Italian Adventure 2023

With a couple of days to spare before we were due in Luigiana, we headed for a fabulous Agriturismo, La Razza, just outside of Reggio Emilia - this experience was all about food 🤣 The farm was huge, had various accommodation options, including a camper van parking area - but the main attraction was the highly recommended restaurant onsite. Knowing that Emilia Romagna is particularly famous within Italy for its food, we couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity 😃  Agriturismo La Razza Our camp for the night I don’t know how many times Dave phoned the restaurant, or pitched up at their door to try to secure a reservation- each time the answer being sorry, fully booked - but do try again later 😃 Persistence paid off though, and miraculously a table for 2 was found! The restaurant was beautiful, housed in the old stables, decorated with old family photographs and curios. We were in for a treat 😃 Nibbles of pork scratching were brought while we perused the menu - not my favourite, bu...

In search of a bit better weather we started to head south to the Serca valley, known as the Valle dei Laghi (The Valley of the Lakes) above Lake Garda. Staying at a fabulous small campsite run by a young Italian couple, who also had a huge olive farm and produced their own olive oil. Lago di Cavedine - a stunning small lake, only @500m from the site, was perfect for Ruby to cool off in. Lago di Cavedine A chance to cool off Tranquility  We’d only just arrived, started to settle, when disaster struck - Dave realised he had mislaid his phone!! As much as we do try to not let phones and technology rule our lives, there is an acceptance that so much of our lives - what we do / need etc, is sadly on our phones - so that horrible sinking feeling arrived - what are the possible implications of this? - what will this mean? I tried calling it, but having turned the van upside down, we we’re gradually accepting that the phone was no longer with us 😢 Thinking back over the day, and the jour...

Predazzo in the Val di Fiemma, one of the stunning valleys of the Dolomiti range was our first destination in Italy - famous amongst other things for winter international ski jumping. Thankfully no snow here now, but the weather does seem to be changing, signs of autumn starting to appear, and temperatures starting to fall. Not sure if we are just unlucky with the weather, but quite a few stormy days were on the horizon.  The weather didn’t stop activity though, so the following morning we set off on our bikes along the valley cycle paths, which are everywhere - hundreds of kilometres of road free cycle paths, along rivers, crossing alpine meadows, and linking towns and villages - perfect 😍 We arrived at Moena, further up the valley, to find the annual Puzzone cheese festival about to start 🤣 A couple of days are given over to celebrating the cheese which the region is famous for, with tastings, demonstrations of how it is made, and even a procession of cows, decorated with flowe...