Category Archives: Puru Hiko

Day 19 – The wrong Ninja Turtle

It should have been Titian, Hannah Gadsby was right (if that sentence makes no sense, go google Nanette and watch it right now. Go on, I’ll wait)! But from the beginning …

It was how it has always been – the second day is a lot more relaxed, somehow more impactful. There is more time, many things are not brand new anymore. Even Number 3 already had certain preferences and assumptions formed. All in all, just easier – if only … let’s back up:

It is good to start a day knowing there is no rush. Funny enough, more times than not that leads to a smoother take off than with a deadline looming. So was this day. Unfortunately, the Agent of Entropy did not get the memo and continued her work of forming a habit hitting mama in the face with anything within reach around 4am. In the end, I dragged both rebels out with me and we gave Nina an extra half an hour after our 6.30am wakeup buzz to recover as much as she could.

We did recover, as much as possible, and were on a good early bus into town even though Number 3 spent some time observing the morning playtime of our new Swiss neighbor’s dog. Arriving so nice and early, we opted for a pass on the boat and a stroll through Dorsoduro and San Polo. But even before that, having spotted a little bar / café recommendation on the lonely planet app called Adagio, we opted for an additional early morning meal and had a second round of croissants and coffee in this young and relaxed corner café. We were the only tourists here among many locals – it was a real joy observing the comings and goings, the familiarity among neighbors and students on their way to class stopping by for one more little caffeine boost.

The mood was set for some calm and leisurely churchgoing – the looking at 500-years-old artworks kind, not the Sunday kind. There are priceless pieces of Renaissance masters in almost every one of them – and all are available for no or a really small entrance fee (an all church pass would be 12 €, we opted for the 3€ for the three we ended up doing.

So, we marveled a while at Titians and Tintorettos, the Donatellos and Canovas! First at the Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari right next to our second breakfast stop. Then, a little walk later at the Chiesa Rettoriale di San Polo. I will mostly let the photos speak for themselves, but one of the artworks stood out for me. It was a newer piece, from the early Baroque. A huge monument to Doge Giovanni Pesaro in white and black marble and bronze. Really foreboding with four larger than life “moors” suffering the upper part on their shoulders. It sort of spoke to me, in its oppressive gloominess.

Right outside, Nina was stopped dead in her tracks. I don’t want to spoil a surprise too much, but she found a present for her mom in the cutest of shops. It had hand-made prints and little sculptures and was definitively preferable as a source of mementos over the myriad of tourist trappy “Murano Glass” shops. Nina was very happy to have found something crafted with care and personality.

Next up, the idea was to go for an early lunch with the option of adding another meal at some point. We hit a small bar selling cicchetti (a bit like Venetian tapas). They were good, especially with a glass of the house red, but a: did not offer much vegetarian variety and b: could not quite match our superb experiences in Spain and Basque Country. Not quite filled up, we hopped on a boat for a bit of a change in scenery.

Gladly, I had read beforehand that the Arsenale is not open for visitors except on special occasions. Seeing some of the fortifications in the Castello district that were the foundation of Venice’s might for many centuries was good enough for me today. The changes in architecture, but also the general vibe was interesting to us, regardless.

Sadly, the spot we chose for second lunch (and Nina’s first real veggie meal) had closed in the meantime – so Nina ordered a pizza and we scouted ahead. We met up in a small park at the lagoon facing side of the island, where men were currently hard at work with finishing touches on art installations for the 2021 Biennale of Venice. More art, but a very different century. But for free and as a backdrop for a quick lunch, who would complain?

A minor disaster manifested at the end of this, unfortunately. I had, against all better judgement, once again put my phone and my all-day bus pass in the same pocket and it must have fallen out when fetching the phone for directions – and it was lost for good this time. When we arrived at the vaporetto stop, things got worse by the fact that the ticket booth was closed at this time, against what the timetable said. With no seller in sight and the bus approaching, I decided to risk it. This dock did not have automated gates like some others, so if push comes to shove, I could faint genuine ignorance :S

In the end, nothing happened, and we managed to make it to the top rated gelateria unbothered. The ice cream was good, but we are in a way cursed with an excellent ice cream parlor in Höchst, so we were still left waiting for that absolute “wow” of a Gelato to convince us to move to Italy 😀

