Really, the only difference I could see were the grazing cows above treeline and restaurant-lodges,called huts, on the tops of ridges.

We hiked with our friends, Wolle and Stefanie, and some of their friends, to a glacier next to a lake. We stopped at a hut on one of the ridges and ate wienerschnitzel served with beer and strudel. Later, we rested on boulders by the lake, talked and took pictures.

On the hike down, I dropped behind the group and practiced my yodeling. This was the extent of our live music experience in Austria.

We did, however, listen to local rock legends, Ciela, on CD, a music group from Mayrhofen, who sings in the local Zillertal dialect. Their CD, "Umbrell," is intense with strong lyrics and hard driving rhythms.

Go to their Web site: www.ciela.at, if you can read German.

Ciela has rocked the house at world-class snowboarding events organized by Wolle's company, Ästhetiker, in Mayrhofen, a ski town with 46 lifts and huge vertical drop in all directions.

Stefanie took us to Innsbruck where we shopped for souvenirs and CDs.

I bought a collection of Falco's greatest hits. (Remember him? The Austrian singer of "Rock Me Amadeus?")

After a sad goodbye on the Jenbach train platform, Haley and I were off again, over the mountains into Italy.

We spent only a day in Venice, but it was a great day wandering through the streets and floating on the canals.

In the evening we attended a performance of baroque music and opera at the Scuolo Grande di San Teodoro, an old stone church converted to a theater for live musical performances. The costumes were authentic for the period and the music expertly executed by a string and woodwind ensemble with professional opera singers. Haley came out of the concert singing in her best operatic voice, claiming she'd discovered a new favorite kind of music.

On the walk back to our hotel, over one of the arched bridges, we stopped to watch the gondolas and city lights playing on the choppy water.

A man dressed in white gauze sat on a stool under the eaves of the bridge playing baroque music on a lute. The sounds took us back to ancient Italy, to a time before cars and planes and boats moving so fast as they do in modern times.

We slept peacefully next to a canal and the sound of water lapping on the sides.

In the morning, when I awoke, I lay in bed listening to the rain outside the window. Not great for touring around, but I needed to check funds, so I left Haley sleeping and ventured out to find an Internet café.

Seeing Venice early in the morning is a different scene than the bustling crowdedness that happens all day. Instead of tourists, the morning boats carry fish, sacks of grain and other supplies. Vendors wheel in their goods on carts and set up their stands, chatting and gesturing to each other.

A few pedestrians walked by with umbrellas over the bare, gray streets. Only a bakery was open for business. I looked in and saw three women dressed in matching orange dresses with round pill-box hats bobby-pinned to their hair, laughing and talking in fast-paced Italian. They served espressos and cappuccinos, took money and gave change to the customers who stood at the bar drinking and chatting right back.

Further down the street at an Internet café, I sat at a computer and checked my bank account and answered e-mails. The young Italian proprietor put on Coldplay, beginning with "I'll Fix You," a soothing favorite of mine.

It put me in such a good mood. The music, the friends on the Internet, the Italian chatter, even the rain and gray skies.

It all made me feel at home halfway around the world.

• Teri Tibbett is a writer, musician and photographer in Juneau. She can be reached at tibbett@alaska.net