Mantova, Verona and Venice

So we’ve done some driving since we left you... After leaving Rome, we headed towards Spoleto which was a couple of hours drive. Andrew, still being in a fragile condition found the going tough so we parked for the night in a “services” area for campervans and had a night of free camping. It’s quite amazing how many of these places there are throughout Europe. Obviously camper vanning is a much more popular way to travel in Europe, and because of this, it’s very well catered for by local towns. Almost every single town we drive though, there is a location to park you campervan (often for the night) and empty your waste tank and fill up with fresh water.


The next day we decided to make our way to the East Coast to hopefully get some swimming in, unfortunately on arrival we hit our worst storm yet. Torrential rain would be an understatement, at one point we thought Cal was going to be swept off the road. Not surprisingly the Italians slowed to about 150kph during this storm while we crawled along at about 5. Due to the intense rain fall, Cal sprung a couple of leaks which required some urgent attention. Luckily we still had our emergency leak repair kit (consists of a tube of silicon, a rag, a knife and a couple of beers to work up the courage to climb onto the roof) which Andrew used to repair the leaks to the standard of a true craftsman. That night was spent on the waterfront between a bar, and a railway line. You can probably tell how this is going to end.... Turns out, the bar doesn’t really pick up until midnight, when ALL the locals arrive to see the band that’s obviously a favourite. Normally this would be fine, and we’d join in, but with Andrew still not well, it wasn’t exactly a welcomed surprise. This coupled with the train that whistled past our campervan, (Causing it to shake) EVERY HOUR on the hour made for a fairly ordinary sleep, and a cranky Griffo the next day.

The next stretch was quite a decent drive, all the way up to Mantova. Due to our less than rapid age enforced speed limit of about 85-90kph and a couple of rubbish roads this drive took about 8 hours so we were both trashed by the time we arrived at this beautiful town. This was the town that Romeo was exiled to in Romeo and Juliet. It is a spectacular town from the first time you see it. It’s surrounded by fortified walls, inside which is a maze of cobblestone streets with beautiful shops either side. There are of course a couple of amazing churches that are in the centre of the town, and more history than you can possibly imagine. Yes, it sounds a lot like many of the other places we have visited, but this is really something different. It wasn’t crammed packed with tourists like Rome, Florence or Pisa, but should have been, and probably will be at some stage.

Next stop was Verona, the home of Romeo and Juliet. We stopped at a camping ground just outside the town. It seemed to be run by a family full of hippies which was cool, but unfortunately they didn’t supply electricity to their sites (you’d be surprised how excited we get by accessible electricity now!). We checked out Verona which was quite similar to Mantova, just on a bigger scale and with many more tourists. We did all the must dos in Verona such as Juliet’s balcony and the smaller version of the colosseum. We went for dinner at a local restaurant, were we ordered Lasagne and the local specialty of Horse with salad. The horse was definitely worth trying, and would possibly be on the order again list, it kind of tastes like a smoked roast beef type meat that was thinly sliced and served cold.

Our next destination was one that we’d both been looking forward to, Venice. Everyone has heard about how beautiful this city is, and the certain romantic feeling one gets when they spend any amount of time roaming the streets. Well, it’s all absolutely true. This city has a definite magic about it that causes you to think funny things. The perfect example is those people that pay 80Euro for a gondola ride around the canals. Yes, they are lovely and romantic, yes, we will probably only be here once or twice at best, but there was no way we were going to pay some guy that much to push us around in a boat for 35 minutes. You can get a MUCH cheaper ride by a much better looking person in Amsterdam (granted you may be paying for this one for longer)! The best way we think to see this town, is to get lost in its streets, and if you come here you almost certainly will. The maps of the city don’t even make that much sense as a lot of the streets don’t have a name. When you get lost though, this is where you find the best places. We found some amazing bridges, squares and shops by just wandering the streets. You will eventually find your way back after asking some locals as we did.

Today has been spent as a recovery day as Jamie seems to have caught some of the man flu (for the third time this trip). Tomorrow we’re off to Austria, then into Switzerland.

Ciao,

A&J xoxox