I had yet to decide where I would head after Verona for the remainder of the trip making my way back upto Cologne and then to the Hook of Holland to Harwich ferry. The beauty of travelling out of season in a van particularly on the continent is that in most cases booking is not necessary so one can follow the weather, and change plans and directions.
One strong contender for inclusion at the outset were Salzburg and the Dolomites – a national park in the Italian Alps north of Verona and Venice – despite the fact that driving up into the mountains and then coming back down again was ‘not me’. Previous posts have made mention of this. In the end I settled on my initial ideas rather than avoiding mountains and heading even further east as Ljubljana and Vienna vied for contention, or west as I have missed France over the last 2 years.
Given a continuing very hot weather forecast I thought I would regroup and reset the van and equipment for single travel after 2 weeks of company at a campsite with cold water immersion potential. The not too far site Lago di Lago fitted the bill with what looked like a very inviting swimming pool and lake in the foothills of the mountains. Really beautiful area, small towns and villages, good roads, and a happy 2 days stay.
From there I set the satnav for Cortina di Ampezza, a ski resort at 1200m – the roads looked more ‘main’ and not too far. Lovely weather ongoing. Sailing along quite happily, one of those beeps occured with a warning message indicating a problem with the AdBlue system with instruction to consult the manual. At the start of the trip, I had complied with the usual warning message re needing to top up the levels, so was surprised and abit concerned. Pulled into a motorway service station, and the manual indicated to consult a main dealer for this! I decided to add some more AB and was very happy to see the message disappear and remain so. Onwards and upwards.
At a major junction, where I was due to turn onto the main road heading upto Cortina, a roadwork man told me in his patchy English and then Italian that the road ahead was closed and I could reach the town via the Lake Misurina road. It’s unexpected scenarios like this which cause a build up of tiredness even on relatively short journeys, as in this case I’m in the middle of a roundabout holding up traffic from 3 directions trying to process this information taking into account my least comfort zone factors as quickly as possible. My ‘mountains are not quite me’ sensations were growing by the minute. Anyway, I continued according to the advice, the road up to the 1800m pass was very good and traffic trundled along at a ‘safe’ for me pace. So far so good. The descent was slow following a cycling club peloton, necessitating much braking. I did try to use my gears, but the incline was pretty steep. At a certain point I started to smell burning, hoped it wasn’t me, and decided to carry on as it was now only a few kilometres to the end. Having finished the main descent and reached a junction in the town, the occupants of a car which had been following me all the way down, did seem to give me and/or the van a good stare as they overtook, adding to my concerns.
Camping Rocchetta was a further 2k downhill on the edge of the town, and I was very happy to finally get on my allocated pitch. The front passenger wheel was indeed the culprit, with a lingering burning smell. All the others were ok. I was there for 2 nights and late afternoon on the 2nd day, following encouragement from some New Zealanders to ask Reception for a garage to get it checked, I drove to the garage who referred me to another. Despite the brakes needing to be applied on some steep but short descents, the smell had dissipated and not returned. Thankfully a mechanic could speak English, had a look at the wheel and the disc through the hub fixings and advised me that in his opinion it would be ok, and next time to really use the gearing. Intending to leave the next morning and come down to the valleys – to a bigger town, and hence more auto garages – via a more main road, I allowed myself to be reassured with what I had wanted to hear. Interesting that my fears had been about the roads, but they were ok and instead this time it was the van brakes. Life is like a box of chocolates.
I love these upland meadows and wild flowers were still in evidence
I totally enjoyed the stay at the site, cycling and walking in the absolutely beautiful mountain landscape. A younger, fitter vibe was evident once again with walkers, mountain bikers and cycle-tourers in abundance. Cortina was undergoing major road and building works as it is co-hosting the 2025/26 winter olympics. Even though I only stayed in a small area of the Dolomites, I have been finally able to tick this box and see in real life why the images and accounts from other travellers had put them on my list.
After a siesta of sorts, a major faff ensued in trying to find the digital tickets which were not in my email anywhere. Fortunately I had taken a screenshot of my order, the monies had been paid, and I had created a portal account which eventually I found the right way to log into and retrieve them. I might well have been happy to have written off the price of two tickets and the experience in not finding them, thus avoiding the effort. What an admission.
Of course it was a worthwhile experience: the incredible location, a ‘cast of thousands’, wonderful orchestra and staging of the opera. But all this could not keep me awake as we approached the interval. In my defense I had driven the 300km or so from Lucca that morning. My guest, who had wondered whether her back would be upto the 3-hour seating arrangements, had more staying power and would have stayed to the end. But she sacrificed with me the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves so that her campsite wristband, in hindsight I should have got one also, would open the gate for us both at the bottom of the campsite, at around midnight when we got back. My portable chairs and water bottle were still there.
The guest accommodation was appreciated and for the princess and the pea, the doubled over foam playmat, plus a 5cm mattress topper, and then an airbed which had surfaced after many years from under the bed in the van provided the ultimate comfort. It also gave abit of elevation above the ants which subsequently got transferred to my bed when doing the ‘transition’ arrangements. It is fair to say that the ‘2 seconds up tent’ does prove somewhat of a challenge at the demontage, but is nevertheless an improvement on the previous incarnation.