I made my whole family suffer for my mistake (but also tried to avoid another hand-wringing time for Nina) and suggested to walk back to the bus terminal as a good-bye token in Venice. Number 3 trusted me and took it as another adventure. It was not -that- far anyway. 20 minutes as per Google maps. On the way, I had an eye out for bite-sized roadside attractions on the Lonely Planet app. All in all, a very enjoyable send-off for our time here. Even though I managed to develop a blister on the sole of my foot – first time since switching to barefoot shoes. In perfect 3-year-old logic, the highlight of the walk for Number 3 was seeing one mostly whole tomato floating in a canal – he talked about few other things …

Number 3 fascinated by the dog of our Swiss neighbours playing

Day 18 – La Serenissima or Venice! Finally!

Okay, just as a warning, there will probably be a lot of squeeing. It is my first time in Venice. And Venice is one of these places that you know something about without ever having been there. It’s the city in the water. Also, being in Venice during carnival and going all out on a costume is on my bucket list.

The day started on our lovely campground. Flo organized two-day passes for the public transport in and around Venice which will make getting around so much easier. We packed up and left. Of course, I forgot the “Italian road trip” Lonely planet, which is the only guide book we brought, on the campground while the Venice guide book is still at home. -.- Oh well. At least we had the app.

Off we went. The bus left super close to the campground. Taking the land bridge to Venice, we already saw the sea and then buildings started to appear on the horizon. Venice!

The bus stop is where everybody got off for their own personal Venice experience. We opted to use the “face first” approach for the city and take a vaporetto to San Marco. Vaporettos are water busses which take you around Venice. Line 1 goes along the Canale Grande and stops at every lamp post. However, since we just wanted to get to our starting point, we used line 2, which took us to San Marco quicker but on a less picturesque way along the outskirts.

A big task she had picked for herself there …

So, our day started on a boat. We were lucky enough to get seats outside, put our noses in the wind and eventually have a good view on a couple of amazing buildings, including the doge’s palace. Piazza San Marco was our first destination. It was already really hot in the sun and it was only like 10.15am. Then again, it’s just beautiful. You walk around and everything around you is just so lovely to look at. We are really fortunate to travel now as Piazza San Marco was nowhere near the level of crowds it usually draws. As our half-Italian friend put it when he saw a picture “Wow, it’s empty!”. J

So this was our start. Looking at the doge’s palace, San Marco basilica, the tower and the buildings surrounding Piazza San Marco…we just wanted to stay here for a bit. This is why we sat down in Cafe Florian, which has been around for the last 300 years, and the prime spot to look at the buildings and take it all in. It also has the most expensive coffee Flo (10.50 € a cup) had ever had. No matter, we were here to enjoy ourselves. We had coffee and tea and some macaroons and life was good. J

Coffee time moved straight into lunch time. Number 3 got hungry so we started walking around a little on our way to a little lunch place. As soon as you turn away from Piazza San Marco, the city quiets down. Sometimes, we were the only people in an alleyway. Just taking the city in through walking is something we really enjoy. The Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal was busier again and in the sunshine and thus too hot to linger.

Further we went, into the little alleys with tiny bridges over canals, here a turn, there a tunnel…it’s a maze and I don’t know how people get around without google. You can tell who’s local just by how confidently people turn corners into what looks like a house entrance but turns out to be a tunnel underneath a house and your only way to get to where you’re going.

We had lunch at a tiny whole-in-the-wall type place which made amazing pizzas. So far on our trip, it was pasta all the way. It was really nice to change to the other staple Italian food for once. It was good pizza. Even Number 3 enjoyed it and he’s not the biggest fan of pizza. As a side note: Number 3 was utterly charmed by the city. It had everything he wanted: Boat busses, water and food; including sweet treats. After lunch, we went on another boat ride, this time straight through the city until we got to the railway station. We didn’t mean to stop here but Number 3 needed to go to the toilet and in a classic move, we went into the wrong entrance first and had a little tour of all of the railway station in our search. Number 3 was delighted by the trains on display – he thought this to be a highlight of the day.

I had looked up a pastry shop where I wanted to have afternoon coffee really close to the railway station. Also, the railway station has a vaporetto stop which is just *so* convenient. From there, it was just a couple of minutes to Dal Mas. Oh, they had great stuff! Still being rather full, we all could just get one thing but they were all delicious.

