Italy, Sud Tirol July 2017

So just reminding you how we ended off the previous post..I made a small mistake which lead us to the wrong country.

Anyway lets not dwell on that…so its quite late and we need to get to the camp. We chose one next to a lake in Northern Italy. As you all know Tom Tom was re-programmed and we are following along gaily to her instructions hoping we don’t get there and its full. We turn down the road and she announces, your destination is on the left. In we go and I jump out to ask if they have a space. The Italian gentleman nods his head vigorously and whisks away our passports ( we find in Italian camp sites , they take your passports until you leave and settle the bill). He asks us to pay straightaway as we are only staying one night. He tells us to find a spot, looks at us in disgust when we ask for wifi password. We find a nice spot and set up and off we go to do our evening explore of the camp site.

Well the toilets don’t have toilet paper, you have to take your own ( I must remember!) the showers and ablution block is a little dirty. Definitely no washing machine or hot water to wash dishes. We are a little surprised as we found this site on ACSI, which generally inspects the sites before listing them. The camp site is right next to a lake, called Lago di Cavazzo. we take a lovely walk toward the lake and ….what? What is this? Another camp site, right next door?? Ah-haaaa! We realize we went to the wrong camp site. Now it all makes sense, this camp owner has worked out most people arrive at his place by mistake! So whip them in, take the money and he does not have to do any marketing…

But we stay ( we have already paid), and we have a lovely meal and a couple of drinks. Happy as Larry. But we can’t face the showers, so the next morning we have a quick wash and off we go.

We are now traveling in the Sudtirol, Italy.  We are moving towards the Bolzano/Brenner pass where we will cross over into Austria on our way home. The scenery as we drive towards the Lago di Caldonazzo is lovely. The first surprise is a lake called Lago Cornino, which we come across by accident and I make Chris screech on the brakes. Its amazing, a clear clear turquoise blue lake. the water is so clear we can watch a small bird dive under and see it clearly swimming under the water.

Around lunchtime we decide to stop in a little village for lunch, and now we

cannot find one sign for a restaurant. What in Italy there are normally one thousand (slight embellishment) places to stop and eat. So we just turn towards a village and decide to take a chance to find something.

 

 

SO lets just say , thank goodness, Chris is the one who chooses this restaurant off the website. Now just to find it. We have tom-tom instructing us, but its a small village with small streets and we keep missing the turn and we have to drive around. Again and again we go around, and now I am getting shouted at, again! Eventually we park and walk. We walk into the restaurant and maybe we should have got the message when we saw the copy of the Michelin guide artfully arranged on the cash desk, but we sit down. And then we look around and I know I am in for a treat. See serves you right for shouting at me my love, now its going to cost you big time. Della Libera

So yes it was a little over the booodget, (way over), but it was a great meal. It was listed in the Michelin book, but not starred) The best part of traveling is when we order the meal from the waitress (chefs wife) who cannot speak a word of English and speaking to us in a mix of Italian and Spanish. We did perfectly well and had such a delicious meal. Chris even had some wine, I had some prosecco, we had pudding and coffee and the best time. This is what it is all about, discovering gems like this and being so proud of ourselves for our communication skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we head for the lake and the camp site we had chosen. The area is around Lago di Caldonazza, which is close to Trento in the Sud Tirol. We had chosen a lovely spot named after Christopher(cristafora something ) and off we go to check in. Hah! the girl on reception looks at me in disbelief , “no reservation, sorry no room” I ask for a suggestion and she needs dies laughing, no ways are we getting anywhere around here. It season you know! but she did give us a letter to another camp site, away from this lake and says we could try and as she has referred us , we get a 10% discount. But no first we have to see for ourselves , so we drive up and down the lake side going into each camp site with a hopeful look on our faces. NO stop not our faces, MY face. Chris makes me go into each reception asking and looking foolish when they shake there heads in amazement that we have not booked. Ok so we are not staying at these lakes. So we decide to find this other site and really really hope they have a space. Chris is chilled, I am hot and bothered and irritated. The camp is called Due Laghi and

its also near a lake in a place called Levico Terme. It’s huge and so they have space, but Chris spots a sosta as well so he decides to take this option. How it works is that on the outside of a lot of these camp sites, they offer a parking spot with electric and access to the ablutions. You don’t get a fancy grass area to sit in, but you can still take out your awning and set up tables and chairs. Essentially you are camping in the parking lot. Hmmfff! well what can I say…

actually later I realized it was the best option. This camp site was huge , the ablutions were not that clean and the wifi was crap, so I am glad we only paid a little and we had a great time. Maybe I am not such a princess after all.

The camp had access to a private beach on the lake, pretty. It had a restaurant bar which had decent wifi so we sat down and watched the action. It was a lovely atmosphere although big and noisy. They had a kids club and as we sat there the kids were being led in a dance competition and having the best time. Music was pumping and the weather was warm and we had 2 drinks each so the booodget was forgotten and it did not matter that we were camping in the car park!

After dinner we even went for a walk to the local ice cream shop for gelato.

Life is good..