We woke to our first morning in italy. We had breakfast downstairs in our million star hotel. It was extremely tasty bar the dirty grapefruit juice.
The girls went into town with myriam and explored the shops and sights. Everything was so beautiful with sculptured gardens and antique villas.
The boys went for a swim in the hotel's pool and did video review of Augsburg.
We all met up and went to the course for lunch where we had more of our deli sandwiches. We were allowed to use to Italian boathouses's fascilities. The stairs from the boathouse to the river however were on an 80degree slope and our calves got a good workout when we had to move up and down them. We did our first session on merano and the water was icy cold. There were hidden rocks everywhere but the river was {Joey:} 'finger licking goodness.'
We felt like hacks when watching the French team (B team) after our session because they were shredding the moves.
After lounging in the sun at the boat house we went to dinner which was fantastic. We walked into town from our hotel past the mansion villas full of loaded italians with vespers. The restaurant was in a courtyard and must have been a good choice as the Italian team themselves came there and dined. We enjoyed gelato to farewell Emily on her journey home tomorrow which was again 'finger lickingly good'
Merano itself is such a beautiful town and we are all enjoying staying here.

BY ANTRA AND JOEY ….and seb….