Ciao

Since my last post we have left Austria and we care now in our second Italian City.

On our last day in Salzburg we caught a bus to a nearby town where we then caught a cable car up to the top of Untersberg mountain. The views of Salzburg and its surrounds were fantastic. I only walked around a little bit up there but Aaron walked up another part a bit higher up. Up on the mountain we met a nice Canadian couple who we talked to for awhile. After that, we looked around Salzburg's Alstadt again before walking up a hill in the centre of town that has a monastry of the Capuchin monks on it.

The next day we headed to Innsbruck where we stayed at the closest possible hotel to that station. We didn't even have to leave the station to get to the hotel as there was a lift that took us right on up to the hotel. Very convenient. We spent that afternoon wandering around Innsbruck where we saw the Golden Roof, or Golden Awning as Aaron believes it should be called and the River Inn. The next day we caught a tram to a nearby town called Igls where we caught another cable car up another mountain. This one is called PatcsherKofel and again it had spectacular views. This time we spent a couple of hours walking around on top before heading back down again. This time it was only the 2 of us in the cable car which was great. This area has held the Winter Olympics a couple of times and in the cable car we passed over a bob sled course. Aaron wanted to have a go at bob sledding but it is only open in summer and winter. What a bummer. We then had a very nice lunch in a hotel in Igls where I have never eaten so much spinach in my life. The main course was spinach dumplings covered in cheese and served with more spinach. They were very nice though. Arnold Schwarzenegger has eaten there, as well as other famous people we didn't recognise.

On Saturday we left Innsbruck (and Austria, where there are no kangaroos) and headed to Italy. After 5 and a half hours on the train we arrived in Bologna where we raced to another train only to find it wasn't going to leave for another 20 minutes due to a strike (but not by rail workers, according to the driver we spoke to). Eventually after going and stopping and going again we made it to CastellMaggiore (or something like that) where we were picked up by friends Jane, Alessandro and 18 month old Damian. Jane grew up in the same street as Aaron In Wavell Heights. It was nice to have a semi normal life for a few days. We spent a fairly quiet Sunday, doing washing, watching a dvd, playing with Damian, before we visited a nearby ye olde town called Dozza. That evening Alessandro introduced us to some local cuisine which was very nice.

On Monday morning, Aaron and I headed into the centre of Bologna where we spent the day wandering around. We could not find a tourist information place to get a map, nor did we find any public toilets, (thank goodness for fast food restaurants) so we just wandered and wandered and wandered. Bologna is a very nice city, very red.

Yesterday afternoon, Aaron and I headed down to Florence along with Jane and Damian, who came along for the afternoon. After checking into our hotel, we then spent the afternoon wandering around the city for a few hours before saying goodbye to Jane and Damian when they caught the train back to Bologna.

Now it is Wednesday morning and we are catching up on our Internet stuff and accommodation before heading out to see the sights.