Italy1 emails

Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 3:48 AM

Subject: The Italian Job (almost complete)

Hi All

This week has been in stark contrast with last week. We have only stayed in two places at the time of writing this. In fact, we have just arrived in Venice (rather the Lido di Jesolo, across the water from the city) and due to the amazing heat, this will be a short letter.

We left Milan thinking that the short trip to Lake Iseo would only take an hour at the most. 2.5 hours later we were still in the Milan traffic on the motorway (London M25 - eat your heart out!). It was awful. The daily temperature (and I am not complaining) has been over 30oC every day and as the van does not have air conditioning. Sitting on a polluted motorway was not a lot of fun. All the grumbles aside we finally freed ourselves of the motorway and headed for the town of Iseo, via the scenic route. Great - until we were stopped from going through a tunnel that was only a few miles from our destination. We do not know why but the policeman was quite explicit in his instructions to us and all others to turn back As there is only one road around the lake, we were informed by the same policeman at the tunnel of an alternate route - only problem was that he did not realise the size of the van. We got to part of the road where this new route was to begin and there was a height restriction of 3m and we are 3.1m and a width restriction of 2m and we are 2.16m. May not sound much and may seem worth the risk, however - we could see the overhanging rocks and the van is well worth NOT taking the risk. Foiled again! By this time our one hour trip had lasted about 5 and we decided that it was time to give Lake Iseo the flick. We did go there in 1995 and it was just going to be a visit for old time's sake.

Off to Lake Garda instead. Finally chose a campsite near Peschiera del Garda (Camping Lido in the little town of Pacengo. Good campsite, particularly if lucky enough to get by the lake (as we were). Large pitches, good facilities - several new blocks of san. facs. Restaurant/Pizza, supermarket, swimming pool on site. Steep terraces - long walk up stairs to san. facs if by lake. If not by lake easy access to most things. Levelling ramps required on most pitches.) Wonderful sunsets

Well, we only planned to stay one night and then go on to Padua. We stayed three and just sat and watched the swimming, boating and fishing. We also met up with Mary and Brian Roberts (welcome on board guys). Mary and Brian have retired and are living in their motor caravan as are we. They have a summer job, however, with Eurocamping. Eurocamping is a company that puts fully equipped, very good quality tents on various campsites around Europe and each site has a site manager just to look after the company tents. Apparently it can get a bit demanding sometimes, having to sort out which nationalities are going to get on with which in tents that are closely parked but generally speaking it is a good way to earn a bit of pocket money and to spend a summer in a very pleasant place. Mary and Brian are hoping to go to Croatia next summer for the opening of a new site over there. Good luck - let us know if you get the job!

Having spent a couple of "alcoholic" nights with Mary and Brian - well if you keep talking until well after midnight you need a drink! we left Garda and headed for Padua. Finding the campsite here was not quite as simple as we hoped but only because we took a couple of back streets, instead of the expensive, smelly motorway, and so couldn't properly follow the instructions given in our book. (Camping Sporting Centre - only one in Padua. 50% serviced sites with toilet and shower shared by 2 pitches only. As camp was not full we had the toilet, wash up area and shower to ourselves. If you like you can actually have a thermal mud treatment there too!!!)

Our trip in to Padua on the bus was a hair raising, horn sounding 1/2 hour trip that dropped us at the railway station. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by the Venetians and the main points of interest within the grounds (which are scattered all over the city) are the Anatomy Theatre and its associated meeting room. Unlike the Anatomy Theatre of Bologna, this one can only be viewed from below floor level. You enter through the "kitchen" where the bodies were prepared and which now houses some of the original anatomy books of the 1500's. You then look up through where the examination table would have been. It has been restored but is, apparently, in its original 1594 style. Anatomy lessons could only be held in January and February as bodies were hard to come by and could be kept cool then. Up to 200 students stood all day for the one anatomy lesson that they would receive before receiving their laureate. There were actually students receiving their laureates in Clinical Psychology the day we were in town and all of the usual student antics were happening. Post graduation ceremony the graduates have to dress up in funny costumes and then recite a poem they have written. If they even stumble slightly in their presentation they have to down a glass of wine - and so it goes on. They also seem to get beaten up (in a friendly way) by their friends and family. We saw lots of bottoms being kicked, water being thrown, and copies of the written poems on posters with appropriate cartoon pictures of their authors. All in all quite a lot of fun.

The other room attached to the Anatomy Theatre was a meeting room, decorated with severe looking men who had been Professors of Anatomy and other various Faculties. What was really quite bizarre was that the skull of each of the pictured Professors was in a glass case under his picture. Don't know if Adelaide University is ready for that sort of recognition of Professors yet? What do you think guys!?*

Goodbye Padua and hello Venice. We have, as I said, just arrived and plan to go into the city tomorrow to finalise our plans for sailing to Greece on Thursday. So, for now, goodbye - see you in Greece, next week.

