30th April
As the weather wasn’t great still
we decided to go inland and come back to the coast when the sun comes out. We
had to go over the mountains on stunning empty winding roads and stopped for
lunch in a layby overlooking the beautiful view. We also stopped so Pete could
have a dip in a freezing cold stream in a very pretty green forest. When we
came down the other side of the mountain the roads got much bigger and the
scenery much uglier. Again getting tired of driving we satnaved a campsite (the
nearest one was 30km away) and headed for that. Were in Italy so obviously it
was some four star hoo haa but we set up anyway. Really fun evening playing
ping pong, drinking a lot of red wine and getting told off by our neighbours
for being too loud. Also our corkscrew broke in our wine so I asked the lady at
the bar to help get it out and the bottle ended up exploding and covering her
in red wine. Oops.
1st May
Decided we would do one more day
of driving and get to Lake Garda so we could chill out for a few days. We were
pretty much run out of food so had our eyes peeled for a supermarket but every
town we went through was a ghost town. We didn’t know if they were all closed
for lunch, or Thursday was there closed day or what! Looked in the guide book
and realised that the 1st of May was a holiday so EVERYTHING is
shut. Had lunch in a park with a lake for fishing and as we didn’t have much
food Pete made sundried tomato, olive and wild thyme soda bread which was
lovely. Easy drive to lake and once we’d come through the horrendous tourist
area and past the ‘Gardaland’ and ‘Movieland’ theme parks it was very very
pretty. Again the only campsites we saw were 3 or 4 stars so we didn’t even
bother looking. The parking also seemed very strict (probably so you don’t free
camp!) so we couldn’t just pull in anywhere. Pete and WEX were both getting
tired and finally we found a 1 star campsite! Not one other camper on it. Sadly
not the side of the road with the lake, but only a 2 minute walk down to the
shore, and a gorgeous view of the mountains the other side. Also the big
mountain is behind us that is still covered in snow. Pete got his hammock out
for the first time and is loving it.
2nd May
Had a very lazy morning and then
decided to explore along the shore (north) so got out our micro scooters and
followed the foot path along. Saw snakes basking in the sunshine and found some wild rocket growing along the side of
the road and took some to have for lunch. We went into a small shop which had
huge tanks of wine for 1.40 per litre! The lady in the shop was obviously minding
it for her son and it took her about twenty minutes to work out how to fasten the
top of the bottle. We’re not in a rush though so it didn’t matter! We scooted
back along to our campsite and got some cheese and meat from the supermarket
and had lunch out on the jetty. We watched and fed the ducks and spent the afternoon
reading and relaxing. Fantastic. With a sudden burst of energy we decided to
explore up. Our road seemed to go that way so up we went and ended up finding
these old mule tracks through the olive groves with great views down to the
lake. Managed to wind back down to the shore along the tracks; passing a field
of horses and a very very cute baby donkey. More relaxing back at camp and a
big thunderstorm in the night.
3rd May
The storm must have cleared the
clouds and today there was blue skies and sunshine and sunbathing and reading.
Perfect. Had a cycle along to the tourist information to find out about and ATM
and free wifi; turned out the bar on our doorstep has free wifi so we went there,
had a beer and checked emails. Both the helpx people had replied (one we couldn’t
do because it was for a month at least) so we phone one lady. She was very posh
sounding and didn’t have time right now but could we call her in the morning.
Didn’t sound great but Italy is too expensive so we need to do helpx or leave!
After the bar we got a cheaper beer from the shop and sat on the beach. Pete
wanted to jump in the lake, which is freeeezing by the way; straight from the
snow on the mountains, but he was too scared. I had to show him how it was done
and we both ended up jumping from the end of the jetty. Another long evening in
the campsite eating, drinking and playing cards. We also tried our solar powered shower, which worked a treat. Thanks Dave!
