On the road - Italy into France

Lago Di Garda - Italy's largest lake
Basking in autumnal sunshine

The plan has evolved as you will have discerned from Sheryl's last post. We're on the move, in no uncertain terms, with a reasonable journey to complete, hopefully finding our Eldorado of golden weather to tide us through winter. As Sheryl says, we  will confirm this early next year.
Driving across Italy from Chioggia the stop was called at Lake Di Garda, a thriving tourist destination, (no one told us that!!) called Peschiera. We pulled in locating a camp reasonably quickly and headed out on our bikes to immerse ourselves in the balmy autumnal lakeside ambience, only slightly shattered by the heaving throng of tourists, also seeking the quiet ambience, mmmmmm yes well that's the issue isn't it???

A municipal building on the canal into the lake

Our thoughts were, it was the Sunday rush thing, the town was full of German bikes and cars, they would all scarper off during the evening and leave Sheryl & me to ourselves. Yeah right! They were all, pretty much, there the next day as well.
Headed into town in the morn. and came across perhaps the biggest market we've encountered yet, with hundreds of stalls, coming to the realisation that there is really only a handful of products to sell, that get repeated "ad nauseum", but you still have to keep on looking as occasionally there is something different at the odd stall.

Sunset on the lake from camp

We spent a good 90mins separately wandering and sad to say both came away with nothing. Still it was fun.
Peschiera trades on tourists who come for its many natural beauties, being the largest lake in Italy. It is Northern Italy so it is in mountainous country at the top end, akin to Queenstown in many ways except, at night you spot the hundreds of small settlements dotted around the whole shoreline. In Europe there is seldom a place that can be built on, not built on. I expect in 2000yrs. Queenstown will be the same. Money and influence rule.
The other attractions to this area are its Movieland and SeaWorld, which needless to say we stayed well clear....

This could be anywhere in
New Zealand!

From here we crossed back through the mountains to the Med. coast, was very reminiscent of Buller Gorge and  the Lewis Pass, not busy and with having just flooded a week prior was clean (flushed) and showing some signs of wear and tear. We had trouble finding a camp as many in this area close over the low season. When we finally found one at Bobbio that should have been open, they were closed due to the flooding. We pleaded for a place to park as it was late, saying we didn't need any amenities and for a modest charge they ceded & allowed us to stay.

Bobbio and the crooked Roman bridge

Bobbio, again, a small village steeped in historical intrigue and politics, won't bore you, but always a good back story to be had in this country. These days it's a quiet back water with the great flood of 2015 the only talk in town. Not so many priests and cardinals in town whipping up a crowd to overthrow the incumbent despotic land holding tyrant.
The road took us on to Genoa, which we narrowly avoided 3 months earlier as we headed to Elba. The old port area was calling and though Sheryl wasn't keen, we found a reasonably central camp to set out from in exploration.

Genova - city of roofs looking out to sea

Alas I hadn't fully done my homework, this city of 1.5m people is "largish", and well spread over the the steep gullies and gulches clinging to the steep Med. coast. My 12 minutes to the city centre was in reality 12 minutes to railway station then 30 minutes by train to town, albeit at a very reasonable 24hr all transport ticket at 4.50 Euro. Unfortunately the train system crashed that afternoon and after waiting for 90minutes we caught a bus for the hour plus ride back to camp. The best made plans .....But woe is me.... our first shite weather of the trip and we didn't even make it to the old port area as it was too cold, blustery and wet. Instead found a warm Pizzeria and whiled away some time waiting on the wind and rain to

Looking back into  Port Genova
with all it's cranes

abate before being thwarted at the rail station. Genoa does not rate highly with us, which in most probability is an unfair call, but there we have it!!!

Roll on the Riviera.

Off to Spain for Winter

Anyone reading our blog will know we were a little concerned with winter coming, where we would spend it! We have found the perfect place - we hope! In southern Spain. We joined the web site HelpX (thank you Diana & Henry) and looked at who would like to have us come and stay with them for winter in return for a little work. Spain hardly has a winter! We will confirm this next February.
We have 2231km to cover from when we were in Chioggia to our destination in Spain. Google says 22hours 23 mins. We have one month to get down there, so hopefully can make it without too much stress!

Chioggia (on my bucket list since 2013) and Venice

Chioggio - with huge fish market to the left

After seeing the Italian film "Shunli & The Poet" in 2013 when it was on in Nelson as part of the Italian Film Festival, I was hooked on Chioggia and thought I will get there one day. Well that is now!

