Lashings of Lakes

We’ve spent the last two days in the Italian Lakes area. Lago di Garda was very pretty with sheer cliffs on one side and nice beaches on the other. When we arrived at the lake we were a bit daunted by the number of people at the south end so decided to carry on north. As the lake got narrower, the access road became quite narrow and busy, and we couldn’t find anywhere to stop the Enterprise for quite a while. It’s quite frustrating when that happens – we drive past all these lovely spots with no way to park. Eventually we found a campground near the pretty town of Malcesine, near the top of the lake. There was a nice cooling breeze at the lake and we found out afterwards that there are 50 different winds at different times of day and in different seasons that have been named by the locals. There are two major ones – one blows from midnight until late morning from the south, then after midday the other one blows from the north until the evening – it’s a great lake for windsurfers and sailors because of this. I was thinking that in NZ we don’t really think to name our winds – they’re just hot westerlies or cold southerlies – maybe we should give them mysterious names...

We biked down the hill to the lake for a swim that evening and in the morning biked to the town and had a look around the castle as well. We haven’t seen many castles in Italy, lots of pretty towns with churches and cathedrals or basilicas, even palaces; but not many castles. The powers that be obviously weren’t into castles as a status symbol as much as the French and British.

After lunch we drove down the other side of Lago di Garda and onto Lago di Como. It was a spectacular drive down the western side of Lake Garda. The whole length of the lake is steep cliffs so there is no place for a road. They’ve solved the problem by using a series of tunnels, some are quite short and look like they’re just hewn rock; others are much longer and look like proper tunnels with concrete sides and roof. One even had an intersection inside where it met with another road.

Large trucks were using the road as well as a lot of cars and we were lucky enough to get behind a petrol tanker which made sure the traffic was well out of the way as we followed through. In places the road wasn’t really wide enough for two-way traffic...

Lago di Como is also pretty, surrounded by villages perched on the hillsides. We couldn’t see much of the lake as we drove about 30km up it; the road up is almost one continuous tunnel. We went for a swim when we arrived, the lakes are a lot colder than the Mediterranean but still warmer than Lake Taupo.

In the morning there was lots of thunder and lightning and finally rain. I had gone to the cafe in the campground to use the internet, Gus joined me there. When it started raining hard we thought we’d better get back to the Enterprise – on the way it started to hail! Bit of a change from the weather we’ve been having up till now. The rain was short-lived though, gone in 20 minutes.

We drove down the lake we were on and crossed the Swiss border then found a camping ground at Lake Maggiore – this lake goes over the border from Italy to Switzerland. The road on the Italian side was extremely narrow in places – to the point of ridiculous – it always seems as though the smallest vehicles (especially the motorbikes) take up the most room! The border was an anticlimax – some guards were there and it all looked very official with an office etc, but they just waved us through. The road improved markedly after we crossed the border, we were expecting the language on the signs to change, but then remembered that this part of Switzerland speaks Italian, very confusing – we won’t know whether to Guten Tag or Bonjorno.

By the time we got to the campground it was pouring down, we could barely see out the windscreen. I took a photo as Puke and Shady discussed the weather... So we spent an enforced lazy afternoon with books as more lightning, thunder and torrential rain did its thing. Welcome to Switzerland! As I’m writing this though, the sun is coming out, so hopefully the weather will improve. We’re camped right next to Lake Maggiore, with big mountains all around, very picturesque.

Venice, Italy

Flew back to Bologna; as we landed everyone broke into spontaneous applause. This alarmed us on the way down to Malta; we wondered what clever feat the pilot had pulled off in a perfectly routine landing. It turned out it was because we were early, still can’t quite work it out but put it down to Italian passion. When we got back to camp, after a very hairy taxi ride – the driver is a true Italian with no self-preservation instinct whatsoever, I even shut my eyes at one point as we swerved past another car on a narrow lane (in NZ it would be one way) at about 120km/h. We had pizza in the cafe and watched the final of the Euro World Cup – Italy vs. Spain. At half time we’d finished eating and Italy was 2-0 down, it was also too hot to stay. We’re pleased we left as Italy ended up losing 4-0; there’ll be some very unhappy locals about for a few days! It was a horribly hot night with no breeze at all. I ended up having a second cool shower at 2am and finally got to sleep. Apparently it has been getting ever hotter since we’ve been away from Bologna. A British couple across from us said it was 43˚C in the city the day before! So we’re moving onto Venice and hoping for sea breezes...

