't even get stamped anymore when you fly from one country to another.

Then into Liechtenstein...no problems there either. Then we approached Italy. This was our moment of truth -- there was a check point and a guard who was checking vehicles.

Only God knows why we weren't stopped. Perhaps it was our European license plate. Or as Tom hypothesized...the guard was stopping ever fifth vehicle. Never have I been so grateful NOT to be a fifth car!

So we were waved through and drove into Italy, land of the Good Life, Rome and Tuscany, good wine and food, and art. The list of its attributes goes on and on. Italy has always been at the top of my travel wish list and I was so thankful to get in!

We made really good time driving into Vicenza. The whole trip was only about 6.5 hours and since we'd gotten on the road at 6:30 a.m., we had the whole afternoon and evening to visit. I enjoyed meeting Tom's friends and they got caught up on each others' lives and what all had happened in a decades-plus time.

Tony's wife Carmessa and I hit it off right away. While the boys stayed up late talking, we decided to watch a movie. Carmessa had warned me though that she can't stay awake during a movie. Seems I couldn't either, at least this night.

Here is what the boys found a couple hours later.

It's a good thing we got our beauty sleep because you know what we got to do on Saturday. Turns out Vicenza is REALLY close to Venice and so on Saturday the plan was to take the train to Venice and spend the day. Visit my blog again real soon and I'll have pictures up from that visit.

Here's a sneak peek though -- the view in front of the train station.