We left the rolling hills of Tuscany behind and headed north to the Italian Lakes, stopping off in Bologna and Mondena along the way.
We selected the small town of Castiglione della Stiviera, just south of Lago di Garda, as our rendezvous point with my Mum and step Dad, Ken. We booked them into a small hotel which seemed like an Italian Fawlty Towers, with 70s decor and crazy but likeable staff, who insisted on showing us every room in the hotel before they would let us reserve one!
Next day we moved on to our pre-booked compact but bijous mobile home, in a nice campsite on the southern shore of Lago di Garda, close to the fabulous little town of Sirmeone. Living in the van for so many weeks prepared us well for the mobile which seemed spacious by comparison!
We had a great day out in Verona where we jostled with crowds around the Cassa di Giulietta, despite being fictional characters both she and Romeo seem to have their own real life houses! We also had a fantastic lunch, of which the highlight was my delicious “Donkey Pasta”, and yes that really is pasta with donkey meat in it!!!
After a few more days of boat trips around the lake, site seeing and relaxing we said goodbye to Mum and Ken as they flew home through the ash cloud. Meanwhile, we hopped back in the van and headed on to Lago di Como.
Lake Como was probably the most beautiful of the lakes surrounded by mountains and we were blessed with some particularly fine weather to explore the towns of Belagio, Como and trundle round the lake shore in the van.
We are now on our way to Switzerland to enjoy a few days of alpine air, fine chocolates and cow bells!