Looking up into the centre of Chioggia

From what I read, I thought it would be like Venice but without all the tourists! Well it was in a way, but not as many canals. We arrived last Wednesday and found a

Chioggia is one of
Italy's major fishing ports

camp to park up in. With peak season now over, we thought it would be easier to find camps. Well it is but unfortunately in places like Chioggia, the season is over so most of the camps are shut. We found "the International" still open, so along with one other camper van we parked up. There were a few groups in the cabins. We were about a 20 minute ride from Chioggia Central, along the coast which must hum with visitors in peak time by the look of all the now vacant Lido's.

Entering the city by canal

We rode our bikes into the heart of Chioggia and had a look around. We found where all the other motorhomes were parked up, just outside of the city centre, where we moved to the next day. Did a local cruise boat ride (complete with narration, but sadly only in Italian) that went into the harbour and up one of the canals, giving an idea of the landscape of this city.

Small fishing village on the Island of Pellestrina

Friday we caught a ferry across to one of the two islands on the way up to Venice, the island of Pellestrina, with our bikes for the day. We could have travelled up the two islands, but felt we were better off to take our time and enjoy the one, finding somewhere for a late lunch on our way back.

My delicious lunch

The island is a long skinny one with a sea wall that has been built up the centre length of the island to protect it from the sea on the east coast (on the Adriatic sea). It was full of small fishing communities all the way along the lagoon side of the island. Lovely colourful little cottages and buildings. Once again plenty of churches.
We rode to the end of the island where you could catch the ferry to the next island before carrying onto Venice if you wished. Perfect place for a small bar with a cold beer and delicious white wine. On our return ride we looked for a suitable place for lunch and found the perfect lagoon side Ristorante where we both stepped outside our comfort zones and ordered fish dishes. They were delicious.  I was a little

One of the groyne's at Chioggia's
harbour entrance with
fishing huts

worried about the sustainability of the clams I ate - being so small and plentiful. They are a big item here in this region. One can only assume with the number of boats harvesting them daily, that they are sustainable Shannon.
Bill had a dish of fried fish - it was a real mixture of smaller creatures! From small octopus to shrimps, calamari, sardines and others we couldn't identify. The little sardines had been gutted, so nothing too much to them. With a couple of lovely glasses of local white wine, it all went down very well.
We had a bit of time to spare before catching the ferry back, so checked out the other side of the wall. Quite a good beach for surfing Rocky, let Daniel know. But littered in rubbish which was disappointing to see as the other side looked so pristine, and most of the litter was from the fishing industry it's self with small nets and lots of polystyrene. Very sad.

Coming into Venice through the Lagoon

Saturday we caught the express ferry from Chioggia to Venice for the day (90 minutes). Bill was keen to take our bikes but luckily he googled Venice, and found it isn't really a bike friendly city. Thankfully we didn't! The ferry was pretty full and there certainly wasn't room for bikes, and once we got to Venice with all the stairs up

Venice

over all those bridges, it would have been a nightmare! It was 35 years ago we here, but neither of us remember a lot from then. It is certainly a huge tourist attraction, there were a few massive cruise liners in dock on our arrival, plus all the ferry's coming and going from around the area, and the railway station that comes right into the city centre, bringing in huge numbers with their suitcases. It was throbbing with tourists and tours.

This is the quieter season!!

We only had 6 hours to spend in this city, so we bought a Tourist Venice Guide book

Taking in the sights of Venice

complete with map, which we really should have bought the week before to have a better plan for our day. We made the decision to spend the day walking the streets, crossing the bridges taking in the architecture and ambiance. Enjoying the Gondola's as they travelled through the canals, one with piano

A serenade on the canals

accordion & singer, completing this romantic picture we had of Vienna. We also saw kayaker's travelling through the canals. Perhaps next time, that could be an option.

a nice quiet canal.

As for the museums, our day was full on as it was, and we wanted to enjoy the atmosphere of Venice as much as we could in the time we had. To really cover this city, you would need a few days, staying at one of the quintessential Hotels or B&B's that we passed. Sadly Bill found the Vivaldi Museum near the end of our day, too late

Don't show Pat!

to stop & enjoy. We only had time for a quick shared bottle of beer from a street vendor before catching our return ferry.

Perhaps us next time!

 For 14 Euro return, this scenic boat trip through the Venice Lagoon was excellent value, a much better option than driving/parking/training into the city.

