We had a decision to make last night about where to go next. We had pretty much wrapped up the places we wanted to see in Italy. A quick calculation showed that we had about 12 more days to check things out before we want to be back in Amsterdam. We spent a couple of hours looking at itineraries and weather forecasts and landed on Lake Bled in Slovenia as our next stop. It by many accounts has the best fall colors in Europe so we are excited.
That meant a roughly 700 kilometer dash in shaky weather. There is a big front passing thru Europe for the next three days and while it looked like we could get a long drive in today before it hit, we may end up stuck for a couple of days after that.
We picked a place a little less than half way to Lake Bled because it had great reviews on Park4night our go to app. The drive went off smoothly but right before we exited the freeway Ton realized this might be our last shopping day in Italy so I promised I would stop if we saw a grocery. Right after we paid our toll there was a COOP super center so we went in there. Ton and I spent the next hour scooping up some of our favorite Italian foods to consume and a few things to take home with us. The end result was the biggest grocery bill since Costco in Paris, and a fridge stuffed with food.
The campground had incredible reviews but it turns out to be basically someones really nice backyard with a view of the Po River. The owner is really nice and the other two couples staying here seem to be enjoying themselves fishing in the rain. So even if we are stuck because of the weather we will have a nice view.
It was raining when we took off to visit Verona. It looked like we may get a couple of dry hours mixed in with scattered showers. The city came under Roman rule in 300 BC and there are still Roman buildings in use today.
The Colosseum on the main square in the city is still used as a concert venue today.
The arena as it called was built in 30 AD and is the third largest in Italy. The facade you see today is the interior structure. Originally there was a taller outer wall around it. There is only a small remnant of the outer wall remaining today. The interior is the best preserved in Italy and hosts concerts and other events on a regular basis.
The remnant of the outer wall that used to go all around the arena.
Our next stop was the Ponte Catelvecchio a 14th century bridge. It is not an elegant bridge but looks powerful and utilitarian. The bridge today is a reconstruction of the original bridge which was destroyed by the Germans at the very end of WWII.
The Castelvecchio Bridge leads into the old palace and is fortified.
The bridge is tied into the palace of the ruler of Verona at the time. It is said to have been built and fortified to allow the rulers to have a back way out of the city in case of rebellion.
The bridge leading into the palace. At the time of its construction the arch in the bridge was the biggest in the world.
As the day wore on the weather slowly began to improve from steady light rain, to mostly cloudy with just a few very light showers. Verona is another beautiful Italian city with nice squares and interesting buildings from many different eras.
Italy is great for many different styles of architecture. The tower is from the 14th century the building in the center next to the tower is Roman.
Despite the bad weather and it being shoulder season the town was pretty crowded with multiple tour groups. Verona is not a particularly famous Italian city but still draws a lot of people.
The market square was particularly crowded despite the weather.
Verona is most famous as the setting of two of Shakespeare’s plays. Probably his most famous play is Romeo and Juliet which takes place in Verona. While there is no evidence that Shakespeare ever visited Verona the story of a tragic couple caught between feuding families had been a subject of a poem by an Italian that was translated into English. That is probably the basis for the play.
The balcony that is supposed to be the one from the famous scene in Romeo and Juliet.
While the two families in the play had an on going feud for decades in real life there is no evidence that there was a Romeo or a Juliet in the families. However, given the popularity of the play there is now a home referred to as Juliet’s complete with a balcony replicating the famous scene in the play. It was the most crowded place in the city.
Dante lived here near the end of his life after having been exiled from Florence due to his writing.
We tried to stay off the main shopping streets. When we are in a town that is teeming with other tourists we often look for streets going in the same direction but a block or two over. A lot of time these streets are more interesting to us as the stores on these streets tend to cater to local needs and are more interesting.
These are the kind of stores we enjoy.