Arrived in Fusina at lunch time and found it is quite comfortable as long as you’re in the shade, a good solid breeze so hope it lasts all night! We’ve also got a fabulous view – across the water to Venice and a shipping channel running across the front of the camping ground – everything from huge container ships to speedboats passing within 50 metres of the Enterprise, very entertaining. We decided to have a lazy afternoon, kept up a pretty good pace in Malta, and will venture over to Venice early tomorrow. We can catch a boat from just outside the camp.

Aah Venice, what a city! Truly unique. We found it quite fascinating and much nicer and cleaner than we’d expected. I’d heard horror stories of its smell but that wasn’t so yesterday. The water traffic as we arrived was fascinating: from ocean liners to water taxis to water buses to gondolas – so like a busy city street with the equivalent land vehicles – except luckily there is no equivalent to the ocean liner on the streets.

It’s sad to see the deterioration as it is starting to sink into the mud though. This was particularly evident in the Basilica di San Marco – a beautiful cathedral, with gold mosaics and marble columns. Unfortunately the floor is so wavy and uneven, we wondered how long it can stand – the columns are coming away from the floor in places.

We enjoyed all the little bridges over canals with busy gondolas plying their trade with the tourists. These two particular tourists were too tight to pay their fares but I was pleased to see they were busy – I had heard that they weren’t used much anymore but this must have changed, they were flat out. I stopped to offer to take a photo of an Asian couple in front of the Bridge of Sighs so he insisted on returning the favour – ended up taking 3 photos, he wanted to get it right! If this trip has taught me nothing else it’s that people of all nationalities are just people and you get friendly/unfriendly, arrogant/humble, lovely/horrible people in every population...

We took a ride in a public Vaporetto (a water bus) on the Grand Canal (main street) – to the Rialto Bridge. We got off at the next stop and decided to walk back to the bridge; we went into a couple of shops, then got hopelessly lost. It’s the greatest rabbit warren of a place – we couldn’t find the main canal, all the small canals criss-cross with the streets and all the buildings are high and the streets narrow so it’s impossible to get a fix on where you are. We had a map but it was just a tourist version, and didn’t name most of the streets, so not much use for navigation. Eventually we saw a sign pointing to one of the stops we’d passed and decided to follow that even though it wasn’t the way we wanted to go. Once we got nearer the main canal we started getting back into crowds of people and then saw signs for Rialto and eventually found our way out of the warren!

The Bridge of Rialto is quite fascinating in itself, lots of shops all the way over it – three lanes of walking: one on each side of the bridge and one in the middle through the shops. It’s like stepping back in time because apparently all the big cities used to have bridges like this – the original London Bridge was one example. All-in-all we loved Venice and would highly recommend a visit, but don’t leave it too long as it may not always be here.

Malta!

Another beautiful day in Malta. This morning we went to visit some temples that were built about 3000BC, as in 5000 years ago! They are not unlike Stonehenge, although to us they were more impressive because they are more complete. They started to deteriorate so in about 1990 they decided to cover them with tents to help preserve them. They were only discovered and excavated in the late 19th century. Originally they believe they were roofed in, and like Stonehenge, they were built so that at the Summer and Winter Solstice the sun shines on significant parts of the structure.

Near the same site we visited one of the thirteen towers on the island. These were watch towers built by the Knights, one of the main groups of rulers of Malta’s history. They all originally only had a high door like this one, but some now have a low door as the British also used them but decided they didn’t like the climb up the ladder. They were all built from 1658-9.

