Tales From The Road

After Venice we headed out to Verona, with the intention of spending an afternoon in the city & then finding somewhere to sleep around Lake Garda. We managed to park ok in the city, about 15 mins walk from the centre for only 4 euros for the afternoon. It was a bit stressful driving around a city with one way streets trying to find somewhere to park though.

Verona was lovely & it is somewhere we would like to go back to. There were a lot less people than in Venice & more interesting things for us to do, plus it was a lot cheaper. We paid £1.30 each for a museum with random things in, £2 each to explore the Roman ruins & £2 each to visit the ampitheatre which was massive. It is supposed to be the 3rd biggest in the world & is better preserved than the one in Rome.

From Verona we headed out to the Lake Garda area & found somewhere to sleep in a car park in a quiet town. Unfortunatley all of the car parks around the edge of the lake have barriers up to stop campers from going into them. When we woke up the next day we drove a bit further on to see if we could find somewhere to spend the day & the night but all around the lake were hotels & houses, you could barely see the lake at all. We were dissapointed & drove round the whole of the lake but it was all the same! Again this is somewhere that you would want to avoid like the plague in the summer. Part of the area around the lake was a national park according to our map, but again that was all hotels & houses. We decided to move on & go to the campsite at Bologna. After 6 nights free camping we needed a shower & some electricity for our fridge & to do some washing.

We managed to get to the campsite through rush hour traffic on the motorway, despite the poor directions in our Rogers Guide (Don't buy one as it is rubbish!) Rogers said the prices were from 16 - 27 euros a night & we were hoping for the former as it is November but it was 23 euros which is pretty expensive for us. We stayed there anyway as we didn't have much choice. We had a shower & did some washing & then had dinner at the bar at the campsite. We both had pasta as a started (the way they do it in Italy) & then I had camembert cheese with vegetables on top & Matt had a pork chop with veg on top. Mine wasn't that nice but it was the only veggie meal on the menu. We also had some very nice wine with the meal which was 7 euros for a litre!

We have enjoyed Italy very much so far & there is lots of lovely food everywhere including just in the supermarkets. The quality of the fruit & veg is superb also. The other good thing is that in bars they give you bowls of snacks & snacks on the bar for free. Last night we had peanuts, chestnuts & amaretto biscuits, plus there were olives & breadsticks & other yummy treats. We are going to go to a bar tonight for a couple of drinks & snacks! Also pizza is very cheap. We had a massive slice each at lunch for £1!

We are in Bolonga today & it is a very busy city with loads of traffic jams. There are some interesting buildings & we went to a free photography exhibition this morning. There are lots of nice shops but it is not much good for us as we are not buying anything!

We are hoping to spend a fair bit of time in Italy & we are going in to Tuscany next, to Florence, Pisa & Sienna & to spend some time in the countryside.

By Chloe