Sunday, 17 June 2012
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
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
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Friday, 1 June 2012
1 June 2012
Continuing on our travels we went along the Amalfi coast
line via Sorrento. The road wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be but
then again I wasn’t driving. The views were stunning but the parking was at a
premium and we were unable to stop in any of the small villages along the way.
We travelled for about 5 hours and had just gone round in a big loop ending up North
West of Salerno at Avellino. We opted to stay on a farm for the night, another freebie.
When we arrived we were warmly greeted by the owner, Biagio, who introduced us
to his wife, Patrizio, who was making some semolina pasta , rolling the shapes
by hand making it look so easy, then I had a go and it wasn’t that easy. It was quite funny because they didn’t speak
any English and we had to talk one word at a time from the dictionary until
their daughter arrived home from Uni when she translated for us. They gave us a
drink of a liqueur called Herbalina, minty cough mixture only 45% alcohol. We
then had espresso and cake while we told them of our plight the day before. Kev
asked for the directions to a hardware store as he needed a screw to fix the TV
bracket. Biagio offered immediately to take Kev in his car, about 15k each way,
to get the screw. On the way back they stopped to pick some broadbean stalks
and lettuce for us to have. When they arrived back I couldn’t see Kev in the
car for all the broadbean stalks. We then sat down to bacon and beans with
bread and some wine that they produce on the farm. We had told them about the
door being broken and they phoned a friend in the village who came out to have
a look at it but was unable to fix it but gave us directions to a shop called
Camper Sud in Telese just north of Benevento who he said should be able to help
us.
In the morning Biagio knocked on our door and he standing
there with a posy made of leaves with some blackberries which he had just
picked for us. What a lovely family restoring our faith in Italians.
Off we set to Telese in search of
Camper Sud. When we reached Telese we drove about for a wee while seeing big
billboard adverts for Camper Sud but not finding them. Stopped to ask a couple
of Policemen directions, they were in the process of booking a driver, I tried
in my best phrase book Italian to ask if we were going the right way and they
gave me a big smile and said that once they were finished their paperwork they
would escort us there. 3 police escorts in 3 days!
When we got to the shop they
advised we required a new lock which they could fit for us and we opted to buy
another door lock as well from them which they fitted also. No charge for any
labour time, wouldn’t get that in Britain. Cost of both locks and fitting 70€.
Moving on again to Pineto, just
north of Pescara on the east coast. Decided to stay for 2 nights and have
sunbathed all day today. Heading north again tomorrow.
TTFN
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