On Thursday morning, I made an unplanned trip to the airport…to pick up my husband who I had not seen for nearly 3 weeks.  He hadn’t been sure if he would be able to come to Italy, but at the last minute, everything worked out, and there he was.

We spent the next two days doing more hiking and race spectating.  Our next couple of hikes were far less treacherous, so everyone was able to hike together.

Proof that the hubby arrived! BTW the baby in the photo is not mine (but I was happy to carry him).

On Friday, we got a prime location for watching the bike race.  The race finished on a mountain climb, and the riders would go up this climb twice.  We settled into a spot on the climb 3 kilometers from the finish.  This required several kilometers of walking from where we parked our car, but it was worth it for the spectating experience.  It was almost more fun for me to watch the spectators spectate than the actual race go by.  A rider from the team we were cheering for was in the lead group the first time up the climb, so it was exciting to see if he would be able to stay in the lead until the end.  Alas, it was not to be, but the suspense made the race more fun to watch.

Saturday morning, we headed out at dawn for the long drive home.

Arrivederci Italia, fino a quando ci incontreremo di nuovo.

I gotta admit, I was a bit nervous going into this trip – Would Willow be a good road tripper?  Would I be a good road tripper?  Would I be able to drive 10 hours across Europe by myself?  What if my car broke down in Germany and no one would fix it ’cause I couldn’t speak German?  Would I have to leave Willow in the car most of the time?   Would she get enough exercise?

In the end, all my worrying was for naught.  It turned out that Willow was an excellent road tripping companion (I mean, talking to a dog is better than talking to yourself, right?).  Mostly everything we did was a dog-friendly activity; in fact, in retrospect, I would have been pretty disappointed if I hadn’t brought her.  Due to the remote location of our cabin, she was off leash and running around most of the time, and a nice Italian bar owner even let her bring us into his restaurant to watch the end of the race on TV.

Good food, good friends, beautiful scenery, your best four-legged friend: what more could a girl want?  All in all, it was an awesome trip.