So the heat wave is still in full force which made for a hot
ferry back to Italy. Camping on board was good but there was no air so it felt
like we were slowly roasting. Having
been fully baked we arrived early in the morning in Bari, South East Italy an
our first stop was Decathlon to help replace items which were stolen and after
an hour and over £100 we returned to the van to decide what to do next. We
drove up the coast to Manfredonia were there was a camper stop and joined in
with the Italian late night walk up the beach front.
The next morning we got up early and drive to Forest Umbria
where we got on our bikes and rode around some of the many footpaths. During
the ride we stumbled across a young fox who didn’t appear to be scared of us.
After a few photos we got back on the bikes and continued but it seemed that it
was time for the bugs to come out and we were bombarded with different type of
bugs flying everywhere so we decided to head back to the van before we were
covered in bites and insects.
We did try another walk that afternoon but after walking up
hill for 30 minutes we lost where the path went so decided to head back before
we were lost in the woods with wolves and wild cats. We then parked up further
in the forest for the evening but it wasn’t just us in the van, several of the
bugs appeared to be with us which meant we were trying to kill bugs all night.
The following morning we headed on to a seaside town called
Vieste where we walked around the town and found a beach which you could only
access by a hidden staircase with danger signs everywhere. As there were quite a few people down there
and no other way down we ignored the signs, although we did keep to the right
hand side, away from all the cracks, and headed down to the beach for a swim as
the heat was unbearable. We enjoyed watching the locals jump from the rocks and
an old trabucco (an old fishing machine). After a nice hour by the sea we
headed back to the town to grab some lunch before continuing on to find a
camper stop in Petacciato. Unfortunately the place we were planning to stay had
a dance or house music festival that evening so we had to drive a little
further up the coast to Lido Di Casalbordino. Hoping for a quiet night here we
settled in just opposite the beach. We soon met a friendly cocker spaniel who
was particularly fond of Rich and had some dinner. Soon the Italian evening
walk started and we realised that the area was a very busy one with bars, an
open air DJ, market stalls and restaurants. Cars continued to come and go until
the early hours of the morning but we did manage to get a fairly decent night
sleep after our walk along the boardwalk.
We got up fairly early the next day and headed further north
up to San Benedetto del Tronto were there was supposed to be a camper stop with
full services. However when we got there it was full so we found a car park to
leave the van in while we went into town, had some lunch and found a nice
laundry to wash all of our clothes. We also had to try and find somewhere to
stay for the evening . We happened to find a campsite near a lake in Pedaso
which was going to be expensive but had all the services we needed and a pool.
Once the washing was done we headed there and had a good look round. It was a
busy campsite with a large lake and some goats, ducks and horses. We soon
realised we couldn’t use the pool as we didn’t have a swim cap (the Italian and
French have a weird thing about hair, usually you need a cap and men have to
wear tight swim shorts, which is not pleasant
for anyone to see on the older and rounder gentlemen)
We stayed at the campsite for most of the next day having a
day cleaning the van and bikes, organising the van and generally getting back
in the groove of living in the van. We also had time to chase some of the
insurance stuff and sort out what we needed Rich’s parents to bring us from the
UK when they come to visit. We also managed to do some planning for the next
few days and later that day headed off to Fermo which was a short drive but is
a medieval hill town where we would stay for the night. We found a deli where
we bought some lovely treats for dinner and had a good walk around the town
with its cobbled streets and old buildings.
The following morning we headed to San Marino which is
actually another country, or micro nation, within Italy. The main portion of
the town is on a hill and only has limited car access so we parked the motorhome
in the camper car park at the bottom of the hill, where we could also spend the
night, and got the cable car up to the top. I was not fully keen on this idea
but it did seem better than walking up hill for a couple of hours and it only
took a couple of minutes (I did have my eyes shut for most of the ride). We
walked around the town, marvelling at the openly honest sale of fake designer
goods and guns. We also watched the changing of the guard but it did not live
up to the Greek one we saw. We continued walking around the town and the
surrounding hill to see all of the towers and we also walked along the high
city wall which did get a bit scary at one point as it was very high yet not
very wide.
