Donna-Rae wanted to see Pisa and the leaning tower.  She also itched to shop at the tourist market in Florence.  Both were added to the route.  While she shopped for two hours in Florence Greg made friends with an artist doing oil paintings in the public square to sell to tourists.  The Florentine artist, wearing a tilted beret over his flowing white hair, turned out to be a re-located hippie from California who had learned Italian from a girlfriend and how to smear paint in the 60’s.  He said he usually sold $200.00-$400.00 worth of his self-described “junk” to tourists each day, usually Americans. Greg asked him if he thought there might be room for one more native painter on the square, meaning himself.  The artist answered, ‘Nah, most of us here have the best places staked out.  Someone would have to die first, and at what we can make in a good week off the tourists that’s not gonna happen real quick.  A dead woman’s son filled the last spot that was open.’

      Donna-Rae found the Leaning Tower of Pisa still leaning. 

     The ride through Switzerland was short.  Most of the high passes were still closed due to the snow, not slated to open until mid or late June.  At $20.00 for a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce and $4.00 for a small Coke, Donna-Rae and Greg left Switzerland to the ultra-rich residents like Tina Turner.  They settled for food in a supermarket just over the border in Austria where many of the nearby Swiss residents shopped.  There lunch was only $10.00 and a Coke $2.00.

A clear high mountain pass in Austria was a pleasant change from the clutter and pollution of Italy.  Donna-Rae wanted to spend the night at a nearby chalet hotel, until she was told a room for two would cost nearly $200.00.  Even with the free breakfast thrown in it was too pricey for their budget.  For the night it was back to the small villages hunting a reasonable guesthouse, this time trying to speak Austrian when ordering broccoli.  Greg was happy to be back in the land of good beer and heavy food, meat and potatoes, and his German was good enough to get all of each he wanted.