On the Road Again

It’s time to say goodbye to Switzerland and head south toward Italy. Today is a long day of driving through the Alps as we wind our way toward Venice. We will stop about halfway to explore Lake Como for lunch and some free time to stretch and shop. 

Breakfast was the same as yesterday and we got everyone loaded into the buses to head off. 

As we head through the mountains, the views are just amazing! Can you imagine driving to work every day with this scenery?

As we head through the countryside, here are some differences in how the road system looks:

Highway signs have different shapes to indicate the highway numbers:

This is a speed limit sign (remember this is in kilometers)

Typical tunnels as we go through the mountains. There are stop lights so when traffic is heavy too many cars don’t enter. We are going through one of the longest tunnels in the world today, it’s almost 11 miles long!


Inside the longest tunnel, which allows only 140 cars in at a time. No wait for us today though, traffic is not heavy!

Surprise! As we came out of the tunnel we were greeted with snow!

This is an exit sign off the freeway:

This is how the streetlights look and the street signs are above them (in old town the street signs are attached to building walls). 




We learned earlier on our trip that having a driver’s license in Switzerland is very expensive. Teenagers get money towards their license as gifts and most cannot afford to get one right away. Teenagers typically start the process at age 18, as that’s the legal age to get a full driving license in Switzerland. The total cost runs between $1,800 and $3,000!