The guy dressed in costume was telling us each one was manned by four local Maltese men who were on a regular watch. They worked well to start with, but by 1690, when an inspection was done, it was discovered that most of the men were out fishing or hanging round in the village – not doing their jobs at all but still on the payroll! In the afternoon we went to a beach for a swim. Definitely a beach with a difference to what we are used to. It’s surrounded by rock which slopes down to the sea. You can jump off high rocks into the water or like me cling to someone else (guess who) while you make your way across wet rocks to the edge and then kind of push off clumsily into the water. Beautiful deep clear water, very salty so very buoyant, and apparently no tide at all. I didn’t know that was possible.

We finished off the day at a restaurant built into the bottom of the fort around the ‘new’ city – only 500 years old. I had rabbit livers – a local delicacy and very tasty.

Day 3 in Malta – we went to visit a ‘boat-house’ that Charlene’s family rents off the government. We would call it a bach and we fell in love with it! It is very private because you need a key to get your car near it so only a few people venture in. The boat-house itself is a square concrete block, very simple and sits on a promontory out into the sea. There’s a bit of a clamber down to the water but we discovered some steps on the rear side that made it a lot easier for this old lady...

Gus and Billy went snorkelling for sea urchins, or ‘Rizzi’ as they are called here; Charlene held the floating basket and told them what sort to get - she ate them all, except for the one I tried - none of the rest of us is very partial. We spent most of the day here – Charlene even brought out the makings for dinner and cooked for us.

We watched some of the local boats fishing with nets at the end of the day.

The sunset across the bay at the end of the day really topped it off - this photo is taken from the kitchen window of the boat house.

Day 4 and it’s our last day already, Malta has been a real highlight of our trip. It's been really good having Charlene to show us around and also to tell us about the politics and how things work here - like a lot of small communities there is a lot of corruption and 'not what you know but who' to get jobs. The Catholic Church also still holds a lot of power, divorce has only been legal a few years. We went to the fish market in the morning, which turned out to be a market of clothes and souvenirs as well as fish.

Then to a lovely restaurant for lunch – Cha and I had gnocchi and Gus & Billy had a pasta and brisket dish – all very nice and filling!

We also quickly stopped in at a church as we thought we'd better visit one of them - there are 365 churches on the island - Billy pointed out there's one for every day of the year! This one was very beautiful, this is the artwork in the dome.

Our last stop was a cave where they have found a lot of bones, including complete skeletons of elephants, hippopotami and red deer, proving that Malta was once connected to mainland Europe. They believe it was not quite a land bridge but shallow water so only the mammals that could swim well made the crossing. They must have survived cut off on the island for a long time because they evolved into smaller species than the mainland varieties. Now we have to leave this beautiful island and say goodbye to our excellent hosts, but they are coming back to New Zealand later in the year so won’t be for too long...

Italy and Malta

Yesterday we both woke up tired after a hot night with lots of mosquitoes fighting over our blood. Decided to spend the day blobbing in the camping ground – after all it was Sunday and definitely a day of rest. I think we managed a swim in the pool and Gus did go for a quick run first thing but that was it...

Today we caught the bus into Bologna and took 2-3 hours to explore the city. We started with the Fountain of Neptune – both men and women displayed proudly. Once again, many beautiful churches - we weren’t allowed to take photos in these ones though. Also, luckily I remembered my scarf this time so I could cover my bare shoulders – we didn’t go into the cathedral in Florence because of this.

Something a bit different is the Piazza Santo Stefano; it’s actually 7 churches in 1. You go into one church and then on through doors into more little chapels and courtyards and more chapels, quite a labyrinth. The only way out seems to be back through the original church, not sure what the story behind this arrangement is.

We also visited the University of Bologna, founded in 1088! The Teatro Antomico, where anatomy lessons were once held, by dissecting bodies, is quite amazing. Many carved wooden figures on the walls and even hanging from the ceiling.

