Portofino, Florence, Chioggia and Venice

05.06

We biked to the beach in the little fishing village of Riva Trigoso.  However being spoilt by our New Zealand beaches, we ended up biking back to Sestri Levante to our favourite beautiful beach, ‘Baia del Silenzo, (Bay of Silence)’.  Less than half the number of people here today compared to the Public Holiday crowds a couple of days ago and it’s magic! We biked back through the Square where we stopped and enjoyed watching an acrobat swinging from wires to funky music, a great vibe!  This is part of the Hans Christian Andersen Festival which has just started this evening and is fun and games primarily for children. The local beach, Baia delle Favole’ (Bay of Fairy tales) was named by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen who stayed here for a long time.  We biked via the Port to get the ferry timetable for Portofino as we plan to go tomorrow, another dream come true.   

 06.06   

We bought ferry tickets to Portofino from the Camp (35 euros for 2) and went into town for an explore prior to our 2.15pm departure time.  Sestri Levante has a charm of it’s own with it’s car free narrow streets, alfresco cafes and eateries and it’s Genoese buildings.

 

 

We hopped on the ferry for a glorious ride passed numerous little beach resorts with harbours with the mountains  dominating the background.  We arrived at San Fruttuoso for a 45 minute stopover to visit the Abbey and Church built in the 10th – 13th Century and situated in the Park of Portofino.  This is a Marine Protected Area with great snorkelling and walking trails.  It’s hot and it’s Saturday and there are a lot of people swimming in the cool crystal clear water in the Bay.  We ate our picnic lunch and went exploring and ran out of time for a much needed swim.

 

 

Back on board and around the Peninsula to Portofino situated in the inlet and a one hour stopover.  A beautiful little town reminding us of St. Tropez and Symi in the Greek Islands.  Buildings of pastel colours, a port with some very expensive boats and a castle on the hill.  We walked the stairs for a great view and then an explore of the streets and town below.  It’s very quaint and laid back whilst quietly oozing wealth. 

 

There are gorgeous trendy and funky fashion shops along the narrow streets as well as jewellery catering for the older, wealthy lady.  Great alfresco eateries and cafes around the Square. A nice British guy who took our photo for us told us he lived in Monaco and sold boats, big boats!  He said the big boats in the port here were worth around 60 million euros and there are only 7,000 in the world, the smaller ones, 2-3 million euros.   He said the company he worked for sold boats starting from 120 million euros.  Very interesting!   We didn’t buy one!

07.06

 

After ‘goodbyes’ ensuring we had Danilo’s email address we hit the road.  We travelled via La Spezia, Lucca and Pistoia through the Appennine Peaks dotted with villages, passing corn crops and land ploughed ready for planting, vineyards and cherry trees through the tunnels to the Mugello Region in Tuscany and ‘Camping Mugello Verde’, 25kms from Florence and 2kms from the train station at San Piero a Sieve, where you can train to Florence for 13.60 euros return for two. 

We met Arturo (the big red cat) and a very helpful lady at Reception.  We found a great pitch on the second level in the shade then we hit the pool.  It’s crowded, as it’s Sunday and a special family day also allows the locals to use it.  We had a giggle as everyone in the pool is wearing a ‘stylie’ striped cap and we’re told this is one of the pool regulations (unless you are bald), before entering the pool. Prior, Col had looked at the ‘regulation list’ and thought the picture meant you couldn’t wear hair gel!

Wearing our newly purchased striped caps, (no your not getting a photo) green and red for Italy, we joined the striped mob!  Bliss!

08.06     

Up early and the free camp shuttle dropped us at the train station.  Thank goodness we’re getting good at working the ‘train ticket machine’ and were able to board the train five minutes later, heading to Florence. Thirty minutes later we were in Florence and after receiving some good tips from the Tourist Office we spent a wonderful day in this majestic city. 

 

 

We walked the narrow streets, across the many Piazzas (Squares), visiting all the sites including Michelangelo’s House, we walked across Ponte Vecchio and along the River Arno.  It’s 35 degrees, blue skies and no wind, the gelatos ‘worked a treat’!  Onward and up the stairs to Piazzale Michelangelo for a great panorama dominated by the Opera Dome (Museo dell’Opera del Duomo) and the Cathedral (Cattedrale di S. Maria del Flore).  We had a ‘Mama’s Spaghetti’ lunch in a little alley and drank copious amounts of sparkling water.

At the end of the day we followed a tip from the Tourist Office and caught the number 13 bus (or you can take number 12) from the train station for an hour long ride around the outskirts/boulevards/parks, 2 euros each.  Evidently the ‘Hop on  Hop off’ buses follow a similar route as they are unable to go into the centre of the City, 20 euros each.  

We trained back to the little village of San Piero a Sieve where we had a cold beer and nuts  at the local cafe before being picked up by our camp shuttle at 6.20pm.  We swam in the camp pool after an amazing day!   

09.06    

‘Capped up’ and rearing to go we swam in the pool which we had to ourselves, wonderful!

