We had a long drive this day. A cold storm started yesterday and was continuing today. For this reason, we decided to head south a far as possible to get away from the snow and colder weather. We originally thought of visiting over the next three days Salzburg, only an hour from Obertauern, Verona, and the Ferrari museum/factory outside of Modena before heading to Siena. These places would have to wait for our return trip north to Germany. We did not need chains for our drive out, but for the first 20 km or so I pretty much stayed in second gear. It was normal driving once we made it to the autobahn. We drove out the same way we had come into Austria. A week earlier we were won

dering when we would get into the snow. Now, we were wondering where the snow would stop. The mountains were covered all the way into Italy, and out on the plains to the south we even saw a sprinkling of snow in the fields. To the north we could see the Alps for several hours. On the way to Austria we had not seen the Alps because of fog and darkness. In the afternoon around Bologna we even got snow again – thick, fat, wet flakes. There was snow crossing the Appenines. Only when we got down by Florence did it seem we were done with snow

We ate dinner at a McDonalds in Siena (only our second time this trip), and when we came out…snow. It was not sticking, but it was snowing in Siena. We woke the next morning to bright blue skies, cold but not freezing. We were in Tuscany for our second visit.