There was one more bridge on our stop the Ponte Pietra is a Roman bridge built around 100 AD. It is not a spectacular bridge but a typical Roman bridge on a major road. It was also destroyed at the end of WWII but rebuilt after the war using the original materials.
The Ponte Pietra (Stone Bridge) with an angry Adige River running under it.
Having put in a good amount of exercise taking in the sites we decided to reward ourselves with a lunch. We went to a restaurant recommended by the campground that served typical local food. Ton asked the waiter for a recommendation and he replied that the region was famous for Donkey Stew and theirs was excellent. Ton made an incredible face that I thought was hilarious but took the waiter off guard as he was being serious. After I laughed at her reaction he starting laughing and said the face you made was incredible, I will not forget it. Ton opted for another local specialty duck pasta. I had a beef stew with excellent polenta as I also could not bring myself to try the Donkey stew. We also discovered a local red wine that we really liked called Bardolino.
At the base of the hill behind the red bus is the remnants of an old Roman theater.
After lunch it was raining again so we decided to head back for the night. But first we stopped in at a local grocery for some bread and a bottle of Bardolino.
Well the rain we took a day off to stay out of showed up in force today. There is a large storm going thru Italy and extending to Slovenia and Croatia so there was nothing to do but suck it up and get going in the rain.
The drive over to Verona of Romeo and Juliet fame was uneventful. We arrived at a brand new if slightly pricey campground. On the way thru town we noticed the Adige River was at the top of its channel so the warnings about flooding seemed to be correct.
Going into town was not in the cards so we hunkered down in François for another lazy day when Ton decided to it would be a good day to wash the sheets. Unfortunately, that was the high light of our day so there are no pictures.
Today was a maintenance day. Our campsite is less than 100 yards from the main shipping channel for Venice port so we began the day watching the morning parade of different types of commercial ships go by including Container Ships, Car Carriers, long distance Ferries, and tankers. They passed close enough in front of us that we hear the crew talking on the ships, it was a fun start to the day.
Police boat near Venice.
After that we drove less than an hour to a US Army base in Vicenza Italy. François needed a good cleaning, and we decided to take advantage of the big American washing machines there. So the day consisted of washing all of our sheets and blankets, while Ton was working on that I gave François a bath in the rain which worked out since I did not need to rinse.
After that we did some food shopping and relaxed for the rest of the day.
After a wet and windy night we woke up to sunny skies with a touch of fog. The bet we had made on the weather had turned out, so we headed over to Venice for the day.
Our ferry dock was pretty memorable.
As I talked about yesterday I had to decide if we were going to take a gondola ride today. Instead I decided that we would ride on one of the ferries that acts like a bus. Line 1 follows the Grand Canal and it costs considerably less than a gondola, and covers more ground. After a couple of stops we gained the two front seats in the bow of the waterborne bus. This proves (at least to me)that it is possible to have romance without spending a lot of money.
Who needs an expensive gondola when you can take a waterborne bus and get the same views.Passing under the Rialto Bridge on our trip on the Grand Canal.
We also planned to visit the Rialto Bridge which is the most famous bridge in Venice. So we disembarked from our ferry/bus there after about an hour cruising the Grand Canal. The bridge and the market next door did not capture our attention, so we headed over to St. Marks square. The tide was quite a bit lower so the square was not under water today. The places that were flooded yesterday now had fancy outdoor cafes with bands and extremely expensive coffee for sale. It was quite a change from yesterday. While it was a lot prettier it somehow felt less interesting than the square under water.
This is the area of yesterdays picture of St. Marks under two feet of water. Today it is one of the most expensive cafe’s in Venice.
It was much less crowded than yesterday even with the better weather. The long Italian weekend was over, and there was only one cruise ship in town instead of the three that were here yesterday. So when we walked by St. Marks Cathedral we were shocked to see there was no line at all. Ton was in full photography mode so she sent me off to see how much it cost to enter. Another shock, it was free, so we headed in for a walk. St. Marks is the first cathedral we have come to that allows no photography so we do not have any pictures, but it was very beautiful.
