Bella Italia.  I wish I could post some of our pictures from this first day, but I did not pack the cable for my camera to computer connection.  Now normally I am a first rate packer.  But the day before yesterday when I was going to bed I hugged one of my boys and YIKES ----fleas!  I hurriedly gave him a bath with flea shampoo, and itched all night with visions of fleas.  I spent yesterday going to the vet for flea medicine and trying to wash all of the bed linens, dog beds (we have many), toys, etc... and spraying flea pesticide throughout the house, vacuuming rugs, etc...  Then Cox cable let me down -- my phone stopped working and my internet connection stopped.  With only a cell phone that works outside but not inside my house, I had to call cox multiple times for assistance, kept getting cut off, and when I finally got someone to help me and call my cell phone if we got cut off, I had to keep walking out to the patio to talk to the technician who was walking me through a fix (didn't work).  So, no photos for this blog.  I'll add them when I get back home!

LOVE Italy, but we are in the northern part and it feels more like Germany than Italy.  Hopefully as we bike south, it will become more of the Italy that I love.  We got our bikes tonight, our maps, and our instructions.  It is already apparent that this trip will not be as organized as last year's in Austria, but hey, that's the difference between Austria and Italy, right?

Air France and the new 516 passenger A380 is GRRREAT.  Whoever designed this plane must have had experience designing boats or something like that.  Imagine that the window seats have compartments next to them (between the seat and the window).  Loading was great as those of us on the top deck loaded separately from those on the lower deck.  It was a great trip and we had time for cafe latte and a croissant in Paris before we caught the flight to Italy.  

After the 6 and a half hour flight to Paris, two hour layover, 2 hour flight to Verona and then 2 hour train to Bolzano, we were tired.  Too tired for much more of a blog.  I hope I can do more tomorrow.l

85 degrees, sunny and going to be a hot 40 miles.