The following morning we headed more inland to Castle San
Pietro Terme camper stop which was not far from Bologna. We got the train in
with our bikes and cycled around the city. We quickly discovered that it was
August 14th which was a public holiday in Italy and most things were
shut. The city was eerily quiet but it made riding around it quick, easy and
delightful. We found somewhere open for lunch and had the required bolognaise
(or ragu as it is actually called). We continued around the city and found the
whispering gallery and had some of the best ice cream we had ever eaten
(Bologna is home to the only Ice Cream University). We tried to find some
English books as without my kindle I’m going crazy but we failed. We also went
into the large church with the sun dial that helped identify the need for a leap
day every 4 years. We headed back to the
camper stop for the evening and decided to try going to back to Bologna the
following day to see the fountain and look around the shops. We did go back the
following morning to try and see the parts we missed. We managed to buy some
nice parmesan cheese for David and bought some nice salami for ourselves.
We
then headed back to the camper stop and carried on north to Mirandalo. I had
finally found a camper stop with all services free, including electricity, something
Rich said we would never find.
The next day we headed further north to Lake Iseo where we
planned to spend a couple of days. The first thing I wanted to do was get in
the lake but we decided to stop on the pier and Rich said it would be a good
place to swim. Several locals were there and some were swimming. Rich got in
first and had a swim and got out. There was no ladder to get out so he had to
pull himself out, after reassuring me that I would be able to get out.
Reassured in I jumped but I struggled to get out as it was a really high
platform to get out, I ended up swimming around the pier to find a lower step
to pull myself out on. I was not pleased and neither was Rich as in the chaos
he lost his sunglasses. We carried on cycling around and ended up in the town
for the evening where we got a take away pizza to eat by the lake before going
to a craft beer pub for beer tasting.
The following morning we headed by boat to the island in the
middle of the lake, the largest lake island in Europe. Once there we first
locked up the bikes and climbed the hill (600m high) in the centre to the
church at the top where there were stunning views of the lake and surrounding
area, including a smaller island with a monastery. Once we reached the bottom
again we hopped onto the bikes and started the 15km trail around the island
which allowed us to see all of the main towns. Apart from a killer uphill
section the ride was nice but there were sections with very little, apart from
the water, to see. After that we got the
boat back to the van and decided to treat ourselves to a home cooked fry up as
it was something we had been missing.
As one lake was not enough we drove onto lake Garda and a
small town called Salo the following morning and spent the day walking around,
swimming in the lake and eating ice cream before an evening cocktail on the
lake front.
We decided to drive around Lake Garda and headed north to
Parco Cascata Varone which was large waterfall which falls through almost cave
like rock formations. However we went on a Sunday, and despite arriving shortly
after it opened, the place was heaving with people. We quickly walked around
and saw the waterfall before making a hasty escape. We drove on to a place
called Brentonico which was in the heart of a national park and meant we could
do a couple of walks. We had a short
explore around the town and Rich had a short bike ride to see what was around
(turns out there was very little to see or do).
The next day we had decided to do one of the walks and
headed off up another hill (oh joy!). we walked for a couple of hours and then I
decided to head back while rich continued up to the top (another km higher than
we had already travelled). I reached the camper van had a nice cup of tea and
cake and read my book before Rich arrived back 4 hours later, having made it to
the top of the mountain and having got to see Lake Garda from the top.
We continued our journey around the lake by travelling south
down the east coast of it and arrived Bardolino where there was a wine museum
(far more my thing that high hills). We walked around the museum then were
lucky enough to be there during a tasting session. I tasted all of the white
wines and Rich and I decided on our favourite (alright my favourite) and bought
three bottles. It seemed only right as the museum and tastings were free. We then continued west to Illasi where again
there was a wine museum but unfortunately it was closed. We cycled around a bit
as this is within wine country but there wasn’t much going on.
