12 June 2012

Saturday 2 June

Moving north again we travelled to Casenuove, near to Osimo, and stayed on another vineyard, Monte Torto.  Our hosts were just on their way out but told us to park beside the vineyard and to make ourselves at home and to use the garden area if we wanted. The workers had all gone home and we had the place to ourselves. The vineyard is at the top of a hill, so peaceful and with stunning views. Firstly we had tea in the courtyard and then I lazed about in the hammock, well you only have to tell us once to make ourselves at home.

Sunday, another MotoGP, so we headed for Urbino the birthplace of Valentino Rossi, Kev’s hero. Urbino is a small hilltop village with some beautiful architecture. We had some lunch and watched the race. There was a farmers market in the square where I tried some ice cream with cheese on top. Sounds weird but actually tasted quite nice. We found out that the Official Rossi Fan Club was in the town where Valentino now lives at Tavullia, about 40K away, so off we went to Tavullia. Well where else would you join the fan club but at the head office.  Kev is now a member of the Valentino Rossi Official Fan Club, he looked so chuffed. Of course we then had to go next door to the shop and buy some merchandise. We carried on to Montecolmbo, near to Riccione, and stayed on another farm/vineyard which had a restaurant so we decided to eat there. The food was delicious. There were 4 tables, us a table of 4 a table of 9 and the family table and we all ate the same meal and drank the wine made on the vineyard. I bought some wine and some home produced honey from the cantina (farm shop).

Monday we headed towards Venice, it was quite a long drive and there was torrential rain again. We headed for a site at Sottomarina, next to Chioggia at the other end of the bay from Venice. We found out that you could catch a ferry from the port at Sottomarina to Venice and we were told the journey would only take an hour so rather than drive further up the coast we opted for the ferry.  Tuesday we went for a cycle around Chioggia and on Wednesday we took the ferry to Venice. The ferry left at 9am and we had a 20min cycle to get there, bit of a shock to the system because we don’t normally get up until about 9am. The trip took 2 hours so we arrived in Venice at 11am. The ferry journey was good though as it stayed close to the coast there was plenty to see and of course the sun was shining.  Firstly we went for a look around to get our bearings and then went for a gondola ride, well you have to don’t you. We decided to share the gondola as it worked out a good bit cheaper. We then walked round St Marks square and had a look round the shops. I had wanted to go to Murano to get a small piece of glass as a souvenir of Italy but we opted to look for a piece in the shops at St Marks as we didn’t think we had time to go to Murano.  When I say I wanted a small piece that’s what I got as the glass is so expensive. We then took a Vaporetto, water bus, up the Grand Canal and back down again and that was all we really had time to do as the queues to get into the tower, basilica and palace were so long we didn’t have the time to queue. I didn’t think that Venice was as dirty and smelly as people have said but maybe in the height of summer it is.

Thursday, headed for Lake Garda and stopped overnight at another vineyard, Costodoro at Bardolino, west of Verona. We drove through Verona, as I had wanted to go to Casa di Giulietta to stand on Juliet’s balcony, but we were unable to find a parking space so we carried on to the vineyard.  When we got up on Friday morning we went to the cantina and had a wine tasting and ended up buying 12 bottles of wine, well it was really nice and a bargain.

On Friday we moved to Camping Bella Italia, at Peschiera and our pitch is about 20 meters from the lake itself. We got the second last available pitch and there were still people queuing up after us. The site has 1200pitches, Restaurants, shops, you name it they’ve got it, it’s like a small village.

Saturday we cycled to Peschiria and had a look around and tried to get information regarding a trip around the lake by boat. Amazingly there are no such trips. You can get a ferry to Riva at the other end of the lake but it costs about 60€. The weather here is really muggy and visibility is hampered by the haze so if we took the trip we wouldn’t see much of the scenery anyway so we decided not to do this today.

Sunday the rain was on again so we just stayed on site.

Monday we travelled to Roncegno, just east of Trento, and stayed at Agriture Montibeller in a cherry orchard. The cherries were within picking distance of where we parked so of course we picked a small basket of fresh cherries. The farm also produces apple juice, herbal tea infusions, jams and cider vinegar. These are all sold in the farm restaurant. During the night we had another thunder storm and it rained the whole night and was still pouring when we left. We were told that the rain has ruined most of the cherry crop as the rain splits the cherries and then they can only be used for jam.

Today it has rained all day. We have travelled further north of Trento through the Dolomites passing through Bolanzo then Brunico and ending up at Monguelfo. The drive was really nice, the countryside changed to steep hillsides covered with vines and dotted on the hillside are alpine style chalets. The churches all have spires instead of domes and there were some spectacular castles on the tops of the hills. Once we got to the site I discovered that the rear roof light was leaking all over the duvets. As there has been no let up in the rain we have put a tarpaulin over the roof until we get a dry spell to re seal the window. When I get home I am going to apply for a job selling lucky white heather.

Next blog from Austria, I hope.

TTFN