Our first day in Venice was a Sunday which meant that churches were closed for tourists as regular mess was held. Luckily, San Marco Basilica opened up at 2pm for tourists. We decided to get out of the sun and into a church. Another boat ride. By now we were professionals at riding a water bus.

The line to get into the basilica looked long, but it took 10 minutes tops to get in. We had our temperature checked, used disinfectant hand gel, got an audio guide for Flo and looked around inside. There is much to look at from the mosaics in the entry hallway to the colourful Venetian marble floors to the Pala d’Oro, for which we paid another 5 € to see. Given that the admission into the church is only 3 € per person, we could easily justify that extra expense. J

After this, we did a good bye tour of Piazza San Marco. Both kids were really, really tired and it was getting close to dinner time. So we took another boat, went back to Piazza Roma and took the bus back to the campground.

Such a great day. Number 3, especially, is the best city explorer I know. He walked so much today!

A “bus stop”, venice style. The boat on the yellow pier is one of the water busses

Day 17 – Flashbacks

Where others might spend their whole holiday, today must suffice for us on this campground. Venice is calling. Slowly but surely, we have built up genuine excitement for the Floating City. But before the leaving comes the packing. We took our good time. There are still some stragglers holding on to the last bit of moisture from our washing misadventure. Plus, the remaining distance to our Venetian base will be covered in no time on the autostrade. I did not share the reasons for my laid back-ness with Nina entirely, so she was a bit stressed out when I gave in to Number 3’s request for a final playground visit.

Good morning Alba! – Good morning Agent!

But, as these things go – after we had had a brief chat to set the expectations straight it turned out it was quite fortunate. A few newer arrivals were also playing – and as the Agent of Entropy had another chance to socialize with the little ones, Number 3 got the chance to tag along for some livestock exploration adventure (he took off with the others all on his own, with our permission). He talked a lot about this little adventure. Even with those “delays”, we left at 10am and arrived at the targeted Padua parking garage by 10.45am.

I did not technically need a lot of charging, but when I saw that they had EV marked parking with unmetered power outlets, I thought – must try. Unfortunately, they were not only unmetered but also unpowered :/

The string of disappointment hit its crescendo though when we, after some looking around, found the entrance to our top ticket item in the itinerary for today: The Scrovegni Chapel, full of masterpiece frescoes by Giotto. Nina’s home turf – as a master of art history (literally, btw) would not let us in today – tickets had to be booked one day in advance. Nina was, justifiably, gutted. The deal was that we do a quick highlights’ stint, with art history for Nina and natural science history for me. I felt really bad now – even more so when this hitch prompted us to double check for the next item, the Palazzo Bo of the University of Padua, and snatch the last few tickets for the only guided tour in English available to us today. Spain should have taught us a lesson, we mused, but so far Italy has just been too effortless in this regard and we had let our guard down. Well, that and the lack of a physical Lonely Planet guidebook to plan.

The starting time for the tour allowed only for a quick lunch, but gladly the Lonely Planet app came to the rescue here. We dived into a real cool and friendly student bar / noodle house and got good quality lunch of carbonara, cacio e pepe and a poke bowl for under 30 €. Thus, fully reenergized we crossed our fingers for the hobbits’ stamina to hold and headed for the tour.

What a great tour it was. Of course, the big ticket items of “the podium from which a young Galileo Galilei had lectured” and the “world’s very first anatomical theater” were really cool. But the big thing for me was the history of the redesign in the 40s at the hands of Gio Ponti. Seeing what an architect and designer can accomplish when given the reins to do so is impressive. More so remembering that he did not work with a blank canvas, but an in parts 600-year-old structure at the time. The respect he payed for the past while also creating really cool designs will stick with me for a while.

Now a 45-minute guided tour that stretched in to 90 minutes in the end is quite the stretch for two younglings. They were a bit to manage at times, but we were able to do the full tour and all but the especially rude French lady on the tour put up with us with friendly encouragement. Thank you kids – that was amazing.

It was also our curtain call for Padua, even skipping the usual “gelato and go” routine. We did stop one more time, with both little ones fast asleep in the car, about 5 minutes from the campground to restock on ice for the cooler and a few essentials.

