1 April - Venice
I get up early and walk Cal. We debate whether to move the
camper to a campground, official parking or area di Sosta, but in the
end we talk to other campers and decide its safe enough where it is.
Pack up and Maria, of the other campers who is there with her son and
daughter from Germany, gives us a lift down the road to the ferry, where
we have to quickly improvise a muzzle for Cal and then get aboard.
Forty minutes later we disembark, surprised to see that there are
cars on Venice. It isn't until we walk around and buy a map and
ask directions that we realise we are on Venice beach, not Venice
proper! So we find the next boat and really get to Venice
this time!
The two things that struck me about Venice were the lack of cars and
all the tradesmen and taxis - normal workers but all on boats.
With 4 in tow we didn't go inside any of the magnificent buildings, so
we walked around, starting from the very touristed Piazza di San Marco,
but then going off into quieter areas to see more normal Venizian life.
We buy a picnic and find a square where someone has put out children's
bikes and slides for anyone to use. We stay there in the sun for a
good while, letting the children enjoy themselves.
We walk back and
take the boats back to Newbie, who from the ferry looks very small on
the shore, next to a few larger campers.
1-2 April Lake Garda
At the lake it is getting late so we find a campground on what we
think is a small peninsula sticking into the lake. It later turns
out we weren't out on the peninsula as we thought.
Our German
proprietress eventually appears and I book us in, all in Italian.
It's an expensive (for us) 4 star. The facilities are excellent
and the site is very clean and tidy.
2 April
There is a cacophony of different bird calls from the lake as I walk
Cal off the site and to the lake shore. We spend the morning here
getting washed and re-sorting the camper. The older 2 set off
together on Eli's bike to explore, they meet some English children and
also find the shop, restaurant, closed pool and games room.
We leave at 2pm.