After the excitement of Tre Cime and the “Beatrix getting stuck up the mountain” incident – our Grand Tour took us into more traditional “holiday and tourist destinations” of Italy. This tale is about when life feels like a holiday.

We exited the Dolomites and headed to Venice. Thankfully, the descent of Tre Cime was less eventful than the ascent. Occasionally there were moments where I seemed to be hanging off the edge of a very high road with very little between me and the steep drop. We’ve learnt – use low gears (yes first for the 19% sections) and don’t overuse the brakes! I ponder if things seem easier after you‘ve experienced mission impossible? I think maybe they do.

Afterwards we took toll roads to Venice and happily found they’re a lot cheaper than the French tolls albeit a lot busier!

Venice

Camping Fusina

A Brit couple at Philippe Hautem (The Grand Tour) recommended a fantastic campsite for Venice at the Port of Fusina. Fusina campsite is amazing as you can see Venice across the lagoon and it‘s really easy to get the boat across to Venice. The boats go every hour and costs just €13 for a single. We bought the three day ticket which gave us any number of trips and at €28 was well worth the money!

Fusina site doesn‘t have designated bays. When we arrived they told us – “park anywhere you find you fit as long as you’re in the green areas. You won’t fit in the pitches facing the lagoon”. As we drove around the wonderful lagoon pitches were nearly all free. The owners were right though they weren’t big enough to hold a Beatrix. We um’d and ah’d as we usually do when we have too much choice. Eventually we found a spot between the pool and the lagoon. We intended to stay for a few days as I had a work day and Toby wanted to explore some of his favourite historical things without a Sally or Merlin.

Walking around the site we were very thankful for the recommendation.

As well as a pool – which of course we tried – it had a restaurant – pizzeria, a shop and the weather was scorching – 27 degrees – hell it felt like our life was like a holiday. As an added bonus we could use our ACSI card which made it well priced too! We grinned at each other. How lucky are we that this is our life. We get the chance to visit amazing places like this with no time pressure.

Arriving in Venice by boat – life feels like a holiday

As we’d arrived relatively early the fearless trio – yes Merlin came as well – headed on the boat across to Venice. It felt amazing to approach the city by water.

It’s exactly as you imagine it will be if you’ve seen images on the TV or in movies. As the boat started, Toby and I thought of films that had been shot in Venice. It’s a game we sometimes play – we could think of: two Bond movies, Indiana Jones and The Italian Job, …can you think of any others? If yes please add them in the comments. With the list written down the next job was to find the filming locations.

Venice doesn’t disappoint. What surprised us both was just how busy it was with tourists especially after the relative solitude of the mountains. Interestingly from next year all visitors will have to pay a tax to visit Venice.

The boat arrives at Zattere. We soon found ourselves walking across the Academia Bridge, which is stunning, with hundreds of other people. Our walk to Piazza San Marco wasn’t as direct as it could have been. Some might say we got lost, others would say we were exploring!

A you’d expect there are many gondolas in Venice, we decided not to pay for the privilege of those tours and used our own legs instead. As we knew we‘d be back tomorrow and it was roasting hot we walked to get the boat back to the campsite. The return boat was rammed! We were both exhausted although not too tired to cool off in the pool! We watched the Italian Job with a bottle of Prosecco. Again we realised how very grateful we are that our life is like a holiday. As we watched the Italian Job we said – “We‘ve been there” – which is kind of cool! We started getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, something we‘d so far avoided on our travels – however in Fusina there were a fair few of them!

Merlin in Venice

Although Merlin survived in Venice, we both realised taking her was probably a mistake. Merlin is small and people don’t see her. Although she made some new friends she nearly got kicked and stood on a couple of times.

Wearing the right clothes

Relatively early for us the next morning we took a boat into Venice. This time minus Merlin who relaxed and chilled in Beatrix. Our intention was to do some of the touristy things! It was less busy at 10am and also much cooler.

I’d forgotten that to visit some of the churches I would need to have “appropriate clothes”. My strappy top and shorts did not cut the mustard and so Toby got to see Saint Marks Basilica whilst I sat and people watched. Whilst Toby was upping his culture points the square began to get busier.

We decided to take a coffee and watch the world go by for a while before heading back to check in on Merlin.

