San Marino, San Marino

Can I be a downer for a second? Cuz San Marino looks AMAZING!(!!!) Exhibit A from the internet:

Aaaaaand this is what we saw:

Our entire Italian road trip was planned in the first place because we had not yet been to the micro country San Marino and the Scrap 2 Days workshop was only an hour away. I was so excited! Because it looks amazing! Exhibit B from the internet:

And this is what we saw:

Because, RAIN. Probably the most rain I've ever seen with mine own two eyes!

Yeah, there was no way we were going out and getting drenched to our very cores. The views are supposed to be top notch and one of the main draws for visiting San Marino, and we obviously weren't getting that in this weather, so we begrudgingly peaced out.

Although the morning started off promising! I taught my 2nd mini album class and then we hit the road as fast as we could to make it to our airbnb near Innsbruck, Austria before midnight. Pretty views coming down the mountain:

As soon as we entered San Marino there was the most beautiful flower garden - I asked Chris to pull over so I could get out and document.

Proof we were in San Marino!

We were hungry so the first stop was McDonald's where we paid with cash and got a euro coin minted in San Marino. This later turned into our magnet (we get a magnet from every city we visit and is one of the highlights of each trip).

As we were eating our burgers and fries, we kept looking up out the windows to the towers above town (darn I should have taken pictures then!) and could see them slowly being enveloped by clouds... Dern it!

When we walked back to the car to drive up to the parking lot by the towers, the rain started coming down harder and harder and harder. It was heartbreaking.

So instead we will live vicariously through the internet and those who have seen San Marino in better weather:

I really would love to go back!

Not to mention the drive back up north... what should have taken 5 hours took 8 (EIGHT!) because of the toll leaving Italy. I still can't even think about it without getting flustered. Never will I ever drive through that stretch of highway again on a Sunday. It should be illegal, that kind of hold up. And there was nothing we could do about it, no way around it, no detours, we just had to drive 5 kilometers per hour for three hours. Aaaand, the cherry on top, we never got a pass entering the Italian freeway near San Marino (not our fault, the rail thing never came down so it wouldn't dispense a ticket!!) so we had to pay a $110 fine. I just don't want to talk about it. LUCKILY: the airbnb we rented for the night near Innsbruck Austria was so amazing and comfortable.

Lovely Austria! 

The next morning we were going to walk around Innsbruck, but it was still raining and we were so DONE. We drove the rest of the 4 hours back to Germany and got home in time for the kids' nap. We all chanted "We love home! We love home! We love home!" for the last 5 minutes of the drive. I will always remember that tender moment. We really do love home.

And that concludes our Italian roadtrip! Next adventure: Edinburgh, Scotland!