The campground – for a city camp chosen mostly out of convenience rather than the place itself – turned out to be amazing. Really fair price for Italy, our second cheapest yet, it has maybe the cleanest and sleekest facilities yet. We had Number 3 in a heartbeat when he saw that they have a whole bathroom, shower included, with every item in kid size. From there on, he demanded for every trip that he would only go in “his bathroom”. Seems like a good omen. Tomorrow – the Queen of the Adriatic.

Day 16 – Calm before the storm

We took a rest day at Agriturismo Alba. After two cities in a row, we needed a bit of a breather for the next two cities ahead of us. With this in mind, we relaxed for a day.

She’s going to be a professional climber someday

Number 3 really wanted to spend some time at the playground and the Agent tagged joyfully along. We were the only ones on the playground this morning. Bringing our sand toys with us was enough to keep both of them busy for quite a while. The Agent loved the slide though and in no time started climbing up the ladder all by herself.

Doing laundry was overdue so we put on the washing. Unfortunately, the machine was broken somehow and all our clothes were dripping wet when we took them out. The sky was overcast for most of the day, so it would take forever for them to dry.

We had a slow morning with some blogging and then a nap. Well, the kids had a nap as they alternated their time asleep: The Agent started and sleep through 1 ½ episodes of Benjamin Blümchen (audio play for kids about the adventures of an elephant who can talk) which is when Number 3 fell asleep and the Agent was wide awake again. Oh well. No sleep for tired mamas. 🙂

Like this, the madness even looks pretty

When nap time was over, Flo urged us to jump into the lovely pool. I hadn’t even seen it by this point. The sun had come out though so I was persuaded.

The pool was immaculate, blue and surrounded by a lovely manicured green lawn. I got into the water fist, which was up to about my waist right next to the ladder. That was as deep as I would go in today, I decided, as the water was really quite cold. The Agent in her pushy manner nearly threw herself in before she realized how cold the water was and refused to be put into it at all. Her screaming quickly convinced me not to try again. So we got out, changed into something dry (or baby-naked in the Agent’s case) and watched Flo and Number 3 splash around until Number 3’s lips turned blue about 10 minutes in.

The pool excursion ended, a little earlier than expected, with a lovely hot shower. Flo even improvised delicious dinner with the asparagus tips we’d bought two days ago and the potatoes we’d carried since we left home. XD

The Agent of Entropy was in A LOT of pain because her molars and a few bonus incisors are breaking through at the same time. We prepped her a little with pain relief before bringing her to bed in the hope that we might get a quiet night as another gaming session was scheduled. Indeed, we had a quiet, kids-free evening and when we went into the tent later on both kids had crawled towards the middle of the tent and were cuddling. Sometimes, the little ones just melt your heart.

Early morning – these two are just two handful!

Day 15 – The two Towers

Not many would put up with a campground like this – at least Germans, that is. And maybe I might have been upset, too, would we have been asked for some extortionist rate. But at 16.20€ this was the cheapest camp so far, by 10 euros. All we wanted was 50 m² to park and some electricity plus a hole in the ground. One could argue, we got even a bit more than that. No stink, no terrible noise. Ok, the mozzies, but that is not really the campground’s fault. I had recharged 70km of range – by that point we basically slept for free :D. Plus, we were very motivated to leave, so we were on the road by a record breaking 8:55 am!

First time I managed to get an Italian charger working with an app (no roaming 🙁 )

On our way to Bologna we hit our first traffic jam, but nothing to get upset about. A bit more annoying was the amount of research I had to do to find a way to get to a charge point close to the center without going into the Z.T.L. and risking a 87€ fine again. I had two good charge points marked, but by the time we arrived at the first one, both were marked as blocked. At least the provider’s app let me know before having to drive around in circles. We settled on a pair of chargers 5 minutes further out and for once, the app worked fine, at least. It even has PayPal support. Go ENEL X. I still can’t wait until the EU gets their act together and will legislate mandatory EU roaming for all charge point operators.

Bologna enchanted us right from the first couple of streets in. Very different in feel from Parma, the most noticeable change is the enormously wide arcades along many of the otherwise narrow streets of the old city center. It had a bit of an oriental or moorish vibe to it and reminded us of southern Iberia. The mood was different, too. Much younger, edgier. No doubt this was the result of the significant student population in the city of the western world’s oldest University (feel free insert your own “but actually … “ about this pop quiz level info bite at the next public toilet of your convenience. I am not Tom Scott :D).