Up the Coast. One step at a Time

Ravenna, Commachio & Ferrara

From Cesenatico we travelled north towards Ravenna, a short distance which suits

Modified Coastlines

us, (Italy may take some time).  Going North is counter intuitive as we are starting to lose Summer and Autumn is upon us. Still very warm days in mid 20s and predicted 30s over the week. But we do want to visit Venice & Chioggia, being so close, enjoying the culture and history.
The land and sea have changed as we head towards the top of the Venesian Gulf. I'm likening it to the Firth of Thames. Extensive flat lands (long since drained sitting mostly below the canal level) lagoons and ancient canals going well inland. Many still navigable, undoubtedly essential for drainage.We are seeing rice crops and extensive cultivation of this very arable land though one would think ripe for inundation.

There appears to be extensive Oil production offshore with many rigs clearly visible from shore & tankers moored to offshore structures presumably loading etc.
The blurb pushes the Adriatic Riviera as golden sands but alas its Tahunanui Sands at best. Shore lines are highly modified with rock batters, groins and offshore break waters, and a zillion people in season. But they do have the infrastructure, importantly the bars and restaurants on the beaches, hotels directly across the road & tourist prices, but affordable.You don't need to go too far to get your drinks etc, in fact you don't need to go anywhere, just signal and order.

Rather dull outside

Ravenna is10 ks inland, but anciently was closer to the sea with a canal built to bring commerce to it. Ravenna boasts very early mosaics in its churches. Stunning vivid chromatic colours as good today as they were when first put up in the 5 Cent. AD. Significant as the mosaics have largely survived, giving an insight into how the people of the day visualised the happenings in their own history. The mosaics are a mix of the the founding of Christianity and its contemporary cults IE the Aryan church.This was eventually wiped out and the mosaics added to, encompassing the modern (500AD)  church thinking.

Amazing Inside

Fine detail was hard to achieve with mosaic and we can understand why frescoes (painting on plaster) became so popular, it being able to show stunning detail the mosaics seldom achieved, but frescoes typically only lasted a few hundred years so we have only very very rare examples dating as far back as the mosaics.

These sparkle & have done for over 1500 years.

The area being river deltas is well away from stone quarries with only a small amounts being used anywhere in the delta. Terracotta bricks, billions of them back

past 500 AD  of Roman origin are the building medium here. Bricks make for a dull facade, but none the less historical. Being built basically on silt a lot of the ancient buildings have settled up to 3M into the ground, continuing down still, with a few showing obvious deviation from the perpendicular.

Leaning tower of Ravenna

Ravenna kept us busy for the day and moved north to a camper paddock, a quick walk to the beach & small local holiday village, very quiet. We watched the locals using the traditional Fishing gurney, very prevalent large and small in this area. Fish was the staple food, all eating places specialise in fish but not for us I am embarrassed to say. The small sprats or sardines cooked every which way just don't appeal, even on the pizzas.

Very Quiet. Comacchio

Onto Comacchio, again brick everywhere, but old brick, and churches of course.
Its charm being the small canal system connecting the town, river and lagoon. I suspect that tourism is light here but the "I "site is well equipped and vying for more.

Quick Fact In Italy there are 4.75 people per church & 17.75 churches per priest.
 Just saying!!! & enough church bells to meet the worlds need for bronze into the next century. Ok I made this up but the amount of churches around is A LOT & when the bells go off... Holy hell what a din it can be.

The Trepponti Bridge from the 17th Century

For my intended irreverence I have received multitude punctures as penance. In Comacchio we stopped to read an info plaque, parking the bikes in a grassy area & when we took off again, noticed the tyres covered in burrs, removed them and realised we were going flat fast needing to dash for the motor home. Three flat tyres. That evening eventually found 10 punctures in the 3 tubes and  only 5 patches.

For my Blaspheme.

So it was into Ferrara town for a new tube and fitted to bike before we could set out for our day in Ferrara. More brick buildings and an impressive 9km inner outer defencive town wall with moat. The moat largely gone but the walls intact dating from the 1600 hundreds, and as always the Etruscans were here first, with an amazing discovery in 1920 of ancient 300-500BC un plundered necropolis's,(undoubtedly as it was well buried under estuary mud). Etruscans were the earliest known settlers with strong trading connections through out the area and across the Med.. Through history there was always talk of strong Etruscan connections, then in 1920  a stunning find of thousands of intact Necropolis. This allowed the archaeologists to put put it together.

Stunning Gold jewellery, Etruscan.

Unusually the local museum  at Ferrara has been able to hang onto the important finds, naturally it is now National museum of importance harbouring finds unequalled. The Etruscan art as usual is enlightening and I was taken with a little ornamental vase, a prised possession of the person buried with it to assist in the, albeit pagan, after life.......