Lay on the loungers and relaxed. This is a very pleasant, relaxing camp and a great base for Florence and further afield.   

10.06

 

 

Another lovely day around the pool!

 

 

 

 

11.06

Sundays have been our only travel days in Italy so today being Thursday, we noticed the high volume of trucks even at this early hour!  The inner lane is blocked back to back with trucks,  we pulled out and zoomed passed in the middle lane!  We travelled though the hills dotted with ancient villages passed farmsteads with large fields of corn, vegetable patches, vineyards and cherry orchards.  We skirted Bologna, via Rovigo to the Adriatic Coast to the beach resort town of Sottomarina and ‘Camping Adriatico’, 16 euros. .  We were guided into a great pitch in the shade, with a shade cloth over the top, it’s 35-38 degrees, evidently hotter than normal for this time of year!   They also gave us a free pass to use the camp’s private beach over the road, this included sun loungers and umbrella for the duration of our stay.

They told us to get to Venice we could either catch the ferry, 14 euros each, or bus and ferry, 20 euros each.  The latter also includes free ‘Actv’ lines transport in Venice.

Sottomarina is a commune of Chioggia which is situated 2kms away, and part of the province of Venice. Like Venice and Chioggia, it’s an island cut into pieces by canals with bridges joining it together.

We did a recce around the campsite and pool area, there are some beautiful A-class campers here with every conceivable extra, probably no change out of 100,000 euros.  Then across the road to the ‘English/Spanish style’ beach swamped with sun loungers, umbrellas, and changing huts and Italians lapping up the sun.  It has a 70’s tourist feel to it but not particularly attractive.

 

Next job, check out the ferry office in Chioggia.  Joined the other early evening bikers across the bridge along the ‘fishy’ wharf, lined with little cafes and docked fishing trawlers into the centre.  Chioggia is known as the ‘little Venice’ with it’s beautiful canal and bridges.  The colourful market adds to the great vibe in the cafe lined main street and square.

 

12.06  

Up  early and biked into Chioggia where we purchased a one day pass into Venice, 20 euros each.  The ferry took us to Pellestrina, the first Island in the Lagoon.  Here a bus met us and took us up the island and onto a car ferry to the second island, Alberoni, and into Lido where we caught another ferry to Venice, the total trip taking about one and a half hours.    

 

 

 

 

Heading toward St Mark’s Square, Venice looks magnificent even at a distance.  We had forgotten how beautiful this city is!  Second to Paris in Pam’s favourite city list.      

 

 

 

 

We walked the Square, the Basilica of San Marco, the Doge’s Palace, through the alleyways and over the many beautiful canals with their gondolas, along the narrow streets lined with shops to the Grand Canal where unfortunately the Rialto Bridge is half covered due to reparation. 

 

Everywhere you look there is stunning architecture, churches, museums and galleries, alfresco eateries and a great variety of food options.  We’ve  struck a day that’s not crowded and being traffic free it’s easy to move around.  Amazing navigation by the ferries and gondolas on the waterways, everything has to be transported by a boat of some kind. 

 

Later in the day, we took advantage of our one day pass and rode the ferries up and down the Grand Canal and around the port.  We had coffee below the Rialto Bridge and admired the view! Early evening we bussed, ferried and rode our bikes back to  camp where beer and pizza hit the spot. 

An amazing day and thanks to Don and Val for some great tips.  Hopefully our blog will be as useful to others as theirs has been to us.

As a footnote it’s interesting to mention that on 29 April 1945 New Zealand troops under Freyberg of the Eighth Army reached Venice and relieved the city and the mainland which were already in Partisan hands.   

13.06

We thought the vibrations at the back of the van were due to a different asphalt used on Italian roads but after Col crawled under the van he found a broken ‘bump rubber’ which cushions the springs.  We had planned to leave tomorrow for Croatia however with the assistance of the camp, Lefty has the Doctor coming to see him on Monday.  Hopefully it will be an easy fix.

We  rode our bikes along the beach road passing numerous campsites and over the water break where people are sunbathing on the rocks.  There are wooden buildings on stilts surrounded by large fishing nets attached to pulleys which are being manually lowered and bought up, some filled with small fish.  The wooden buildings are seafood restaurants and we can see and smell the fish being cooked.  What a great idea!

On our way back we joined the bikers into Chioggia and followed a beautiful bike path through Chioggia and around the Lagoon back into Sottomarina.  

14.06 

We woke to rain, good as it will cool things down!  Eased off during the day and our Italian neighbours bought over deep fried calamari for lunch – awesome!  In the afternoon a massive thunder and lightning storm, campers are battening down the hatches.

15.06

After Lefty’s doctor, Nicolo the Mechanic, had looked underneath the back wheel he told us the broken ‘bump rubber’ shouldn’t cause a problem but he would have a good look underneath at his garage tomorrow.

We biked along the bike path around the lagoon via Chioggia and discovered it continued around Sottomarina to the brown buildings (restaurants) on stilts with fish nets that we’ve named the ‘catch’n eateries’.

Off to the beach over the road for a swim!