There are two towers in the middle of the city from which the streets radiate out. One of them is on a distinct lean – they had a major earthquake in this city when we were in England, so I hope this tower isn’t about to topple into the street, it certainly looks like it is!

Bologna is another mediaeval city, so lots of very narrow streets once again. Apparently the houses were built to overhang like this to avoid land taxes. Then back to camp and the pool before the real heat of the day set in...

Spent two days around the area of Bologna – on the first we went for a drive, ended up having a bike ride in a nice cool forest.

Also saw these fishing nets set up, apparently for eeling. Was a bit of an anticlimax though because had been looking forward to seeing the Delta Po, is supposed to be amazing for its birdlife. We did catch a glimpse of some flamingos from a bridge but after the Camargue it just couldn’t compare.

The second day we visited the Ferrari factory museum out of Melano (about 30 mins from Bologna). There were lots of pretty cars – lots and lots. You could test drive a late-model Ferrari too, like a Spider or similar. We thought it sounded fun until we found out it cost about 100 Euro for 10 minutes, maybe not!

I found the roundabouts on the way there interesting too – each one had a different piece of sculpture in the middle – all completely different from each other. One was a bunch of grapes, one a horse and carriage, one a drop of olive oil, and this one: the man holding a truck on his back - go figure...

Then late that night we caught the plane to Malta. At Bologne Airport we had to catch a ‘yellow bus’ to a different terminal to check in; then back to the original terminal to catch the plane. All very odd but we were entertained by the resemblance the bus had to the Fantasyland train! My nephew met us at the airport, eventually... He was a little late but totally understandable because he had to catch the end of the Europa Football Semi-final between Spain and Portugal. This is so huge in Europe, makes our Rugby World Cup look small. Was very good of him to collect us though, as we arrived at 11.30pm! Then of course we had lots of catching up to do with Billy & Charlene; finally went to bed about 2am, and they’ve even sacrificed their bed for us.

When we woke up and looked out from the deck I was amazed at the view – quite different to mainland Europe, more like I imagine Turkey looks like. Sandy coloured buildings with flat roofs, and all stacked up behind each other. We had a slow morning, Billy was working, and we slept in anyway.

After lunch they took us around the oldest parts of the island, absolutely beautiful. There is so much history here it’s hard to take it all in, especially all in such a confined area. We went to a walled city that was the original city of the island, and was designed so that the entire population at the time could fit inside and close the gates on whichever invader was coming in this week. It’s filled with palaces that are still lived in and apparently rarely sold; they are handed down through families. It was really lovely to have Billy to drive us, and Charlene, who has lived here all her life, as our personal guide. Makes travel so much easier! It is hot here, not as hot as Italy but much more humid, although with an air-conditioned car and air-conditioning in the house, it’s a LOT more bearable.

In Italy and Hot!