Finding less touristy Venice locations to watch the world go by

We lunched back at Fusina and decided we’d try and find some less touristy places to watch the real Venetian world. Merlin came with us again. Instead of turning right towards most of the tourist attractions we headed left onto Dorsoduro. We took in the University and sat in the Campo Santa Marghertia for a couple of glasses of wine. It was relaxing watching the university students going to and from lectures and young Italian boys playing football against the priceless buildings and police station. There were fewer tourists and it felt a little more real.

I then had to work. Toby had another day exploring Venice and went to see the home of the Doge, Palazzo Ducale. He enjoyed it as it really is breathtakingly beautiful, but even he admitted he was a bit historied out by the end.

As you explore different campsite you can sometime get van, Moho or truck envy. We saw this conversion at Fusina and were very jealous!

Then it was time to move on to fair Verona.

“In fair Verona where we lay our scene”

Agricola

We stayed at a campsite on the outskirts of Verona which was an Agricola – i.e., it had animals. We’d phoned beforehand as the site can get busy . When we arrived they realised how big we were. Unfortunately we weren‘t allowed to stay in the shaded area with trees as we were too long. Instead we stayed in front of the main house. Merlin found the peacocks, chickens, hens and ponies amusing and interesting and I loved the braying of the donkeys. Mosquitoes were prevalent here too. For the first time ever Toby and I were competing for how many bites we had.

The sites of Verona – life feels like a holiday

It was a great location as it was a short walk into Verona. We took Merlin and similar to Venice – on the outskirts it wasn’t too busy. Although we both know Juliet was only a fictional character we still visited Juliets’ tomb and then headed to the Verona Arena. It’s now used for opera. We hadn’t booked tickets so could only imagine how wonderful it would be to hear an Opera there. We wandered around and having read the Rough Guide to Italy – we got our first proper Italian gelatto at Ballini’s.

To be fair it was pretty amazing!

Risk taking in Verona

All this walking about had worn out our summer shoes we needed to get some new footwear. We’d spotted a Decathlon not too far from the campsite. We got out the handy scooters. Our host mentioned we shouldn’t leave them anywhere as they’d probably be stolen and we’d end up having to walk back to the campsite. We knew we looked like tourists and still took the decision to go. As we scooted further from the site, Toby‘s scooter was running out of power and it was getting dark. Our unease grew. Somehow – some say luck – we managed to get the shoes and get back to the campsite with no harm done. We both realised that even when on holiday you need to be travel savvy. Don’t take risks. We learnt from our uncomfortable feeling and won’t take that risk again.

More sights of Verona – life feels like a holiday

We wandered back to fair Verona the next day – looked around the shops and then headed across the Ponte Castelvecchio as Simon, Nina Carol and Laurie had been there earlier in the year.

We drank Cappuccino on the other side of the bridge. Coffee is a staple here and like Venice this area felt a bit more like normal Verona life with parents and children enjoying their day. After doing a fair number of steps to see “Casa de Giulietta” with its famous balcony and the Scaliger tombs we decided we needed some refreshment and again took some time to have a drink and watch the world go by.

Shakespeare had it right, Verona is indeed fair. However for us two days was enough and we had the very exciting Lake Garda to look forward to.

As we exited Verona we did have a bit of a nightmare as there was a road closure which was not shown on our Garmin sat nav. We ended up almost heading into the centre of Verona which would have been a tight squeeze. Luckily the traffic was pretty slow and we got ourselves out of that particular nightmare with ease.

Lake Garda – took our breathe away – absolutely stunning

We took another toll road to Lake Garda, arriving just after noon. Again there were no formal pitches – we were asked if we wanted a Lake pitch or not as it cost more being Lake side. It seemed like a no brainer so we took the opportunity to have a Lake pitch. We’re pleased we did and that we arrived early as there was one true Lake pitch left. We parked up and got ‘Sons of Anarchy’ out as we knew we’d be staying a few days and wanted to get around the Lake. We watched the sun go down over the Lake and again thanked our lucky stars that although this felt like a holiday it was in fact the life we were living. Very much Tales from the road less travelled.

The campsite was closing on the 7th Oct and although the original plan was to stay only 4 days we ended up spending a week at Garda. We kayaked on the Lake twice, scooted to the Scaliger Castle and the Baia delle Sirene, Toby even made it as far as Torbole. It was glorious and we also both tried Aperol Spritz for the first time – so an educational trip as well.

That’s the tale of our life feeling like a holiday – we hope you like it. Next time there’s awning issues, food in Parma and Bologna and we visit Modena – home of traditional Balsamic vinegar and Ferrari.

Thanks as always for reading,

Sally, Toby and Merlin