Eight a.m. and we were all on the bus and excited to be heading through the Alps and over the Brenner Pass, working our way south to Venice.  We stopped at the Rathaus Zugspitzblick for a quick group photo with the mountain:  unfortunately, my camera suffered yet another episode of operator error - truth be told - I'm lucky to have any decent photos!  We made a longer stop at the Europabrucke-Parkplatz where a small section of the Roman Road is preserved.  It's hard to imagine how many carts  (and centuries) it took to wear the ruts in those stones.

 

Jesse called ahead and had a delicious salad and panini lunch waiting for us in Egna, Italy.  He also treated us to our first gelato on Italian soil - I'm feeling so spoiled!  A street market was also in full swing, and we got to browse on the way back to the bus.

 

The mountains, some with old fortifications, slowly gave way to flatter country, and before long we were crossing the causeway into Venice.  A lot of us just took our smaller day bags packed with the bare esssentials for our stay in Venice, and stowed our bigger bags in the bus lock-up.  It sure made it easier to get on and off the vaporetto and then to walk to our hotel.  After a short break to refresh ourselves, we had a leisurely stroll to Piazza San Marco, with Jesse pointing out landmarks along the way to help us get our bearings so we would be able to find the hotel on our own.  

 

A nice Friuli wine came with our first Italian group dinner, and Jesse saw to it that we had plenty of it.  Yeah, I am spoiled - it's called "la dolce vita" and I like it.