Delayed from 17th Aug – Wifi is really not Italy’s strong point….so I need to catch you up on nearly two weeks worth of travels….wont bombard you all in one go but be prepared for a number of updates to read at your leisure!

We left you in Verona….from there we made the short journey to Lake Garda. There are countless numbers of campsites all around the lakes and so we sort of closed our eyes and picked one at random from the book. As we made our way to our pitch we were attacked by what seemed like hundreds of over excited children pelting the camper with water bombs….We contemplated running a few down to get them away but refrained and directed forced smiles of ‘how charming your kinds are’ at the parents instead. Turns out it was an Italian public holiday which means everyone takes a day off work to drench their nearest and dearest during all day water fights. This becomes increasingly strange when it became aparent that there were actually no Italians on site – we had managed to find ourselves at a Dutch campsite, owned by a Dutch couple, frequented by Dutch campers and where even the staff where Dutch school leavers working during the summer. Obviously we have nothing against the Dutch but it was pretty strange when, before we realised, we were trying to speak Italian to everyone and getting nowhere! We were tired from our ‘hectic’ site seeing extravaganzas and so decided to spend two nights there to recover (tough life) and so found ourselves quickly trying to remember any Dutch….but essentially giving in and speaking English.

The site was amazingly run and very clean etc….and had we been between the ages of 0-13 we would, I am sure, have been in heaven. Thinking about taking a nice dip in the pool was essentially impossible as there was little room between the armbands, inflatable Nemo’s and excitable limbs flailing about the place. We quickly relearnt the words to the Hokey Cokey as it was sung by staff and children on microphones around 12 times a day and in the evening during a child’s conga around the restaurant! It was still lovely but as the only people without kids it wasn’t the most relaxing time!

We did, however, had a wonderful view of the lake and after a walk down to the banks we decided we had to find a campsite on the lake shore to really soak up where we were. We found a place the next night not too far away – they had a single place left on the lake shore with a stunning view and a few steps into the water. It was utterly beautiful and when we were woken at 6am by about 40 ducks outside the camper we were treated to a spectacular sunrise which made the pitch worth every penny.

Both of these campsites were extraordinarily expensive reaching 50EUR a night – which seemed like were almost as well to book a hotel (although perhaps not in Lake Garda)…..although I doubt the views would have been as good.

So after our very very brief three days of the lake it was time to move west to another Lake….Como! Lake Garda is huge and I am sure we missed out a lot of sites – but with only three days we opted to take in the lake views, read books and put our left leg in, left leg out…in..out….in…out shake it all about…..