Exterior shot of St. Marks Cathedral, as no interior photos are allowed.
By now we were quite hungry so we headed over to the old Jewish quarter of town where we had heard there were lots of restaurants. It was a nice walk and to our surprise the further we got from the tourist part of town the wider the roads got which spread the crowds out, the shops and restaurants were still intriguing, we found a nice garden with several interesting art works, and the people watching was still quite good.
We both really enjoyed this sculpture called “Guardians of Time”.
After our late lunch we decided to head back to the ferry as it was getting towards dark. While waiting we were treated to the cruise ship in town passing by on the canal with three tugs shepherding it along. It was a final giant connection to the city of canals.
As planned we moved to the other side of Venice to a campground that was open for the whole time we are planning to be here. The drive over in light traffic was pretty uneventful except for my inability to follow Greta’s directions. This resulted in us twice unnecessarily being on toll roads for short distances. The first time we ended up paying a toll, the second time when I put the ticket in the machine the barrier went up and the ladies voice on the machine said arrivederci before I could put my credit card in for the toll. She must of felt sorry for the fool who could not follow directions.
We arrived at the new campground early, hooked up and headed over to Venice during a little break in the rain. We had no real plans for the day and thought we would just walk around and take in the sights.
View of Venice from our ferry.
We followed the signs towards St. Marks Cathedral. The crowds were plentiful but not overwhelming, despite the three cruise ships we saw docked. As we walked I contemplated Ton’s offer of whether we take a gondola ride or not. Last night she told me gondola rides were €80 and lasted 30 minutes. She said she had taken one with her mother in 1978, so it was completely up to me whether we took one as she had already done it. We will see tomorrow.
Ton was disappointed that most of the gondoliers did not wear their hats, so she was happy with this guy.
It has been wet and blustery the last couple of days and the tides were pretty high along the water front, the sea was nearly up to the footpath with occasional waves washing over. This looks like it must be becoming more common as many places have temporary bridges stacked so you can walk without getting your feet wet.
Everyone walking on temporary bridges in front of St. Marks Cathedral.
St. Marks square was interesting because when we arrived about 60% of it was underwater. The water depth ranged from 6 inches to a couple of feet. All of the stores and restaurants on one side of the square were closed as they had about 2 feet of water lapping at their doors.
Difficult to have a nice coffee in a foot of water.
We wandered around for another hour or so, mostly people watching. The weather channel was dead on as about 1pm a light rain began. By the time we got back to the ferry station about 2pm it was a steady hard rain and the wind was starting to blow.
Waves breaking over the walkway at the ferry stop.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in François. We have a nice waterfront spot looking across the water at Venice and the cruise ships, it really is a nice view. Ton cooked up a wonderful seafood pasta. We have really enjoyed both the restaurants and the quality of the food in groceries in Italy. We spent some time trying to figure out what food from Italy we should try to bring back home.
The weather today is very Oregon like; steady rain and high temperatures in the 50’s. Our plan was to simply head up to Venice and hunker down for the day and wait out the bad weather by planning our time in Venice.
There are two points to enter Venice conveniently from a camping point of view. One entry is southwest of the city and the other is east of the city and entails going around the city. Even though it is less convenient I chose the east one because it had 6 campgrounds in the vicinity and two of them were listed in my planning app as open year round. When we arrived the first one informed me that they were closing tomorrow at noon. The alternative is closed for two weeks for renovations. So again we were looking for a plan b. After some thought we are staying in the campground we arrived at for one night, and after confirming that the one southwest of the city we passed 65 kilometers ago is indeed open we will head over there tomorrow and carry on with our plan for two days in Venice.
A soggy windshield shot as that is all we saw today.
We are getting nervous about Italy because it looks like a lot of the campgrounds are shutting down after this weekend, so our travels in Northern Italy may get curtailed, and will certainly take more planning.