Should impress great Aunt for Dinner.

                                                                          There is a balloon festival happening
here in Ravenna as we stay and with road closures etc we were unable to find our way back to camp. The colourful huge balloons were stunning with there mass launch blotting the evening sky as we drove around lost, till a pistol toting police man told me where to go in no uncertain terms, IE very precise directions to get round his blockade, and he was correct. We arrived back safely to a cold beer and food to plan our next move.
Real Fact: Through out Italy the signage is specifically designed to take you in circles then exit you out of town, never to return.

Cesenatico (Sunday / Monday 6/7th September)

The top end of the canal into Cesenatico

We continued up the eastern coast of Italy along the Adriatic Sea which must team with tourists over the peak season by the number of hotels / apartments & villas lining the coastal road. All looking out onto the private beaches along the sea side with their little fences, full of sunchairs and many forms of entertainment (volleyball nets / mini golf / children's playgrounds) along with the cafe / bar on each site.

Not quite so many Tourists 

There are still a few tourists around, lots of Italians of course, but also more German speaking. But the rush appears to be over except if  you're in a small place like San Marino where they suddenly arrive by the bus loads. With temperatures starting to drop and the autumn colours in the leaves, the bulk of the tourists have gone home though it is still warm for us, and the beaches still have some budgie smuggling & the disappearing thong going on. (Bill just hijacked my blog).

The Fisherman's Family
looking out to sea or Bill? 

With the streets quite narrow and over the top signage making it very busy as we drove along, once we reached Cesenatico we found a nice small camp and parked up so we could get out and about on our bikes. A very bike friendly town once again with cycleways along most of the streets.
It was about 5 pm when we cycled the 10 minutes into the centre and started at the top of the canal which comes straight up from the sea and into the centre where the Marine Museum is sited along with 10 traditional boats which are floated in the canal. From May till October they raise and lower the sails on these boats daily (weather permitting) They were a beautiful sight, very colourful in their traditional styles and colours.

Traditional fishing boat & colours

A couple of hours later we came out of the museum (which thankfully had English explanations to over half the exhibits) much more informed of the little fishing village of Cesenatico. Quite large fishing boats come back and moor up along the canal for the night along side all the restaurants that line the sides of the canal. The restaurants look lovely all set up waiting on customers, but with such a drop in tourists, they weren't that busy. We headed back to camp before it got too dark so didn't really get to see how busy they were till the following evening.

Beautiful colours on sunset

In the morning we were back on our bikes and did the rest of the canal, all the way down to the sea. There are fishing net contraptions that are left sitting out over the canal, waiting for the fisherman to come and operate them. Bit like down the West Coast in NZ where they whitebait and get set up along the river edges. Except these nets are a bit more sophisticated than that, they catch a lot of sardine like fish and other types. It is quite a busy fishing port town with a population of around 20,000. The larger fish factories and trucks operating down the sea end of the canal.

Fishing nets hung out over
the water, ready to be dropped

After we covered this part of town we followed the coast along past more hotels / apartments. We were quite surprised to find some large buildings empty and run down, windows bricked up and fenced securely, making some parts appear quite shabby. But I guess as new hotels / apartments are built, it gets harder to operate, so they just lock it all up.We rode back through a large, very dusty dry park with a

Water Vole of some sort!

murky looking pond in the middle where we found some type of water vole, looking more like a large rat with his long tail out behind him, about the size of a huge cat, swimming around a lot of turtles (or tortoises??) that were sunning themselves on a log, not the least bit interested in the creature. We haven't really seen a lot of wild life, certainly not road kill like we do at home with the possum. Plenty of signage to be aware of deer, thankfully we aren't driving much at night!
We returned back to camp, where I made my first lasagna here in Italy in our little oven. I must say, it turned out pretty good. I love the fresh pasta that is readily available here, and all the fresh veges - there is always a stall or small shop operating. They don't sell perfect looking items, but very tasty ones - we have bought some ugly Peppers and tomatoes that would be rejected from our supermarkets back home, but soooooo tasty.

A lovely evening along the Canal

Early evening we returned back to the centre of town to have a drink and maybe a bite to eat along the canal as the sun set and watch people as they started to come out for the evening. But when our first drinks arrived they came with a generous platter of nibbles, which was topped up with our second drink, so much so that we no longer needed dinner. An old guy came and sat at the table just up from us and had a coffee with his cigarette. Then over the next couple of hours, 2 others came and joined him, not buying anything, but just sat and chatted the night away, sorting out the Italian problems they were having like they all do. Very emotional gesture filled conversations. Can't see how the restaurant made money that night!
The Canal with the boats and all the restaurants made for a very picturesque pleasant evening, making our time here very enjoyable.