We got into Florence nice and early on the bus – the bus driver was crazy (as fits the description of the majority of Italian drivers) and was tearing along narrow, one lane, cobblestoned roads at least 60km/h! So we were there about 9.30am, nicely in time to beat the majority of the crowds and the worst of the heat. The architecture is stunning, the detail on the buildings incredible. On the Duomo, there are so many carved figures as well as beautiful frescoes. Even the tile work brought to mind the Taj Mahal. It is a mediaeval city so the streets are very narrow, and cobblestoned; most of the pavements are single-file only and you can’t put an arm out into the road or you’d possibly lose it to a bus tearing past! Also the plan is very complicated, numerous piazzas (squares) joined by roads that fan out like the arms of an octopus. At one stage we walked down three blocks and then looked back along another road to realise we’d only come one street! Now we are at Lago Trasimeno, was a nice easy relaxing drive, less people in this part of Italy. Our main motivation for being here is the lake – it’s quite lovely and very warm to swim in. We got a bit of a surprise when we went for our first swim though; you have to walk out about 500m to get water over knee-deep. It’s also got a bit of a muddy bottom so occasionally your feet sink into the mud on the walk out, Yuk! Lovely and refreshing though. Is a tiny bit cooler here too, still hot but much more bearable. We’ve just visited a little walled village (Castiglione Del Lago) – with a fortress at one end, overlooking the lake (but forgot the camera, damn). It had lots of very interesting foodie shops – Jenny, Simone & Karen you would have been in heaven! Even I couldn’t resist the beautiful pasta shapes & colours so bought a packet as well as a packet of flavouring – ingredients in English include truffles, mushrooms and garlic. We also bought a lump of parmesan cheese to grate on top – tonight’s tea sorted! Later in the day we went to Assissi – well worth the effort – I’m running out of superlatives for these places so I’ll just say it was really lovely. The temptation was to fall into this fountain but I managed to retain my dignity. The town is famous for being the burial place of St Frances of Assissi and beyond that I’m a little vague. It’s got about 7 churches – the four we got to were beautiful; lots of detailed paintings on the ceilings and the walls and beautiful statues. Why didn’t we get to all seven you may ask...? Well, there were distractions - such as a really good pizza restaurant, brilliant ice-cream parlours, and this cake shop – also it is still very hot and the streets are steep. Also Gus was protesting that he’s never spent so much time in church in his life! Tonight we are parked/camped at the Grotte di Frasassi, it is a large cave system which we’ll visit in the morning. One of the attractions is that it’s supposed to be only about 14 deg inside, and we’re advised to take a sweatshirt. Hard to believe when it’s still about 32 outside at 9pm! The cave system was amazing but unfortunately not allowed to take photos – huge stalactites and stalagmites and columns – we saw through 5 rooms, about 1.5km. The first one was absolutely huge – 240m high, it was only discovered in 1971 by men coming through a hole in the top – they were looking for caves but I bet they were blown away by what they found. Apparently they dropped a stone in and it took 6 seconds to reach the bottom so they came back a few days later with longer ropes! It was also blissfully cool, we didn’t even put our jerseys on, just enjoyed the sensation of being cool. We then drove out to the Adriatic Coast. We had planned to camp here but the camping grounds we saw were on a thin strip of land between two busy roads and a railway line! Also the camping grounds and beaches were packed so we decided to keep going onto Bologna. We’ve found a nice shady campsite with a pool, and taken to cold showers and cold beers, god it’s hot - about 37deg apparently...