Since we were so early, we had time for some sightseeing before lunch. Northern Italy, especially Renaissance era stuff throws out our sense for historical time and place a bit. Everything is bigger than it “should be” or looks too modern for its context. Us northern Europeans really were the primitive barbarians at the gates for so long. The Palazzo d’Accursio for example has an internal stairwell built flat and wide enough that horse drawn carriages could go directly up to the 1^st floor to deliver the papal legate to their chamber added in 1587.

After a brief round through the next Duomo (photo ticket 2€ 😊 ), we strolled through even narrower lanes towards our lunch spot, window shopping at the many hole-in-the-wall shops offering fresh produce, handmade pasta or other delicacies. Bolonga is such a food town, we could probably spend a week here without ever boring our taste buds.

The lunch place was called Bottega Portici, located right beneath the landmark of the two leaning towers. The Bottega was a stark contrast to yesterday, and probably quite edgy for Italy. The idea is to provide top quality food but in a hyper affordable way. The result was absolutely perfect – at least for us. Via fast food-style self-service ordering at large touch screens, you get your pick between a few pasta options, sides and desserts. Then, you get your ticket and collect everything when ready. That way they can provide handmade tagliatelle with Ragu alla Bolognese for 7€.

the kids are waking up too early – could you tell?

Water is free, filtered tap by a large margin our favorite idea. There is no reason to cart water around anywhere in Europe in our book. The food was ready super quickly and the whole place had a real cool vibe – and clean restrooms :D. We decided it was time to call it. The days are getting warmer and we were looking forward to a quiet day at the only other camp along our route listed on Rustiek Kamperen (a Dutch site we used extensively on our last trip).

Of course, we could not leave before one brief detour via another Gelateria. From the Lonely Planet again, this one was another excellent recommendation, although I went for decidedly too much chocolate in my pick of flavours. The stroll back to the car, maybe with the exception of the last two blocks, was a similarly enjoyable experience. The shade and cool mood provided by the arcades was just our thing.

Fully charged once more, the last hour to Agriturismo Alba went by quickly. Once again, the wee ones fell asleep peacefully rather quickly. The camp itself looked like exactly the thing we were looking for in a site for a day off: A grassy patch with lots of trees around for shade and a lovely view across some wheat (well, some sort of grain) fields.

You get what you pay for, I guess. But these toll roads make for quick travel from town to town

Day 14 – Parma where the ham comes from

We were in a good spot to start early for Parma. Camping Arizona was still muddy from last night’s rain and the mud bogged us down a little, physically as well as mentally. It was 10am before we left, having had to pack the awning still wet.

the streets are narrowing, we are getting closer to our goal

In good time, we arrived in Parma, only to be mind-boggled again…this time by the old inner city, which as a surprise for us had limited access for cars. Google maps led us around in circles, through houses and into places we were not supposed to go. We didn’t quite understand it at the time but the inner city has zones that you’re not supposed to enter with a car. Electric cars would have been allowed in, though only with a permit that we would have needed to organize days ahead.

We just desperately tried to get to a charging point all of which were in the inner city with no good way to get there. It took us quite a while and little bit of driving through zones we weren’t supposed to be in to find a free charger and start exploring the city on foot. We will find out in a few months if that will cost us a bit extra.

Our first point of interest was a prosciutteria where Flo bought ham to take home and some salami and cheese to consume on the road. I would have loved to buy fresh pasta but we have no way of cooling it (and carry way too much food already) so it would probably spoil. Having secured these before lunch we went to “Officina Alimentare Dedicata Parma” where I’d booked a table to break our dry spell around lunch time. Parma, we had decided, was going to be all about food for us.

I feel that with both Flo’s love for savory treat and Nina’s sweet tooth, we have to focus hard on portion control for Number 3 …

We dug in. Starters included both a local cheese and a cold meats platter. Both kids dug into Flo’s salami, Number 3 also liked my parmigiano reggiano. The Agent just sat there, slowly letting her piece of sausage dissolve in her mouth. We were quite impressed.

For mains, I had gnocchi with pesto, Number 3 went for tortellini, the Agent of Entropy got a torta fritta and Flo had buffalo tartar. Finally, the dessert I ordered was a lemon pie dipped in white chocolate with pistachios and cream on top. It turned out not to be entirely “my” dessert as I had to share it with Number 3.

