Arrivederci Italia and Guten Tag Switzerland!

Whitney had hoped to meet us in Rome at the Borghese museum on Tuesday, but she had some trouble with her passport, so her flight into Rome was delayed by a day, so on Wednesday we checked out of our Rome Bed and breakfast and drove to the Roman Aquaduct park. 

Ancient Romans built these aquaducts to carry water from the hills surrounding Roma into the city.

It is really amazing to see miles of these ancient structures.

The amount of fresh water and fountains in Rome really surprised me. 

They've got walking/jogging paths all through these structures and it is a fun place to walk.

We drove out of Rome and googled the new LDS Rome temple and were able to drive by it.

It was so exciting to see the Angel Moroni flying over Rome,

We then drove to the airport and picked up Whitney!

We drove up the coast along the Mediterranean. It was a beautiful drive.

We stopped for lunch in San Viscenzo right on the beach.

Italians sure make delicious pizza and calzones!

We drove right by Pisa so we stopped to see the world famous

Leaning tower of Pisa.

It was cooler than I thought it would be.

Next we drove to our bed and breakfast in Sestri Levante.

We had stayed at the B & B Luisa 3 years ago so I contacted Luisa and asked if we could stay again.

We love this place, we had our own private swimming pool and ping pong table.

Sestri Levante is right on the Mediterranean. It is a beautiful place!

We found a restaurant and had fresh fish for dinner, then walked along the wharf.

Gorgeous!

The next morning, I drove Tom and Taylor to the train station and

they took the train to the Cinqueterre.

Cinqueterre is a group of five cities that are built right along the

 cliffs above the Mediterranean.  No cars are allowed but you can hike from town to town.

Whitney and I had planned to join them on the hikes, but we were both needing a relaxing day,

so we decided to stay in Sestri Levante.

We had a leisurely breakfast, then drove into town and shopped, we bought a picnic lunch and ate our picnic on the rocks.

The temperature was perfect.

We waded in the Mediterranean

then took a hike up above the city.

Amazing views!

 

After our hike, we walked back to town, got a gelato
 
and then drove back to our B &B and had an afternoon, of sun and swimming.

Perfect!

We met Tom and Taylor in town that night for dinner.

They had a fabulous day and so did we!

Perfect!

We found the BEST gelato cafe where the worker let me sample

10 different kinds of gelato.

It was so delicious!!

The next morning we checked out of our B &B and took Tom and Taylor up

the hill above Sestri Levante so they could see the view.

We drove from Sestri Levante to Bavone which is right on Lake Maggiore.

We checked into our B & B and then took a boat ride on Lake Maggiore to two islands, 

Isola Bella and Isola dei Pescatorri.

It was an Italian holiday, so there were many Italians on vacation.

The islands were crowded!

We walked around Baveno and found a restaurant right on the beach,

then took a drive to Stressa

The different types of granite in the Italian Alps.

There are some pretty impressive hotels in Stressa

The next day we said arrivederci to Italia and drove into Switzerland.

We drove through the alps and parked our car in Tausch and got on the train to Zermatt.

No cars are allowed in Zermatt.

When Tom's parents came to pick him up from his mission in Switzerland, they stayed a night in Zermatt so Tom had fond memories.

Unfortunately Zermatt has been discovered so it is full of tourists and not quite as quaint.

The Matterhorn is back there somewhere.

We got a brat for lunch.

and walked around the town.

Tom took a photo of this tombstone back in 1977 and loved the message "I Chose to Climb"

There is a cemetery behind the church for all the climbers who died trying to summit the Matterhorn.

We walked up into the hills and the sun came out for a minute.

Switzerland is so beautiful!

The train to and from Zermatt.

We checked out of our hotel and took the train back to Tausch and got our car where we then had to drive up and through the alps to get to Lucerne.

We literally went through a mountain in our car on a train.

It was like driving onto a ferry boat, but a train instead.

Those Swiss are pretty ingenious.

We drove through Interlaken where we had hoped to attend church, but it took us longer than we thought to drive through the alps.

Taylor's friend, who visited Switerland a few weeks earlier, left a fun scavenger hunt in Zermatt, here at this church in Interlaken and then in Lucerne, so while at the church, we found the postcard she left for Taylor.

You see waterfalls spewing down the mountains everywhere.

I love all the cows and cowbells.

We took the tram and train up to Muren in the Lauterbrunen valley.

We had a picnic just as the rain started falling, but we were prepared.

We watched skydivers sail down and land perfectly in the valley below.

We walked from Muren to a little town down below called Gimmelwald.

A progression of cowbell sizes

Gimmelwald was just what you imagine when you picture Switzerland.

We took the tram back down

and drove up the Grindelwald valley.

The sun came out and we saw the alps!

Allelujah! So beautiful!!!

Then we drove to Lucerne.

Not too shabby of a drive.

We found our B & B and then found a place to eat.

Switzerland is SO expensive.

Here's Taylor's $25 hamburger

We toured Lucerne on Monday

Famous wooden bridge that was originally built in 1100 but burned down in the 1990's so they've rebuilt it. We found another of Taylor's friend's postcards on the bridge.
 

This is the famous Lion of Lucerne monument to the fallen Swiss guard soldiers who died trying to protect King Louis XVI

Views from above 

and along the lake

This is the view from our B & B on the outskirts of Lucerne, 

Mount Pilatus!

I just can't get over how jaw droppingly beautiful Switzerland is!

Tuesday morning we drove from Lucerne to Zurich and dropped Whitney and Taylor off at their hotel so they could tour Zurich and then continue on their adventure in Prague, Budapest and Vienna the next day.

Tom and I drove to the airport and checked in our car.

This Skoda served us well on our European adventure!

Auf Weidersehn Switzerland!

We hope we see you again someday!