Well the Italian Adventure is over as we are now in Austria.
We left Pompeii and headers across the country to the Adriatic Coast, which in many ways is the forgotten coast of Italy. Our first night's stay was under gum trees on the beach at the coastal village of Manfredonia. Sounds great so far you'd think but wait there's more. The place was full of Manfreds and Kurts and Dieters and Johans. It was Little Germany, even the Italians had forsaken the place and for good reason. It wasn't the foreigners that were the problem it was the locals, for Manfredonia is actually Mosquitodonia. The place was crawling with Mossies and not the regular kind. I'm talking F16 size monsters. The sides of the van were covered in them. We had more bug squat on the windscreen from just driving out of the campground than in a whole days travel anywhere else on our trip. We left the Manfreds and Mossies behind and headed up the coast.
Our next stop was north of Pescara at a the beautiful little resort town of Giulianova (pronounced Julia-Nova) literally New Julia. That's not to be confused with the fake New Julia in Australia. The Italian one actually lives up to expectations. We stayed at an awesome campground right on the beach - minus Mossies. The beaches here are not a patch on Aussie ones but the sand is clean and the water clear and warm. There is a bike and walking trail that stretches 42 kilometres along the coast. We stayed there almost a week just relaxing and wandering along the coast. We took the train up into the mountains inland to the town Terano but the place was grotty just like most of towns here - building defaced and rubbish everywhere along the roads.
After refreshing our spirits we headed north and ended up in a little campground near Pesaro in a national park - Camping Panorama but it didn't have one. No truth in advertising here in Italy folks. Every picture tells the wrong story. "That's not a Ferrari and how come it got kiddy peddles". The place was notable for the massive thunderstorm at 5 am. The lightning turned night into day, the thunder was deafening and the rain and hail almost totalled our awning. Margie and I were saturated in the dark fixing it so the torrent of rain would run off it. Then to make matters worse the pitch was grass covering clay and we almost got bogged getting out. Time to move on again.
The next place was Cervia just south of Ravenna. Another small resort town on the coast. We only stayed two nights and decided to head straight to Venice as the weather was changing and we were just about over the beach. The town was nice enough if a little over commercialised but the beach was crowded with beach bars and restaurants where you had to buy something to use the beach. And the beach wasn't that great anyway.
Out last stop in Italy was Venice. Just like Paris and Florence we just keep coming back. We love this place. We stayed in an excellent little campground only minutes from Piazza Rome, which is the transport hub and last place you can drive to. It's foot or boat traffic from there on. We wandered through the crooked streets peering into shop windows then sat and sipped cappuccino at little cafés in shaded nooks by the canals. We revisited familiar thoroughfares and also found new routes we had missed last time. Armed with a 12 hour transport pass we took to the water and sailed to Murano island, where most of the Venetian glass is made. The island is beautiful and a lot less crowded than Venice Island. The houses are brightly painted much like Venice used to be, though most of the main island is faded, peeling away or in some parts propped up with scaffolding. If you've seen the Movie Casino Royale you'll get the picture.
The ferry took us on to Burano a smaller island but just as picturesque as Murano. This is the home of lacework and embroidery. We bought a beautiful hand made tablecloth that came with placemats. We didn't buy any glassware this time as everything that took our fancy was so delicate it never would have reached home undamaged. Our round trip took us to Lido next which has a beachfront on the side that faces the bay. We came here in the 70's but we couldn't recognise anything familiar. The beach is pretty average for a place this famous and you just can't get away from the overwhelming feeling of this place being rather shabby. The last leg of our ferry trip took us back to Venice and all the way along the Grand Canal, past St Mark's Square with its splendid cathedral and imposing Doge's Palace, under Rialto Bridge and back to Piazza Rome.
Our journey through Italy was now complete and though we had a great time and visited some of our favourite places along with a short list of new ones the overwhelming impression of present day Italy is one of disappointment. This country had real promise back in the Seventies but it has regressed in so many ways. The roads, the rubbish, the Roma and the ruin are the lasting memories.
It's what Margie calls the Three G's - GRAFITTI, GARBAGE & GIPSIES
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