Full to the brim, we got up and walked around a little more. We checked out the Baptistery and the Duomo, but soon after headed to the car to get to the next campground. Before settling in for the night, we had a short stop at a gigantic coop to stock up on things the Agent can eat as well as fresh milk. It took Flo and Number 3 45 minutes to come out of the grocery store again, getting lost twice in the huge complex.

Our campground for the night turned out to be quite…basic. It had the feeling of a rest stop near the Autobahn. It was the only option close to Bologna and we’d only stay one night – so okay. The mosquitoes were a different thing though. I got bitten so often that I retreated to the tent. After a mosquito sat on the Agent of Entropy’s temple, she came into the tent with me. Still full from our indulgence at lunch time, we had a light muesli dinner and went to bed soon after.

ok, bare with me: This is the Agent grabbing my phone, activating the camera and taking a non-garbage picture. We were impressed when we saw this

Day 13 – Thunderstruck

I like to socialize with strangers, a lot more than Nina at least. So, I struck up a few brief conversations with other guests – and connected a little with another couple over having a one year old on the road, but also through COVID. Most hilariously they were called Florian and Janina and their son’s name had been on our short list as well 😀 Seeing that as a bit of a sign, we used the opportunity to give our one year old the chance to interact with another kid their age. The Agent, at least blessed with having Number 3 for company, has met kids her age maybe a hand full of times. Number 3 at this age had some group activity on thrice a week.

The blanket with toys was held in high esteem by the little ones

The two were soon joined by a third baby on parental leave and there was all of a sudden a bit of a party. I think all of us really enjoyed seeing the little ones play with other kids for once. Number 3 joined in for a bit and then attached himself to Florian, inspecting every nook and cranny of their considerably larger RV.

In short, we took our good time packing up, mixed with a bunch of socializing and a bit of praising some of our gear. After all, we had only one thing roughly planned – to stop for lunch in Cremona and then check in at the camp near Parma for tomorrow’s city exploration day. In the end, a last round of excellent coffees was had and we said our goodbyes to everyone.

Number 3 said goodbye with a bit of a meltdown. There was a ping pong ball lying around after the kids had been playing with it in the morning. A car which left the campground drove straight over it and it explode quite spectacularly. Number 3 had started to run towards it to save it but was held back by Nina…when it was broken, he screamed for about ten minutes on the top of his lungs. It hadn’t even been his in the first place but Florian felt bad enough to give him one of their remaining oing pong ball as a farewell gift. He treasures it.
Nina

We made good time on the toll “Autostrade” and decided to combine shopping with a brief top up of Puru Hiko. Once again – if you offer a charger at your supermarket, you have gained a customer (LIDL, this time) and we got 40km of range for free out of it.

Unfortunately, that’s where the smooth sailing ended a bit. The first restaurant we tried was closed. The one Lonely Planet recommendation turned out to be a bit too posh and pricy for a pit stop and after that we struggled for a bit too long. I chickened out of a self-service place. So, in the end, we waited until 1:30pm at a mediocre café with views of the Duomo before we could tuck in. And the veggie options were … limited. Nina took it like a real hero without complaint.

Campgrounds seem to be few and far between down in the Emilia-Romagna, so we went purely for convenience for the next two spots. Tonight’s offering was, by that margin, a pleasant surprise. It had loads of “permanent campers”, sure. And the “four star” rating advertised reminded me a lot of former eastern block holiday locations in the 1990s. Loads of dilapidated charm. It was also the first campground where we could not charge Puru Hiko. 3A fuses on 16A plugs. Ah well, we are pretty topped up and there will be charging in Parma for sure.

On the plus side, they had a big play area and swimming pool and were mostly deserted of other guests. We first had some fun with the crass clown-vomit-coloured playground and then even went for a swim in the huge pool (which was actually doubling as the local public swimming pool). But we were wise enough to leave the pool and prepare to hide when we saw the thick black clouds coming over the next hill.

Sure enough, by the time I’ve had my shower, Nina had already emergency-packed the camp and evacuated all to the tent. The mightiest summer storm we had so far passed right above. Thunder cracked so loud right overhead, for once even the Agent of Entropy lost her bravery for a minute. I huddled into the tiny remaining dry patch in the center of our awning and whipped up emergency dinner with caprese and some antipasti. I even managed to get the cooker going for a cuppa tea and coffee for Nina and myself respectively.