4th May
Today we had a plan. We wanted to
visit Verona and then instead of looking around for a campsite for ages and getting
grumpy we were going to head to a free camp car park that we had seen on a
blog. Drove the hour or so to Verona and after finding ourselves driving
through the centre of town through loads of tourists found a parking space, pay
and display, for a couple of hours. Took our micro scooters and a picnic with
us and found that in the main square with the old Roman amphitheatre there was
a market. We looked longingly at the amazing risottos and pizzas and did end of
splashing out of some lovely cheese to go with our picnic. Had lunch on the
steps of the town hall (we think) right next to the amphitheatre watching
weddings and tourists with their bags of designer shopping. Scooted the streets
of Verona, had a look in at Juliet’s balcony (as in Romeo and Juliet) and tried
to write our names on the love wall but only had a biro. Also we got told off
for writing outside the box even though every millimetre of outside the box was
already covered in writing. Anyway it was a beautiful day and Verona was very
pretty. Headed towards this car park then, it was a nice drive actually through
pretty towns and back streets. The only problem was that it was Saturday and apparently
everything is shut on Saturday (when are they open!?) and our petrol light was
on. None of the petrol stations would accept visa and we only had 5 euros cash
on us. The satnav had taken us the scenic route and although very nice we were
in the middle of nowhere. Out of desperation we used the five euros to get a
little bit of petrol (the petrol light stayed on though) and thankfully made it
to this car park. Instantly we didn’t like the look of it and to make it worse
a few minutes after we’d parked the police drove up to our van looked at our
number plate for a while and then drove off. We assume just giving us a little
warning not to stay here. We were in a town so we stocked up on cash and petrol
and decided to keep on driving. Not heading anywhere in particular we stumbled
across an actual camper car park in a small town called Brisighella. It had
water and several other campers on it. The Italians obviously come out in their
campers on a Saturday night. It was supposed to be ten euros but we didn’t see
anyone else pay and as it was Sunday tomorrow, and no one works on Sundays in
Italy, we didn’t pay. Got out our chairs and cooked dinner. Although it was a
car park it was actually quite pretty with a park next to it and we felt safe
with the other campers around. Drank lots of wine. Bed.
Forgot to say that we rang the
helpx lady and she only wanted us if we could get references and be there immediately.
We still didn’t like the sound of her but we said we’d think about it. Didn’t
reply all day then ended up saying we couldn’t come for a few days. Anyway long
story short we obviously annoyed her because she didn’t reply to our texts in
the end. Oh well.
5th May
Got away with camping for free
and headed out to find a toilet. Had a cappuccino in a nice little café and
used the facilities! We stopped again a few minutes later when we came across a
little market and wandered through there a while. Turning out to be a lovely
morning. Found somewhere to park on the side of the road and look our lunch
down to a river. Not glorious sunshine unfortunately but very nice all the
same. The drive was through more beautiful mountains (we had to go over the Apennine
Mountains to get to Florence) but we found that the road was shut off. As we are
in Italy there were no clear diversion signs so we had to work it out for ourselves.
Without going back to where we came from there was only one other road off, so
we went up there. Came to a fork in the road and the first one we followed led
to a farm (after a lot of steep, winding roads). Back we went and tried the
other fork. This went on for much longer and WEX was getting very hot going up
the hills and the brakes were stinking going down. We saw several cars going
the same way so assumed it must be the diversion and followed them; you wouldn’t be here
otherwise unless there was a party or something. There was a party or something
in a hotel at the end of the road. There was a track that carried on but it was
becoming very un-road like and WEX was very tired. Back we went again. Pete
found some wild Marjoram at the side of the road which we stocked up on. The
rain settled in. Eventually we got on to the right road and drove through the
pissing rain to a town called Marradi. Found another camper car park- this one
was actually free- and set up camp playing cards and drinking wine in the van
in the rain. Did actually manage to cook dinner (the gas was outside mum don’t
worry). There was only one other camper in the site and we felt okay about it.
In the night though a car came and parked and the people sat inside it with
no lights on. It seemed very strange. They were probably just hanging out but
our minds got carried away and we ended up driving to the road to sleep
somewhere more public.
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