Viva Italia!

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The trip from Lyon to Italy was breath-taking. We drove through valleys, seeing mountains all around us, some still snow-capped. The journey also took us through the less scenic, but none the less impressive tunnels that went through the mountains, the longest being 13 km long. The last leg of the journey took us on narrow and winding roads, with many inclines and declines, through acres and acres of vineyards.

The village of Alice Bel Colle was beautiful. A small village of 700 people that must all work on the vineyards (except for the Hotel workers of course). In the middle of town, there is a lookout situated on top of the stores of the central area of town. From there you can see for miles in any direction over the rolling hills of vineyards (see the panoramic picture). That evening, we had our first taste of Italian cuisine. It was out of this world! We all enjoyed the meal and also ate at the hotel restaurant the 2nd evening there.

Next morning, we awoke early to have breakfast at the hotel. At the breakfast we learned that the Italians are particular about their manners when the owner of the hotel (a pleasant and friendly gentleman) instructed Adam about eating a peach correctly with a knife and fork (by sign language as we don't speak Italian)! After, we went to see some sites of Italy that were nearby.

The first stop was to an old Italian military Citadel in the heart of Alessandria. Upon arriving we were all puzzled because of the apparent lack of anything living on the grounds. After walking around and finding that the buildings of the old complex were boarded up and empty we were about to call it quits when we saw people emerging from one of the main buildings within the walls. When we entered the building we were greeted by a lively elderly man who helped us understand all of the exhibits within the museum which were of course, all in Italian. To finish the tour our new friend took us upstairs to the prison block of the main building, an exciting experience.

On the way back to our hotel we decided that the next stop of our day would be to another small museum in the town of Acqui Terme. This museum was filled with lots of information about the site, and the objects unearthed there, unfortunately none of us are fluent in Italian and were without the help of a guide, we did our best to enjoy the exhibits. We walked around a bit more in Acqui Terme, then went back to the hotel for round two of Italian cuisine. Although it wasn't a long visit, our time in Italy was extremely memorable, and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

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