San Marino - A small republic with Attitude & Altitude.

San Marino above & below

San Marino is a small Republic at 61 square km, indeed the smallest republic in the world, and a history dating back a few years, well don't they all!
It wasn't on our list of places to go but we did spot the incursion of a border on our Italian map, so Goggled & Wiki'd it and bingo, "gotta go there". Also the German couple Wolfgang &Gisa we met at San Benedetti In Alpe, said it was worth the visit.

These people love
building on cliff faces.

As it was we were heading for the Adriatic Coast, it wasn't far off course so headed in the direction, then suddenly in view one of those rocks piercing up thru the lowlands that someone had said "Duh, I can build a house up there"
Some "one" in this case fortuitously was Marnus of Arbus (Croatia ) a Christian rock cutter  who was banished from Rimini for preaching Christianity instead of focusing on the job at hand, namely building rock walls round Rimini. He was able to secure under favourable condition the afore mentioned cloud piercing rock. From that day in about 300AD till now this 97% catholic stronghold of 35,000 people have remained arguably the longest founding country to still exist with a written constitution dating back to the 16th C

The Three Towers of
San Marino from below

San Marino has remained a stand alone country tolerated by all and sundry,and through history withstood  advances through negotiation from pillagers including warlords Popes, Barons, Napoleon and Hitler just to mention a few megalomaniacs.
Remaining neutral during the war they harboured over 100,000 Italians, however this didn't stop it from being bombed by Britain ,whose questionable intelligence suggested that all was not what it seemed.
At this point we have stopped saying we are English .We find it expedient to now say we are Kiwis that only speak English.

One or two guns on display

San Marino, as only small republics can, is a tax haven, has no public debt, little taxes on imports etc, and reputedly boasts one of the most "serene populations" about. It also has the highest GDP of any country in the EEC and more vehicles than people, which is no mean feat on that rock, I can tell you.
Thriving tourism, based on a fantastic scenic location where you can buy all that Italy has to offer but without the tax, and its a fun place to visit. Curiously however for an obscure reason to do with tax, and the right to defend your independence, there is a plethora of arms dealers, trading in knifes, bows and arrows, swords, cross bows, air guns and.... real

mother F**** guns, every where. If it can kill, be used to assist kill or just plain lethal they are selling it. From a Big Boys perspective its really "neat" and there are a lot of kids toting little crossbows, but more concerning is dads toting packaged hunting cross bows or pistols or AK 47's. Well not really toting but there were some big oddly shaped packages leaving town!!!!
The arms dealer I talked to did assure me however, that you still needed an Italian gun licence to take a firearm away, but this didn't really address the crossbow, Rambo knife or replica air rifle purchases being made, which were very moderately priced I must say.

The pathway out to the
second tower
(won't spot Sheryl in this photo)

The real attraction to San Marino is the Castles  or more accurately the 3 Towers (lookouts) which are on their Coat of Arms and their 1 Euro coin.
As a religious commune it did well minding its own business till the middle ages, when a growing imperative to defend itself was realised. Italy being not a united country then with raging warlords, Popes & Cardinals etc, all trying to secure more dominion, a series of city walls and defencive towers were built. As luck would have it the Piercing Rock was one hell of a place to put some defensive lookouts, and so its autonomy has remained.
Heights don't normally bother me but if you want a testi clawing thrill, try looking over the the ramparts of these three lookouts. They are nauseously high, and your spit travels down several hundred metres landing, in my case, on a tennis court well below, though it would well evaporate before then.The safety thing is not big over here, in fact things are loose, literally  and figuratively. How there aren't daily disasters defies comprehension. The ramparts well below a safe height in many instances.

The walled city has had a few makeovers over the centuries and is a very pleasant tourist stop, well worth a look especially if you like real high authentic castles, and also boasts an amazing ancient armoury with a collection of firearms,crossbows etc dating back forever. Complete your look over that, then wander back to your friendly arms dealer and opt for whatever means of lethal force tickles you, and zipzap it's yours.

They also have a torture museum that is actually quite chilling, as to what man can do to one another in the name of God. Those old Domenician Friars didn't just brew beer, they were mighty good at getting a confession or two!!! No doubt some of there inspired techniques hatched over a fine pale ale or double hopped IPA?????? We left feeling well sated if not slightly confused as to whether we had enjoyed our stay & would encourage others to go or should we just keep mum??