We got the kids to bed a bit later than usual, but as the storm had passed and only left the constant patter of rain on the roof, they fell asleep within minutes. We followed soon after …

Everybody’s eating something…or chewing on a spoon, I guess XD

Day 12 – Go with the flow

Since we left home with only a couple of days notice, we keep on deciding on our route while we go. We’d probably do the same if we’d had more time, to be honest, but it still feels a little more ad hoc this time.

Our morning was lovely. We had fresh bread rolls from the campground. Number 3 finished a whole one with yummy cherry jam we had bought in Piuro on our first day in Italy. Our intial plan said to only say here at Punta D’Oro for one night, but we really wanted to spend a day here so it was nonchalantly abandoned. Looking at maps and places to go we realized we weren’t actually that keen to camp at Lake Garda next. Maybe we might be a little lake-d out after another day here at lago d’Iseo. So, we decided to stay here and enjoy what we have, head a little south tomorrow to be close to Parma which we want to see on Wednesday, do a little tour of the cities we still want to see and then loop back to Lake Garda on our way out of Italy. We’ll see how much of this plan survives in the future but for now this looks good.

Clouds gathered in different formations all day

And it gave us a whole day at Punta D’Oro to relax. Number 3 wanted to go swimming but when we tried in the late morning, the water was too cold for him and the Agent of Entropy. We had a lovely midday nap after our warm shower, took advantage of the coffee place on the campground and (mostly Flo) chatted up our neighbours on the campsite. Lots of people were interested in the EV or our roof tent plus our immediate neighbours were Germans on parental leave as well.

The day ended for Flo and me when the kids were in bed and we had a last espresso and some cookies sitting on the retaining wall looking out over the lake.

I tried to make some tea … the Agent was scheming

Day 11 – Upward trend

For a camp of convenience, this site turned out fairly ok. Even the doom-and-gloom stories about the sanitary block from the google reviews turned out to be way overblown, or at least outdated. Number 3 had huge fun with the one squatting toilet they kept even through a recent renovation. He insisted on choosing this over the option of a throne, even though they would even have seats (very much not a given for public toilets in Italy).

Since we decidedly set up for a quick getaway, ditching the awning for the first time, we got back on the road in record time. I mean, there are still a million things to do, breakfast packing and so on, but we were quite proud of a 9:30am start (we get up at 6:30am).

The bit to Bergamo was relaxed if mostly slow going via the main roads. We had one pit stop at a supermarket to resupply nappies for the Agent. It took a bit longer than we thought – we did not expect everyone else to do a Sunday shop as well at the same time. But that gave Number 3 the chance to keep with our Sunday tradition of watching an episode of the Show with the Mouse (a German kids TV institution).

I though I had planned ahead this time, trying to register with the provider of the convenient charge point up in the old town – but had failed miserably. They have the worst app design I have ever seen. Provided in Italian only, it is just impossible to sign up (a single field for billing address that straight up refuses to accept anything I throw at it). So we opted for a parking garage downtown. They unexpectantly had charging facilities as well, but once again, I could not get it to work. New provider, long signup procedure … Europe needs to get better at this real quick.

Litteraly the funicular of the upper city

The lower city parking added one attraction to our day in Bergamo: A ride to the oldtown in one of the funiculars sparing everyone a rather steep hike 150m up a hill. When Number 3 realized what was going on, he positively jumped for excitement. We had to wait a little bit due to COVID related passenger restrictions, but it was worth it.

This time, we decided to make a concerted effort to lock in lunch early enough – but it turned out our preferred eatery was right here at the funicular terminal. PolentOne (yes, with that pun) is a hole-in-the-wall takeaway shop for reginal polenta dishes. The choice is between with or without cheese and your pick of sauce (is that really a choice, though?). I could not resist the wild boar “ragu”, while Nina got herself a good-looking veggie stew. It was delicious and both the Agent of Entropy and Number 3 tucked in harder than expected. I even had to briefly consider if we need to get a third helping to get both me and Number 3 full.

Bergamo was definitively the right town at the right time for us from here on out. We felt reminded of that beautiful day in Carcassonne. The tightly packed old town up on the hill was utterly charming, with just the right amount of infrastructure for tourism without going past the “Rüdesheim point” (medieval timber frame town near our home that became a Disneyland caricature for Oversees tourists).

