The Tagliamento

Well we finally made it to Italy!  It took us 12 hours from Berlin to get here but the drive was gorgeous.  We passed through Austria and Salzburg on the way and the views were just incredible.  Once here, we have been touring around the region (which is the province of Udine) with our Italian guide/friend/assistant/fellow researcher.  Not sure what his plan is yet but for now he is helping us as much as he can.  He is really fun to be around! 

We are staying in a house at the base of the Italian Alps in the town/village of Pinzono.  There are A LOT of villages here.  Basically every meadow has a town, not something that would ever happen in the Rockies.  But all of the towns are quaint and have the most fantastic scenery.

Jeff plans to work along the entire Tagliamento River (a few hundred kilometers worth) but it should be very interesting research.  Yesterday we drove to the headwaters, which is not unlike the headwaters of the San Juan River.  Just beautiful.  And today we drove to the ocean near Venice which was VERY hot and not quite as beautiful.  Tomorrow I guess we are going to start working down there and I am not looking forward to it.  But I can't complain too much because Wednesday we go to Bologna for a few days.  :)