In Italy – heading South

Malcesine, Lake Garda, Italy

The cultural shock of leaving a very organised society (Germany / Austria) where virtually everyone speaks English and entering into a totally foreign one is a gentle transition. The Italian Lakes (Lake Garda) was buzzy, beautiful and more German than true Italian. In fact given the car registration plates most people seemed to be German in Malcesine where we camped and as such there was good English spoken. We have been to Garda several times and even visited Malcesine but always late in the season (end Sept/Oct)… this time the pretty old harbour was full of people doing all the things we all do on holiday.

Verona

Italians are obsessed by the coast and the sea… they want to live near it and rush to it in their millions in August. It is understandable because with Italy being so narrow, less than 100 miles wide in most areas, and mountainous down the middle section Italians have all grown up in the coastal strips not far from the sea. OK we have got Felixstowe and although the toilets are likely to better it lacks the blue sea and 20 – 30 C sunshine that promotes the real need for that sea breeze.

Verona

So we follow a simple plan – down one side and back up the other. We stayed on the Eastern side of the mountains and headed South. Although in theory you could criss-cross from east coast to west coast the mountain passes and/or toll roads and tunnels would quickly increase your cost. The sky’s got bluer and temperature has slowly climbed to 39C and all the memories of the need to brake out the quilts has faded… although we will have to go North again at some stage : (

We have been totally off the normal tourist trail;

Verona – great Camperstop in the middle of this big and vibrant city.

Castel Bolognese – tiny town… tiny.

San Leo  at night

San Leo – beautiful, peaceful, classic hill top town although a bit tricky to manoeuvre a motorhome in. We had to drive through the old gate and into the main square - scary.

Pesaro – Sea side but where the road and railway are between you and the sea. Have you seen that film when the gypsies come home at night and light campfires, cook hedgehogs, drink what looks like vodka and sleep rough on the grass. One night was enough!

Porta Polenza Picena – nice little town by the sea.

Bomba, Abruzzo - by a lake.



Palomboro, Casoli



Torretta (Casoli, Abruzzo) - we went to a great looking restaurant BUT it was a specialist steak (from all around the world) house? So not a good choice for us. We really must learn the language!

Lesina, Puglia – lovely old fishing port on an enclosed sea area. we made a mistake in the traffic system and ended up breaking some kind of restriction outside the Town Hall much to the amusement of a large group of local people. The bad news was it ended up with a Police escort out of town… the good news was that we had to follow them to a real lovely little campsite near the marina. The local Police have been good – not so sure about the ones that carry the guns though.

Lesina

Lucera – Old walled, cobbled street town… A University town, lots of young people sheltering in every shady doorway. It can be a tough life this university lark in a hot country.

San Giovanni Rotondo – It’s a town dedicated to a single monk and a long story that you can google it if you area really interested. We join the religious pilgrim trail and in 40 C with 100’s of steep steps and lots of singing some of these over weight Mammas looked closer to God than they had ever been before. We also did the laundry here which also tends to be a religious experience when you have been gone 3 weeks and only have 3 sets of underwear J

Minnie and Me

Minnie (our motorhome) is returning around 35miles to the gallon even across the Alps and  although diesel is closer to the UK price in Italy it is better than we were expecting.  We have now fully adjusted to being in our little home with things like showering, getting out of bed and doing the laundry / ironing passing off with the minimum of injury. In fact eating rock hard Italian bread has by far proven to be the most risky thing we have done this week - bloody tough - although in did make a fantastic Bruschetta!

We really must learn the language, knowing that you have a Data SIM but can't read the instructions or that you can buy a good bottle of Montepulciano for £1, is not enough given that hardly anyone speaks English here in the Southern areas of Italy.

Take Care

Richard and Jane X