Bonjorno Italie

The last couple of days have been a mixture, to say the least. We are now in Italy, in a nice shady camping spot near the Cinque Terre – these are 5 villages built close together along the coast, they are very beautiful and the coastal walk linking them is very popular. But before all this peace and tranquillity we had to get here! We decided to ‘miss’ the Cote d’Azur more or less by taking the motorway, mainly a decision based on driving time and nowhere to park the Enterprise on the way. So we only got glimpses of the big boys’ toys – like this. And the motorway was pretty free running most of the way. There were hardly any trucks on the road, they all seem to park up in the rest areas on a Sunday, everything is shut; even the supermarkets in the big cities. We saw some interesting looking markets along the way (before the motorway) but once again the possibility of safely parking the Enterprise with SO MANY people and cars everywhere was slim. As we got close to Genoa (where we had intended to stop) the motorway really started to jam up. Mostly because of 3(!) separate accidents. We could see the alternative road every now and then though and that looked a lot worse. After we were well past Genoa we thought we’d better get off the motorway and look for a campsite, big mistake! It was the most frightening traffic either of us has ever seen!! The Italian drivers obviously have no fears – like a huge game of dodgem on a very narrow windy road – crowds of very pushy motorcyclists and scooter riders coming from all directions – seem to have no conception of their own safety at all... So we got back on the motorway. Problem was it was now getting pretty late and we still had nowhere to camp and poor Gus was exhausted from his numerous close brushes – so we decided we’d have to stop in one of the truck stops – next to the motorway. Surprisingly we did manage to get some sleep – Gus got more than me because he was so shattered from driving – and in the morning we found our way to the Cinque Terre. Still narrow windy roads but nowhere near the traffic!! Since we were tired (and it is very hot!) we just walked from one village to the next and back, only took about 10 minutes between villages, very beautiful, the sea is sparkling and god only knows how the villages cling to the hillsides. We’re also fascinated with the amount of terracing and cultivation on the steep hillsides; and the size of the trucks. You can understand why they have to be so small when you see the miniscule lanes they fit down – there would be about 3cm each side sometimes! But aren’t they cute with their 3 wheels, they remind me of a 3-legged dog we once owned. Then this afternoon we had a siesta. Tomorrow we plan to do the other 3 villages – we’ll get the train to the far end and walk back. What a contrast in walks! We caught the train to the second village from this end, Vernazza, as Corniglia is cut off from this end too. Apparently you can get through but it’s ‘difficult’ so being a complete chicken about scrambling over rocks high above the sea, we decided we’d just have to miss the middle village. This walk was over much rougher terrain and quite narrow and scary in places – I had to cling onto Gus hand for those bits. It didn’t help that we’d come prepared for a walk like yesterday (a paved path) and found that today’s walk was more like a tramping track, I had my pretty red sandals and sundress on, not good tramping gear!! The walk was also a good 2 hours compared to yesterday’s 10 minutes, really nice walk though with stunning views, when I wasn’t too scared to peak... Soon after we started we met a NZ couple, and had a good long chat comparing travel adventures. Then as we got to about 2/3 of the way through I heard a woman saying to her husband that they really should have checked with information about the track, as they weren’t prepared at all – she clearly had a kiwi accent so I said “I was just thinking the same thing!” They had done the same walk the day before as us and also had no reason to believe this one was any different. We stopped and swapped travel stories with them too – it turned out he was a farmer from the South Island and so Gus and he quickly got onto farming – I couldn’t believe they were standing in the Cinque Terre discussing lamb prices!! We also said gidday (Gus said Kia Ora and Haere Ra) to at least 3 other kiwis in passing; and there were plenty of Aussies too – so if you’re ever in Europe and want to meet other kiwis, go to the Cinque Terre (the difficult bit). We’ve only met one other on the entire trip to date. After all that we decided to get on the road towards Rome as we still have a fair bit of ground to cover. We were going to stop at Pisa but decided we couldn’t be bothered negotiating a city just to see one landmark, especially as it will probably look exactly like its photos. As we were driving to our camping spot (a freebie on the Italian equivalent of the France Passion scheme) I said to Gus that the landscape reminded me of photos I’d seen of Tuscany. He said “Well where is Tuscany?”. So I looked it up and we were right in it – well spotted that tourist! My only excuses are that they spell it Toscana here; and we were navigating by town names rather than areas – I guess a tourist in Napier may not realise they were also in Hawkes Bay?? Anyway the landscape is very Tuscany – lots of rolling tanned hills with big houses on top, and cedar lined driveways, also many olive groves and vineyards. There are lots of road signs about snow, we can’t believe it snows here, it is SO hot! This morning I woke up to a revelation – we don’t have to go to Rome if we don’t want to. We have been heading that way, luckily only yesterday but realised we were both rather dreading it. The farming couple we talked to had just been there and they made it sound pretty awful with the heat which is already bad enough, and the crowds – more an endurance test than enjoyment. Also we really would be pushing for time by the time we drove down there and back up to Bologna for our flight to Malta. One day we really do want to go to Rome – but we’ll make it a cooler time of year, and perhaps fly in and join a tour group, or hire a car to do the Amalfi Coast at the same time... one day. Anyway with that decision we both feel much relieved and have decided to check out Florence instead and then head inland to Umbria and possibly across to the east coast – quieter places where the pace of life may suit us better – still plenty to see I’m sure. So after only 1 ½ hour’s drive we are at a lovely shady campground outside Florence. Gus is hard at it – and I’m writing up the blog – tomorrow we’ll see Florence.