Searching for sun.

27th May

Got a morning ferry over to Venice with a picnic in our bags to avoid expensive restaurants. We thought we'd head in the general direction of the Rialto bridge first through the beautiful winding streets, getting lost a few times on the way of course, and stopping for a coffee in a little side alley. We then managed to find St Marco square. We did this slowly; wandering around and taking in the atomsphere and stopping on every bridge over a canal because it was so pretty. We stopped and listened to the singing gondola drivers. Perfect. Found a shady spot to sit and have our picnic and watch the thousands of tourists walking past. Some how we managed to while away several hours wandering around. We had heard about spritz, which is a drink made with Aperol (similar to Campari) and either soda or, if you're feeling swanky, with prosecco topped with a big green olive. We were feeling swanky and stopped in a square to have one. Very nice, although wishing we had found somewhere a bit more 'local'. We turned a corner and found a group of Italians standing in the street outside the tiniest bar you've ever seen, sipping wine or spritz or beer. We decided it wouldn't hurt to stop here as well and try and blend in as a local Venitian. It obviosuly worked because we were approached by a man saying something in Italian. When we told him we were English he looked surprised and then in perfect but slurred English said that he was drunk and looking for some conversation. He was called Martina, he was funny and we chatted to him a while and he invited us for a drink at another bar if we liked. We were interested to see more local bars in Venice so thought we'd go for one more before heading back to the campsite. Had a funny situation when we arrived because Martina went up to a girl and started shouting and she was screaming and trying to get away. This would have been scary (I thought) if the old couple running the bar hadn't been watching with huge smiles on their faces. When he setteled down he explained she was his non related 'sister' and just trying to look out for her. We liked him. Got the ferry back to our campsite and had dinner and chilled. Whilst tucked up in bed at something like 11 o clock, we were kept up by the pumping disco on the campsite playing crap music until gone midnight. We felt like right old, miserable people moaning about it!

 

 

Minty after too much wine. ^

 

Pete and Martina. ^

 

 

28th May

We had a slightly stressful time coming out of Venice- you forget it's actually a big city on the mainland- and got slightly lost due to road diversions. Anyway the trusty sat nav came into use again and we found ourselves on the right road. We were heading now towards Slovenia way, choosing to go in further north to the mountains rather than on the coast. We didn't use motorways so it was a fairly long drive, so we decided to stop just before the border in a small town called Cividale del Friuli, chosen for no other reason except that it was on the road map. The land in this part of Italy seemed to be very flat and industrial so we weren't particularly excited by it. We were very happy to see the little camper dumping ground sign and found four little parking spaces reserved for campers for free. There was one camper there when we arrived but he left and we had the place to ourselves. We opened our back doors onto a pretty green garden and the very beginnings of the Alps in the distance. After dinner it was still early so we thought we might as well see what, if anything, was happening in the town. First we saw a gorgeous turquoize river with a waterfall and then were very pleasently surprised to find a small walled medieval town with quite a 'happening' square. We stopped for a coffee and watched the people go by. We decided that as we had a nice little set up for the camper and the town seemed cute and we weren't in a rush anywhere that we'd have a day here tomorrow as well. Thunder storms all night.

 



 

29th May

Non stop thunder storms until about midday. We stayed in bed and read our books all morning. When the rain subsided slightly we got up and took our laptop into the town (we had seen free wifi in a cafe) and got a coffee. We looked up the weather for Slovenia- rain rain rain- but it didn't put me off! We wanted to see the mountains! Walked some more around the small town, which was so small we realised we'd seen almost all of it on the first night. We went back to the van for lunch where we found we had a couple of other camper neighbours. As the sky was clearer now and I was getting slightly claustrophobic of being inside the van so much we decided to have an early afternoon spritz in the square. We took our books and sat and relaxed. Lovely evening, we were happy to have found this town. A lot more rain in the night.

 

 

30th May

More and more rain in the morning so we got up and straight into the driving seat. Fortunetly it was a very short drive over the border and the town we wanted to stay in was the first you come to. We followed some camping signs in the town and arrived to and empty campsite- no one in reception or anything. As I was looking at the guide book to see where we could go (the sat nav is out of range here so we couldn't use it for campsites) the owner drove in and we said we would stay. It was still raining so we got out our big umbrella so we could at least make a coffee. It was still early- only about ten thirty- but the rain just did not stop. We decided not to go walking in the mountains today as everything was covered by clouds. We read our books and relaxed some more. Actually a very enjoyable day! The rain calmed down slightly so we were able to make some dinner and even have a game of cards under the umbrella. And we enjoyed the incredibly hot showers, which we had all to ourselves. The rain went on all night too.