05/12/2012. Another day of driving... from Florence to Salzburg, Austria. Ans, our Italian guide, started off by telling us that we were going to see a drastic change in our surroundings, and he was right! The closer we got to Austria, we found ourselves going through the Pre-Alps (that's what Ans called them). Now, I've seen mountains before from Alaska and CA to Nebraska, the mountains in the eastern part of the states, but I've never seen anything like the Alps! They are truly beatiful. We stopped for lunch at the Austria version of a "truck stop/rest stop". It had a very nice resturant that is kind of a cross between a Morrisons Cafeteria, a Cracker Barrel, and a fast food resturant. We arrived in Salzburg around 3:30, in the rain. According to Ans, it rains a lot here (if it's not snowing). The difference in the tempature between Venice (where it felt like 90 degrees) and Salzburg (in the 40's), is a welcome change. We ate dinner at the resturant and finished eating around 9:30 pm, then we had no problem going to sleep.