On our way home from Slovenia we wanted to try a different route. The Alps limit the places where you can go so we decided to take a southern route between the Alps and the Dolomites. The Dolomites are a mountain range in northern Italy. We basically drove through a valley with the Alps on the right and the Dolomites on the left.
Here are the craggy Dolomites on the right.
A zoomed-in look at the rugged peaks.
This is a northern Italian town. Although Italian is spoken, so is German. In many ways they are more Austrian here than Italian.
Now we are looking more like the Alps.
This is in Italy again, but close to the border.
Rome and Carthage were at war for centuries. Both wanted to control the Mediterranean Sea. At one point the Carthage army decided to attack Rome from the north. General Hannibal landed his army in Spain (including elephants) and marched around the Alps and came through Brenner Pass (they think). Eventually they swept down and defeated Rome. The Romans were not happy and sailed to Carthage and soundly defeated them. They destroyed the city and covered the land with salt so that it could never be rebuilt. This was the path the elephants walked.
And now we enter Germany.
