Buongiorno,
After a quick two night stopover at La Colle-sur-Loup between Grasse & Nice we have now made it into Italy. It’s funny as you sort of get used to signs and sayings when you are in one Country for a while (France) but once we crossed into Italy and began meeting people and needing to understand things it was all just gibberish and we were not really even getting a hint of what they meant but we always get there in the end somehow! It’s quite strange too when you jump from one Country to the next as it takes a while to adjust to the new surroundings, it felt just like when we crossed into Northern Spain from France back in March.
Our first stop was just another quick stopover at a spot just on the outskirts of a place called Imperia in between Monaco & Genoa just down the coast from San Remo as it was too far to do Lake Garda in one big drive. There wasn’t much choice of campsites in this area for some reason but as we were only doing another quick stopover it would be fine we thought. After checking our ACSI app, google maps and the campsite website (which can be very deceiving!!) we picked Camping De Wijnstok which they said was a typical Italian owned campsite a stones throw from the beach and the reviews were OK. We pulled into the very narrow stone clad entrance drive down to reception where as always Julie does her stuff i.e. ACSI card and passports etc etc and we were shown to a very shady pitch which was plenty long enough for our van and trailer but not really wide enough for the awning and stuff but as it was only a stopover we would manage. On looking round the site it was once again like some of the Spanish/Portuguese sites filled with wooden sheds and caravans with huge wooden structures built on the sides with fences and decks etc etc and you even had to buy a €1 token for a hot shower (we didn’t bother as knew it would be just a waste of time, so had an early cold shower while the sun was still out!) so we were glad to only be staying one night, we just hoped the rest of Italian campsites were not the same! As our pitch was very shady we decided to chill on the beach for a few hours so after crossing the main road then going under the railway and through a few narrow alleys we found “the beach” a stoney bay about 100m long so we found a spot had a quick swim and chill in the sun but we soon got bored so said let’s shoot out on the XT and see what’s nearby. We headed into Imperia main town with its large marina, restaurants and shops, all in all not a bad place and as with every marina along the med coast it has it’s share of big boys toys, one yacht that stood out amongst the others was this fantastic English owned/registered sailing yacht, it was beautiful.
Next stop was Lake Garda and we had looked at the route on our maps and sat-nav but wasn’t sure which would be best toll road or National road. When we were in La Franqui we had met an Italian couple who live and work near Venice and Max passed on his number and said if you have any questions about Italy don’t hesitate to ask so after a quick phone call & chat it was decided that if you need to get anywhere in Italy and not get stuck in every town in traffic go by toll road and from what he said and I had researched tolls are much much cheaper in Italy than in France. We had about 221 miles to do to Lake Garda and I must say the toll road system is pretty good as you just pick up a ticket when you enter the motorway and you don’t pay until you turn off at your destination. Julie put the ticket in and the total was €30.10 which for the mileage we had done with no traffic was well worth it.
There are lots of campsites dotted around Lake Garda and as always we had looked at their websites, their location and read some reviews but it was going to be a case of potluck as there are so many but we said if we get to one first we can always go off exploring to see what others are like. So that’s what we did, our usual research and picked one. Julie emailed ahead to the campsite on the West side at Moniga Del Garda on the lakes edge called Camping Piantelle, a four star site, and as we drove round the lower part of lake there was literally campsite after campsite dotted along the road beside the lake and then we spotted the sign for ours. As we approached the reception it looked very posh with a huge under cover arrivals lane with flowers everywhere so once again Julie did her thing and was given a map of the site and available pitches some being right next to the lake so after a bit of a hike down to the pithes we picked 74 one row back from the waters edge and only €18 a night, low season prices again, happy days!!! The campsite was spot on and the showers were free & hot and very very clean, we would rate this as one of the better sites we have stayed on, and we have done a few now in various Countries!
Lake Garda itself is huge, we never realised it was that big. The South end is quite open and flat and very commercial with many campsites, supermarkets, bars/restaurants and not really what we imagined it to be like. There are promenades with small shingle beaches but there is just no comparison to the Lac Sainte-Croix in the Gorges Du Verdon, they are just opposite ends of the scale and to be honest our first impressions were oh and not WOW, it’s just a huge lake with lots of tourists (mainly all friendly German’s, it’s a very popular destination for them and our German neighbour said it has been like that since the sixties). The weather was a bit overcast but still very warm which was a shame but after a couple of days the sun returned.
We were told that the North end of the lake was less touristy and more scenic so with map in hand we had a day out exploring on the XT and after travelling about 20 miles further up along the West coast through Salo towards the North we discovered what we were looking for and had imagined Lake Garda to be like. The road began to twist and turn and climb a little following the lake below through rock tunnels and far reaching views up to the mountains beyond and villages on the opposite side. We saw on the map a place called Tremosine which was reached by taking a left turn up through yet another tunnel and onto a very narrow twisty mountain road, somewhere you wouldn’t want to take the camper van. After a couple of miles we lost site of the lake and found a set of traffic lights which were red. The sign said maximum wait 4 minutes, well bang on 4 minutes later they went green and off we went. As we set off the road rapidly narrowed and disappeared into what can only be described as a rock slot, which we later found out is known as Strada Della Forra (The Gorge Road) which is number 2 on the most visited spots in Lake Garda and for skilled drivers only apparently!! The road burrows it’s way through the mountain in the ravine formed by the river Brasa.
One thing that we have been saying that we could have done with on this trip to make life easier would be a small set of soft panniers for the XT to put the camera, water, towels etc etc in but most importantly for when we go shopping to save poor Julie wearing a huge heavy back pack as we always buy too much!! We knew if there was ever a place to get a set it would be somewhere in Italy as Givi one of the main manufacturers is Italian and there are hundreds of bikes/scooters in Italy. The good old internet came up trumps with a shop called Moto Garda just a few miles around the lake which we eventually found although we didn’t really have a clue where we were going! After some nifty hand and arm signals of what I was actually looking for to the very friendly Italian owner he grabbed two different sizes and then we went to see how they would fit on the XT as you have to watch the exhaust system as you don’t want them catching on fire (which happened to my dad many years ago lol) so we picked the smaller ones as this meant buying less shopping !!!!! but room for more wine :-) Really pleased with them it just makes things easier for Julie.
We will be leaving Lake Garda shortly and heading straight to Venice which is only 90 miles away and hope to meet up with Max and his wife for a beer or two to say thanks for the Italian advice.
Ciao for now.
J&J
x
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