In the morning we hopped on our bikes and rode the 5km to
the train station where we got the train to Verona for the day. We didn’t have
much planned for the day and were not sure what to expect of Verona but we
really enjoyed it. There were areas which were crowded with people, especially
around the Romeo and Juliette features (such as the balcony which they said
would have been Juliette's). But there were really nice areas including the
climb to the castle overlooking the town. We spent the whole day wandering the
streets admiring the beautiful buildings and getting lost in the winding
streets before heading back for Illasi for the night.
The next morning we headed to a country house estate called
Villa Pisani which has a maze in the garden which fable has it Mussolini and
Hitler were scared of. We arrived at 12.45pm only to find out that the maze
closed for siesta at 12.30 until 4. We decided to stay and explore the grounds
which were a little over run and not as beautiful as a national trust house. I
did however stumbled over a snake which made me scream and Rich curse for not
being in front as he missed it (he didn’t believe it was a snake). We then sat
and read in the sunshine until the maze reopened. Once open we headed in and
for the first 5 minutes we stayed together but realising that we were getting
far we split up and raced to see who could get to the middle first. I won and
then had to help direct Rich there. Once we were both up the top we realised
that to get out you had to go the same way, there was no quick way out, as
there is in some mazes. We didn’t get too lost on the way out though which was
a relief. Afterwards we headed to Treviso to a camper stop where we could get a
train to Venice the following day
Venice was hot and far too crowded for us. We ended up
eating at a restaurant we thought was a good one (as shown on Tripadvisor) but
it wasn’t, they had just made themselves look like the good one. We left in the early afternoon after walking
around the city seeing St Marks square and the Church as well as the famous
bridges, canals and Gondolas. We stayed in Treviso again for the evening.
The following day we headed into prosecco country where the
DOCG prosecco was made. There is only a small region where this highest quality
prosecco can be made and we stayed in the town called Valdobbiadene as it had a
cheap camper stop in the town. We jumped on our bikes with a packed lunch and
headed up hill through the vineyards to find a couple of places to try the
different proseccos. As it was siesta time and a Saturday some places were
closed but we managed to find a couple (well enough to get tipsy by 4pm). First
we stumbled across a small family owned shop where there were several Americans
already having a tasting. We joined in and after a couple we picked our
favourite and bought a bottle before continuing on. We struggled to find
another one open but we did have one booked for 3pm so we continued on around
the loop we had planned, stopping for lunch and to pick some grapes, before heading
to our booked tasting where we tried another 5 glasses. Again we picked our
favourite and bought a bottle. Finally we rode a small loop back to the van and
stopped at a small producer who invited us in and explained in broken English
about his different varieties. We asked to taste a couple and he bought them
out with some cheese and crackers. Early into the tasting some of his friends
arrived and they joined in and more prosecco was opened and before we knew it
we had been there for over an hour, talking and drinking. We bought a couple of
bottles before trying to cycle back to the van for some food.
Thankfully we didn’t wake
up with a hangover so we headed further up north to the mountain range called
the Dolomites and into a small camper stop in Valle Di Cadore. Here we got on
our bikes and cycled to a lake (Lago Delle Tose Calalzo) which was about 8km
away. We had a nice picnic by the lake before heading back and stopping for an
ice cream after some big hills.
The following day we drove to a restaurant which was
supposed to have a handmade adventure park but unfortunately I had put in the
wrong place on our map so we ended up in the wrong place, my bad! After a quick
bit of planning we headed towards Slovenia and stayed in a camper stop just
outside Trieste in a place called Monfclone. There was a large thunderstorm in
the evening so we were stuck in the van all night and couldn’t eat outside
which has been the normal thing to do the last few months. The next day we were
going to head into Slovenia hopeful that there would be no passport control or
that a quick flash would be sufficient as we were not crossing the border on
the day our passport said we should.
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