Accelerate To The Sun

So here I am loving my now Day 5 stay in one place of what will be almost a 2-week stay at two small towns at Lake Garda. Due to the rain at Fussen meaning that not much could be seen, I had made the right decision to cut short the visit, avoid stopping in Innsbruck and head to the sun.

The journey from Germany took me this time through the Brenner pass which forms part of the border between Austria and Italy, and as in the past, popping out on the Italian side of the pass brought sunshine and increasing heat.  It’s an amazing 200 or so kilometres of descent on a busy motorway – lorries, motorhomes and caravans streaming south through beautiful mountains. I was very pleased to realise as I drove upto a toll gate, suddenly scrabbling to get my brain cells and payment methods together as I looked up at the same time to identify the correct route through, that my APRR French tolls tag also covers Italy, as well as France, Spain, Portugal. I had missed checking this in advance. I’ve haven’t checked yet how much the journey will have cost – I had already bought online the Austrian ‘vignette’ for 10 days which cost approx 12eu.

I am at Camping Cisano in between Bardolino and Lazise on the south east side of the lake which I targeted due to it having a cheaper out of season rate.  This is a massive very family-friendly campsite with tour operators including Eurocamp and lots of British families are here for half term and the swimming pools are fantastic for all ages, as now I have an eye for young children.

There are other European nationalities represented, but the huge majority everywhere are Germans. The size of the site might sound off-putting, and particularly further down the lake there’s one enormous 3 or 4-star campsite after another all looking pretty full, but the pitches here are spacious, in shade, the shower-block facilities are really good and people are very friendly.

Both sets of neighbours on adjoining pitches have been helpful and pleasant, and I was even invited for an Aperol yesterday evening by a lovely older couple from the Main valley in Germany. I had to absolutely practice my German for this, but we managed a reasonable level of conversation!  They said that the weather in their area of Germany was becoming increasingly dry and hot due to climate change, and has been more reliable than in northern Italy over the last couple of years.

What a beautiful place it is.  The temperature is getting upto around the mid 20s, and everybody cycles up and down alongside the lake to visit the different towns. I think today I will force myself to get the SUP board out, pump it up and actually sit/stand on it on the lake – about 300m or so away from my pitch. It is abit of an unwieldy weight.

 

My only previous visit was around 2015 to Malcesine, further up the lake where the landscape around is mountainous, and a re-visit particularly in the van has been on the list since then.  Tomorrow I am going to pick up friend no 1 Rachel from Verona airport for her 2nd visit to my establishment, so the previous trip obviously didn’t put her off.  After the first night at my current campsite we will be ensconced for the rest of the week at a campsite in Torbole, almost at the north head of the lake. I have upgraded the guest accommodation to a blackout tent, but still without ensuite facilities.

I was thinking I might upgrade my awning to this, which I observed in amazement at the local markets.