Tag: Venice

Venice to Lake Garda

We woke up to the fact that John and Ken are both mosquito magnets. It was a glorious sunny morning John was dressed in jeans, long sleeved shirt and a hat pulled down over his ears. Rather than being pleased when Kim found mozzie repellant in the site shop, all he could do was grumble that it cost more than a decent bottle of wine!

Ken and Jacky were towed away by their new friend Lucca, we callously headed up to Lake Garda with a fridge full of their food and beer.

It’s been a short journey, only 80 easy miles, in the hope they will join us here later. It does appear that Ken has settled nicely into the Fiat showroom.

We only had to turn round once on our journey to Lazise and all local cars and buildings remained intact!

Entry to Camping La Quercia was interesting. We were met at the barrier by a uniformed member of staff who radioed our arrival to Reception. At Reception we were put in a golf buggy and taken to choose our pitch before being allowed to register. The van was photographed, I’m not sure if Interpol are on our trail following Thursday’s accident..

The van has been tagged, as have we…

We’ve also been given a lovely set of recycling bags, sustainability is taken very seriously here.

We get to keep these lovely bags but have to return our wristbands on departure!

It’s been glorious here, the afternoon has been spent reading by the van. We did venture down to the beach but, without our partners in crime, weren’t inclined to explore very far. The views across Lake Garda are beautiful.

The campsite makes it very clear that strangers are not welcome, thank goodness we have been tagged.

Ken and Jacky didn’t make it, Fiat want to do more tests on their van before they’ll release it. Apparently all the local hotels are full so they are spending the night in it. We have their wine, beer and, most importantly, their mattress topper. We’d offer to drop it all back but we’ve opened a bottle of wine.

We have everything crossed that they’ll join us at Natter See tomorrow. Please can you cross your fingers and toes too?

Venezia and trouble free (almost)

We waved bye bye to a rainy Florence, without needing a tractor to pull Ken and Jacky out (very disappointed!) The 180 miles to Camping Fusina, Venice were negotiated without detour, deviation or collision! John and I stocked up on supplies at a local Lidl and were booked into the campsite with minimal fuss. Camping Fusina is lovely (despite the unexpected mosquitos), van is on a flat pitch and we have views across the lagoon to Venice

Ken and Jacky arrived ahead of us, in limp home mode! Ken has renamed the site ‘Mozzie Central’ and they are waiting to hear whether their Motorhome can be fixed or the rest of their trip is done in a hire car and hotels. John is beside himself with jealousy. He’d done his best to wreck the van on Day 1 yet Ken managed it without trying.

After a variety of calls to JustGo and Fiat Assist, we took the local ferry into Venice for the afternoon and saw all we wanted in 2 1/2 hours! As you’d expect Venice is a very popular destination and very busy – we can’t imagine what it would be like during the summer.

Apologies to everyone who is horrified by that and here as some photos to try and redeem ourselves!

The ferry raced this gondola across the lagoon

Our first stop was Piazza San Marco

We were distracted by the competing live music from the restaurants around the square.

The prices were rather steep and we moved hastily on to the Bridge of Sighs which is famous for being the last sight of Venice that convicts had before leaving the city. Our source of this information was John who was last here 50 years ago

Our final ‘must see’ sight was Ponti di Rialto, another bridge with shops on! What we did like was the view down Canal Grande

Our walk back to the ferry was far quieter and we found a leaning tower. Sorry, too tired to investigate what it is!

Our final stop was a restorative beer in a quiet street near the ferry terminal.

We wandered back to the ferry terminal and the light went out as a massive cruise ship headed out to sea

I’m sure we could have had a fantastic meal in Venice but the campsite pizzeria had plenty of atmosphere and a jolly good pizza!

We wait to hear Jen and Jacky’s fate in the morning and it’s likely we’ll head up to Lake Garda (With or without them) rather than have a second night here. Will Fiat Assist live up to it’s name?