Love

Deb & Arnold

Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 11:47 PM

Subject: Back on the air

We are in Greece! Thanks to Arnold's perseverance, we now have a battery charger for the phone. I think we went to every telephone shop in Ioannina and, naturally, we found the thing we needed at the last one. I was ready to buy a new phone. Shopping in 35oC heat with no air conditioning is no fun! Anyway, we are back on the air and it only cost AUD$25!

Let's back track to Venice (my favourite city in the world - confirmed by this recent trip). Our campsite was only 500m from the ferry that took 40 minutes to sail into Venice and deposit us right into St Mark's Square. (Camping Miramare at Punta Sabbioni on the Lido di Jesolo - very small pitches and very crowded due to its proximity to the ferry. Facilities adequate but Rennie & Roberts size motorhomes would not fit onto a pitch. We parked diagonally as it was.) Despite the tourists Venice is still fascinating. St Marks Basilica has stunning mosaics that gives the interior of the church a gold sheen. The subsidence of the artistically designed flooring is sad but, I guess, unavoidable. We tried to follow a walk that one of our guide books recommended but in the end gave up and just lost ourselves in the little narrow roads along the canals. We stopped to have a drink in a small cafe next to a canal and just generally soaked up the atmosphere (and I don't mean the smell of the canal in case anyone tries to get smart! The canals were actually not at all bad.)

Vaporetta No. 1 is the way to see the Grand Canal and this we did along with many others, both local and tourist (views of Venice). The Rialto Bridge saw us stop to shop (a mask to compliment my one from years ago) and dinner, by the canal. We ate well and were entertained by the arrival of what we called "the Restaurant Police". Our guess, from the frayed tempers, the measurement of footpaths etc was that the restaurant owner had too many tables out on the terrace and did not have permission (or had not paid enough money) to continue to have them there. We were fortunate enough to be in a section that was "legal" but another group of 3 Australians felt a little threatened by the "mean looking bastard" who was wandering around (their words, not ours!). After dinner a twilight cruise back along the Grand Canal and a final look at St Mark's Square before getting the 10pm ferry back to the campsite (last ferry at 11pm. Return trip tickets can be bought for 10,000 lira from the campsite, saves waiting in a queue.)

Sailing to Greece from Venice - sleeping in the van! From Venice it is a 21 hour trip to Igouminitsa. There are cabins for overnighting or, for campers, caravanners and also those with boats big enough to sleep in, you can camp on board. Boarding was tedious and chaotic and once we finally got up the very bumpy ramp onto the "camping" deck, we then had to do a three point turn and back along a very narrow laneway to within about 100cm of the next van. I say "we" but you know who was doing the driving! T'was not I! A man then comes along with a big shepherd's crook and pulls a power plug from the ceiling of the camping deck. This was plugged in and all was ready. It was a trouble free, smooth sailing trip (unlike our Force 9/10 gale from Bilbao to Portsmouth) and we watched Corfu appear and disappear before landing in Igouminitsa.

Stayed for one night in Camping Nautilos (Caravan Club book says 5km from Igouminitsa - really about 12km and on the road to Sivota - great site, particularly if you can get down by the private beach. Facilities fine.). The site was set in a stand of gum trees so we felt right at home. We had hoped to have our first Greek meal at the restaurant in the camp but it was catering to the large German tourist community and the menu didn't look Greek at all - gave it a miss.

Next day we thought a quick 100km to Ioannina would see us sightseeing in the afternoon - the town is known for its fine filigree silver. Joke. Firstly, the roads leave a lot to be desired and secondly we had to traverse mountains that were bigger than we expected. With very narrow lanes and lots of blind bends we were held up behind hay trucks, bitumen trucks etc. It didn't seem to worry the local drivers though, they just went over the double lines and seemed quite content to pass a truck whilst going round a completely blind corner. It is true that we did pass a truck on the double lines but, had we not, we would still be travelling the 100kms. I spent a lot of time with my eyes closed!

Campsite at Ioannina (Camping Limnopoula is right on the lake and, despite what the Caravan Club book says, it is not well signposted from EVERY direction. Found it eventually. Pleasant site, ok facilites (when the hot water works) but there is noise from the local airport, disco and restaurant.) The restaurant was catering for a wedding on Saturday night and festivities went on until about 5am which was a bit wearing. Nevertheless, we did manage to get in a good Greek meal before the wedding guests arrived and got in a few hours sleep before the music woke us at about 3am.

Weather has again been very hot and up until yesterday, when a huge thunderstorm struck, we have not seen any rain for weeks. Today is much cooler and, although the morning was rain free, this afternoon seems to be making up for it. We are not complaining actually because it is very refreshing. Tomorrow we are off to see the first of our Greek ruins and oracles and hope to bring you words of wisdom from the oracle next week.

In the meantime, avrio