Campsites,Italy #12of13

The campsite at Taranto was near the portion of the Ionian Sea known as Golfo di Taranto, but to reach the beach we had to walk through a small pedestrian tunnel under the railroad tracks that run between the road and the water. As is found many times, there was a very nice restaurant near the campsite office, and Emmy had pizza for dinner, baked in the special pizza oven in the restaurant’s kitchen.

Drove to Plaza Roma in Venice, as far as wheeled vehicles can go, turned right, and visited the large parking lot, on Tronchetto island, where there used to be a place for RVs. By now they have built a huge parking garage in its place, and while we could spend the night in the parking lot, there were no facilities, and it cost more than a campsite. We returned to Mestra, the city at the other end of the causeway to Venice, and soon found a very nice, uncrowded campsite, and collapsed for the night. There are dozens of campgrounds near Venice, and we have stayed one night, or more, in at least seven of them.

We spent a night in a new campsite, owned and operated by the City of Ferrara. We must have been there before the tourist season, as the very large restaurant and some other facilities were not open, and the campsite was less than 10% filled. They said the campsite gate would not open until 9:00 AM, but I told them we had to leave earlier than that, so they gave him a key to the gate. This must not be too unusual, as there was a box at the gate, where we deposited the key as we left.

In 1995 the very new Bologna campsite where we spent the night, was owned by the city. In addition to spaces for RVs, they had built a few dozen small rooms that were, at that time, rented to young people from several countries. We had an interesting conversation with the students who were attending a special class in marketing, provided by Bologna University.

There must be thousands of hill-side and hill-top villages in Italy, we’ve seen them in every part of the country, including on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. Three different years we visited our favorite, Urbino, where the painter Raphaël was born. We remembered where the super-market was, bought some food, a large mug for Ovaltine, then went to the campsite early. What a view. Even Kodak had a problem capturing the fantastic view of the city, from near the campsite.