Deciding we had seen enough canals and churches it was off to the Northern Lakes district to visits the lakes and mountains of northern Italy. Leaving around 2pm as Pam had work to do we used the Autostrade again for a while to cover some miles, leaving the strada part way along at Ala we stooged across the top of the lake winding to a town called Riva Del Garde, it was manic. There was some push bike competition in town and being Saturday afternoon there were bikes for Africa. It was really mental and finding a free place to park for the night was not going to happen. Deciding on a camp ground we found a seemingly lovely spot called camping Bella Vista, not as the name suggests to be sure. It was to be ... read more

Pam has been looking forward to visiting Venice for the whole trip and now the time is here, the ferry was right on time and we left at 10am arriving in Venice at 10.20. Embarking the ferry we were confronted with a choice, left or right, perusing the map I decided that the right was the way to go, wrong it was left, but I must say it was an easy mistake to make, not a good start to one of the hardest cities to navigate around in the world. There are no cars, buses. Trains in Venice, it is by walking, water taxi or the water buses, which are slow but get you there. We used the old fashioned method of walking and once we had the map figured we were off, getting lost in ... read more

An early start today as we had some ground to cover and I wanted to stop off and see Imola race track today and Pam had promised Gerry that we would call into Forli’ on the way. Before that though it was off to another country, the 5th smallest in the world and the 2nd smallest in Europe, that is San Marino. Total population 27,000, I still don’t know how or why San Marino is separate from Italy but there you have it. San Marino is s small country located on the top of yet another hill with a large castle fortification, the day was very cloudy and the best way to get to the town is via the cable car. The best thing about San Marino it is tax free therefore a great place to ... read more

Leaving our little spot we headed off to find Scanno, only to stop in another little village around 5kms away to get some local produce and goodies (vittles was running a little low due to Easter and Italy being closed) they had the best little tomatoes you have ever had and the whole shop was 20E for two large bags of tucker. We found this area to be very camper friendly with heaps of camper parking and another sosta at N41° 45.237 and E13° 59.311, full camper service at a small cost for water, around 3 euro, nice spot by the lake and quiet as well. Heading off further up into the mountains we found the greatest little spot in all of Italy along the pass road from Barrea to Scanno, the drive and scenery is ... read more

Another glorious day on the Med and we headed off to Sorrento on the train planning on a short visit then down to Amalfi and then back. Arriving in Sorrento Pam suggested we hop a boat out to the Isle of Capri, the playground of the rich and famous in the know. Sterling idea and we brought return tickets at a cost of 70e, sitting in the café with my morning espresso thinking about the boat trip and we decided to exchange the return tickets for tickets from Capri to Amalfi, great idea, only problem was the trip from to Capri to Amalfi was not till 4.30 and was around an hour and we had to then get a bus from Capri to Sorrento and then train back to Pompeii, not knowing when the bus left ... read more