Departing Salzburg by train allowed us to view the snow covered country on route to the other side of Austria. We arrived at Villach in the early afternoon, and after touching base with the relatives, took a taxi across the border to Tarvisio, Italy.
Tarvisio is a small town in the Julian Alps, busy with skiers in the Winter, and hikers from Austria and Slovenia in the Summer. It is heavily reliant on the tourist trade, and family were bemoaning the lack of snow so far (for us non-skiers it was still plenty!!).
This is the old railway line, now coverted to a cycleway, the Alpe Adria Cycle Track, which runs between Austria, Slovenia and Italy, going as far down in Italy as Grado. It runs (from Slovenia) about 177km, and from Austria, 175km. It is a project designed to link the Alps to the seaside.
This trip was all about seeing family and spending time with them over the Christmas festive season. DW has plenty of cousins in this northern part of Italy, her mother having been the youngest of 11 children.
So for those of you reading this who are not interested in the family shots, you have permission to skip this next part...........
We caught up with everyone, from our oldest.........
to our youngest...........
to the slalom skiers.......
(DD & DS missed out on having a ski lesson with Laura - sorry kids, hopefully next time....)
We had the chance to gabber with all the girls.........
and fool around with all the boys.........
All of them have businesses in the town, so this is a free plug for them (Elena, mandi mi un foto del tuo negozio!)
Some of them DW had not seen since she was a child.........
and some, she had not met at all.........
We were all set for a wonderful 10 days in this region, with family, and a white (well... close enough) Christmas!!
Hopefully some snow falls soon, I feel for those that rely on the tourist trade, it is a hard road.
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