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Thursday 20 May, through the Alps and the Dolomites

Italy 2004 - part II

Elisabeth & Teije
2006-08-25 19:00:25

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from our car, although we are scared a few times by motors coming out of a curve and ending up almost in front of our car.

After a short break and a cup of delicious cappucino (in no other country can it be made better) we continue and drive into the Dolomites. At least, after we have finally found a way out of Bolzano. In our opinion it is too busy in the cities here, and not relaxing at all to drive a car through it. Another thing is the signposting, which almost can't be worse.
Eventually we find the road that we want to take, along he mountain massif of the Pale di San Martino, 3192 meters high. A very impressive mountain which towers above it's neighbours and dominates the area.

After this pass we continue in the direction of Venice, or rather the peninsula opposite of Venice, so we can cross by boat tomorrow. It is only 100 km. but we first end up in a traffic jam and stay there for almost an hour. In the end we can go on and pass cars of the police, the fire department and ambulances. Near the cars we see one half of a motor, the front being completely crushed.

Near Treviso we are confronted again with the Italian way of signposting and we drive in circles for some time before we are sure we are going in the right direction. The distance to a certain town changes from 32 km. to 14 within a few minutes. Our roadmap seems to be more reliable but the scale is not detailed enough. So, we follow our sense of direction and use some common sense and that works much better. Nevertheless, it has taken us more than 3 hours to cover the last 100 kilometers and finally arrive at the campsite we have been looking for.

Soon we have put up the tent, but much sooner we get acquainted with the local musquitoes who have a large population here. We will be scratching again, the next days! Elisabeth has enough appetite for a cup of soup but she isn't prepared for the bowl that she gets: almost a whole soup tureen. We don't care, we have (plenty of) food, a place to sleep, what else could someone need?

It has been a long and tiring day, especially the last hours in the traffic. We knew that the north of Italy is a busy place but we are surprised by the large number of tourists that are already occupying the country in this part of the year. Not our favourite hobby, sharing a country with so many fellow tourists, but we have to pay this price when we want to see some of the highlights of this country, like Venice.

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