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Suzy is overnighting overlooking an Italian lake sheltering under umbrella pines .
As we look out we can see the grey of the sky and the grey reflected in the lake. I have never read Fifty shades of grey and probably never intend to so anyone expecting some kind of mucky story will be sadly disappointed in my blog today.
We decided to overnight at Lake Bolsena and if we were lucky enough we just might get into the town. Something we have never managed to do before. The town is as always pretty with walls and castle and nowhere to park. So as always we had to pass it by to get to our campsite. Last time we were here we stopped at Camping Blu and had made the decision to bypass this one and try the next one up the lake . It was Camping International village . Now the name should give the clue. Village – well it never was going to be small. In fact it was huge as it sprawled along the lakeside for hundreds of yards. It had the feel that in the height of summer it would be like Butlins or Pontins
or some other holiday camp hell on earth. There was a small pebbly grey volcanic ash beach which the summer visitors would sit upon pretending they were at the seaside and on a beach . There were grebes swimming in the grey lake which reflected the grey of the sky. Treecreepers climbed the pine trees and there was a view of the town in the distance. OK as the crow flies it is about a mile away. But walking you have to follow the shoreline which weaves in and out and around campsites and makes that mile more like 5 miles . The campsite had acres and acres of roads some of which had caravans set up overwintering covered in clingfilm, thick rubbing wrapping and protection from the Italian winter. Wrapped up like kippers. The owners would turn up at some point to unwrap their belongings and spend the season on the shores of the lake. This is the equivalent of the Italian seaside .
Today though was opening day. It did tell us in our camper book that the site opened 1
st April but according to the lady in reception who spoke perfect English but then she would.
She was English married to an Italian and lived here for 40 years. She said the season had only started today and the restaurant was closed, the shop would be opened but would only have basics and the facilities were all closed . . The showers were beautiful until you found out that the machines for hot water were either broken off the walls or just didn’t work . Not as good a site as we had hoped for but it was Ok for an overnight and we did get to see a pretty silvery sunset as the sun fell from the sky reflecting a silver pathway across the grey grey water.
To continue the grey theme when we awoke there was a mist obscuring the view of Bolsena, the islands in the lake and opposite shoreline. Everything had taken on that greyish blue hue where features were undistinguisable. The water looked silver in parts, slate grey in others. Reflecting the greyish sky there must have been fifty shades of grey in that water. The lonely fisherman was out there catching the fishes which are famous in the town and would probably be served up in the restuarants that night .
And so onto the potholed roads again . We felt as if we were in a boneshaker of old as Suzy bounced up and down. I wonder if the Italian garages in this part of the world make their living replacing springs in cars ?
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