Still managable crowds on the main street

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, but for a few remarks. The high town was one of those rare places where going off the “main” drag enhanced the experience for us. Some of the back alleys were as picturesque as the main drag, but we had it all to ourselves. Oh, and I am very proud of myself that I had talked Nina into going up on the Campanile and into the adjacent museum. The lift up was Number 3’s highlight of the day and the museum was hands down brilliant. Just 7 rooms, and hyper-modern in its concept for the exhibition with interactive exhibits in every room. I got to dork out without the kids getting bored out of their minds.

On our way back, we even stopped in a café to taste the local dolce of choice: polenta cake. We spend almost 5 hours in town, but it felt like time flew by.

For the last leg, we went on the toll motorway for the first time, without checking anything about prices first. Luckily, it was well worth it for 1.60 €.

The day ended with another spur of the moment decisions: We intended to stay only for the one night at this camp – Punta d’Oro. But after seeing past the first impression of the wall of white wales (RVs) it turned out this was a beautiful site. Great facilities, view of the lake and a shaded spot. We switched last minute from storm cover to tarp again, also to have a dry place to sit out the afternoon thunderstorms.

When we finished off the day with another exceptional coffee at the campground’s own bar, we were almost decided on staying an extra night, maybe even skipping Lago di Garda completely instead …

good morning, briefly visited Lago di Garlate

Day 10 – Along Lake Como

Getting up, there was still a bit of a consideration if we’re really going to leave today. After yesterday’s digger disaster, it would be hard to actually enforce a ban for the whole day. So in the end, we decided to leave ;). But we took our time and Number 3 got his good-bye round at the lake. It wasn’t warm enough to actually go swimming as he’d hope but he walked around a bit and observed the little fish along the shoreline.

They are starting to actually enjoy playing together

With packing, this time fully dried laundry, all our swim gear, two kids who’d rather run around and another diaper accident, we were finally on the road by 11am. Goodbye Camping Ranocchio! You’ve been wonderful!

We only drove a little while back over the pass to the next town on Lake Como where we took the ferry across to Bellagio. This is something the Lonely Planet for Northern Italy suggested as the drive from Bellagio to Como (or the other way around) is supposed to give wonderful views of the lake and towns. The thought of taking Purū Hiko and the kids on the ferry appealed to us…so we did it. Lucky for us, the ferry was only 5 minutes away when we arrived at the terminal. The Agent of Entropy was fast asleep by this point but Number 3 was excited. So, when all cars were in parking position, Number 3 and I went to the railing and looked out. It was much fun but a bit loud and cold for our eldest child. Shortly after, we returned to the car.

We took the narrow and windy road to Como which had great views indeed. The Agent of Entropy fell asleep again, followed shortly thereafter by Number 3. It was a peaceful ride until about 10 minutes out of Como when the Agent woke up and demanded a pit stop with an extra feed. It was getting later and later…

Different Lunch choices…to be fair, we swapped about a quarter…

At 12.45pm we finally parked the car. Somehow, our heads were not in it though, as it took 30 minutes to sort ourselves and the charging for Puru Hiko (which didn’t work in the end). It also included Flo heading back to the car twice because we forgot such essential items as our sunhats, for example. Finally, at 13.15pm we started looking for a place to eat.

The Lonely Planet was not helpful in this instance as the first tiny eatery was already completely booked with customers and the second one was permanently closed by now. Getting hungrier und hungrier, we decided on the next eatery as a quick fix regardless of price. This is how we ended up at Aida right across from the Duomo. The food was good and we were glad to have navigated the hunger crisis before either the kids or I got too annoying.

The city of Como was a bit of a shell-shock for us as it drew crowds even during the pandemic. Yes, people wore masks but still, it was too busy too soon for me. Also, the city is very posh. Probably not quite our turf, to be honest.

We took another stroll to the waterfront, looking for a particular gelateria (Lonely Planet recommendation). Again, it was not our cup of tea so we decided against it and looked for another place down the road. The ice cream we had at last was delicious but by now we were ready to leave Como behind.

Back in the car to drive another hour to our next campground. We chose this one for tonight to be in striking range to Bergamo, our next destination.