4

We hit the road early Sunday morning with a full tank of gazole, i.e. diesel fuel. This time, the high mountain passes would be avoided on the quest for Italy, replaced by the year-round tunnels that pass under the highest mountain ranges of the Alps. Unfortunately, the weather could have been much better. It was foggy when we left Grenoble, improved some now and then, but for most of the trip the visibility was pretty poor. We were interested in getting more stamps in our passports but, as we left the tunnel that took us into Italy, and viewed into the guard house, we saw only this little Italian guy sitting on a stool, waving everyone through. So much for the Italian stamp, no doubt this easy passage was due to the relatively new European economic union.

We soon passed through Turin, Italy and headed north, initially back towards France, Mt Blanc (or Mt Bianco as it is known in Italy), and the Mt Blanc Tunnel, but then decided to alter our return so as to add a Swiss stamp to our passports. (As I type this the BBC World news TV station is showing a KC-135 and the cockpit. Hmmm..., hasn't changed much in 25 years and I recently heard that the life of the plane has been extended to the year 2040. And we thought the plane was old in 1973!)

Anyway, in the midst of the Italian Alps a mural on the side of a church caught my eye and I made a quick stop and detour to the small village to see the mural up close.

Nearby was a small restaurant so we dropped in for lunch. It was great. No English was spoken but we squeaked by with some Italian, French, and some Spanish when nothing else worked.

We split a "demi" (i.e.small) bottle of vino which, by the way, is a litre. It was a small ma and pa restaurant and the food was great. We were asked if we wanted "flesh" included in our lunch but this didn't sound too appealing so we passed. We're still not sure what we would have received.

Two hours later we left for the Swiss border via the Grand St Bernard Tunnel. If you look closely you'll see that the roadway in the distance is covered for several miles leading up to the tunnel. We arrived at the Swiss border and presented our passports to the military policeman. He looked at us, then at our passports. Then at us, then at our passports. Then he asked, in French, "where are you going"? We replied "Grenoble". He then had this expression that we assumed to be "you stu-peed Americanes, the road to Grenoble is through ze Mont Blanc Tunnel".

The remainder of the trip took us through the popular ski town of Chamonix at the base of Mt Blanc. Mt Blanc, by the way, is the tallest peak in the Alps at 4,810m.