CW: dishes containing meat are discussed

Preparations

Sometime in autumn 2018 we had made the decision that

• we were going to go south for next years holidays,
• since 2019 my wife and myself were not going to be able to have synched up holidays during the summer period, we were going to take advantage of the pentecostal school holidays that exist in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg (which is were we live and where our children go to school),
• since that was going to fall into June this year, a beach-type holiday was possible
• for cost-reasons (and coolness reasons) we were going to go camping
• we were going to do so together with another family who we had done short (weekend) camping trips with before.

In a joint discussion of where to go I suddenly remembered spending summer-camp as a teenager at a lake slightly south of Tuscany about 25 years ago. Said lake being Lago di Bolsena. I also happened to remember (as a sudden spark) the name of the camping area, “Val di Sole camping”. On a lark, I googled it and found out it still existed and, going by the pictures, probably looked much the same as back then. Reviews on Google pretty much said so as well (“sanitary area could use some renovations but functional and very nice and laid-back” and so forth).

So I got everyone to agree that we would go there (the other family mentioned having been at a larger, much more modern campsite in seaside Tuscany some previous year and having hated the whole animation/organized fun stuff - so not having that was a plus).

Checking the driving distance from Ulm (where we live) was less of a shock as originally thought. We had spent some of our last Summer holidays at the North Sea and Baltic coasts and the places we had driven to back then were a pretty similar distance (around the 800-900km ballpark). Nevertheless, given the fact that there were children involved we wanted to have some intermediary spot along the way that would be

• an interesting city to check out
• be somewhere along the route that we would be driving.

Pretty much at random we picked Siena. Yes, we know it’s pretty far from the halfway point. For the way back the same process applied but here we placed ourselves much closer to the halfway point and picked Verona. After a short discussion we decided on two nights at each place in order to have a full day for sightseeing available. Given that we had ten days in all this left us with six days at Lago di Bolsena (not really enough, it turned out).

Bookings were made with

• Val di Sole Camping, Bolsena http://www.campingvaldisole.it
• Colleverde Camping, Siena http://www.sienacamping.com
• Agricampeggio Corte Comotto, Alpo (near Verona) http://www.agricampeggiocortecomotto.it

Trip in the car

We had planned to drive via Switzerland (San Bernardino). To our great surprise, on the morning of departure the satnav app told us to drive via the Brenner (Austria) instead. Short research turned up the reason being flooding and a landslide. Without internet-based navigation we would have driven quite some distance into a roadblock … So we headed off via Austria, across the Brenner and further south. To my wifes and my own great surprise none of the children wanted a break untill Rovereto, so we stopped there for 20 minutes or so and then got back onto the road. This being a Wednesday (see possibly a later post about WGT 2019 about why we didn’t leave at the start of the holidays but quite a few days into them), the traffic on the Italian A1 (“Autostrada del Sole”) was mostly big commercial trucks, so didn’t slow us down much. The only exception was about half an hour of traffic jam near Firenze.

Siena

We arrived in Siena at about five in the afternoon, so with plenty of time to check into the camping area and find our friends (who had arrived about an hour before us) and set up the tents and so forth. Colleverde is a very nice camping area with many trees on a hillside on the outskirts of Siena. The only slightly weird thing to us was that the swimming-pool they had (very nice!) showed bathing-caps as being mandatory - a thing I haven’t seen in 30 years or so. Otherwise solidly recommended!

For our first dinner we decided to go with the Pizzeria inside the camping area, called “Ristorante Colleverde”. This turned out to be a semi-mistake in that the food was very good but it took a very long time to be able to order. The place seemed rather disorganized in that a couple on the table right next to us had received and finished their dinner before we could even order. Some people on the table on the other side of us decided to leave before they were able to order. Given that we had 6 children in total with us (the smallest being 3 years old) we couldn’t do much except stay put because we had already explained to the children that we were going to have Pizza in this place.

As soon as we had ordered, on the other hand, the food arrived quickly and, as I said, tasted very good.

The next day we headed into the historical core of Siena by bus. There’s a bus-stop righ next to the camping area and bus-tickets are being sold at the camping reception.

After getting off the bus somewhere in the center, we walked around town, taking many pictures and looking at some of the main landmarks such as the place where the Palio happens - Piazza del Campo, the dome, Basilica Santa Cateriniana San Domenico (which is an ideal place to look at the main old-town on the other hill opposite) as well as the Fortezza Medicea. Entrance to that space is from the north (we walked around three sides before realizing that ..). Sitting atop the walls of the Fortezza under some large trees and having drinks from a popup-bar there was a very enjoyable way to end our siteseeing tour.

Then we headed back to the campsite by bus, cooked some dinner (pasta, obviously) and went to sleep.

On the next day we took down the tents and (barely) managed to leave before the 11:00 deadline.

roadtrip again

For our drive to Bolsena we decided to take the scenic route instead of the A1 and therefore went via the SR2. This was a very relaxing and enjoyable drive.

Bolsena camping

Arriving at Lago di Bolsena we checked into the campsite and found it to be not very occupied. Since we were allowed to pick any pitch, we selected one beneath some large and dense trees (the whole campsite is rich in trees but there are variations in coverage), figuring we would like the shade later on (we did!). Then we took a stroll to the lakeside (a few pitches on, basically) and enjoyed the view. The children jumped right in.

(extremely) positive points:

• the location (directly at the lake)
• the Bar (good coffee!)
• the trees
• (while we were there) very nice people

not so positive points (we didn’t mind):

• the showers and toilets are a bit rustic but functional
• you have to bring your own toilet paper
• the little shop inside the campsite is obviously not a full-on supermarket and some things there are a bit expensive. This is to be expected though
• not all the food at the Bar is excellent (don’t go for the hamburgers!) but if you stick with e.g. the Bruschette Miste, things are just fine

Our program while we were there:

• Day 1: beach
• Day 2: site-seeing in Bolsena proper (very nice medieval core), the market there, ice-cream, shopping at the supermarket, then beach
• Day 3: Rome. We drove to Orvieto train station (about 40 minutes) and then took a train to Roma Termini
• Day 4: Beach (and birthday-party for my son)
• Day 5: Parco dei Mostri in Bomarzo and then site-seeing in Orvieto, afterwards beach
• Day 6: take down tents, have a short swim, lunch, then, sadly, leave for Verona

More details:

Bolsena city

While we were there, by sheer luck, the “Festa delle Hortensie” was going on, which meant a very nice artisanal market was happening. We parked in the central parking space in the Piazza Martiri di Nassirya and then headed into the city center. From what looked like (a) main square we headed through Corso Cavour along many small shops and bars. In the piazza where Fontana di San Rocco is located, a stall selling “Birra artigianale” was set up, so we bought some. The brand was “San Biagio” and we tried a dark and an amber variant. They tasted very good. Then we headed up towards the castle/fortress via a small footpath/set of stairs not really visible on Google maps (and also not named on there) but starting in this same Piazza. The footpath is rather steep and extremely picturesque, threads underneath some houses and so on.

Up at the fortress, we ascended the tower and took in the view. Walking down into the town again we then had some very nice ice-cream at Bar Centrale before we headed to the supermarket at the south-eastern outskirts to shop for food. We then retreated to the beach.

Rome

Given that we were this close to Rome and probably wouldn’t get there again too soon we decided we couldn’t not go there with the kids. Trains run from Orvieto to Roma Termini and take about 70 minutes for the trip. Parking is possible (free) at the north-east side of the train station (i.e. on the other side of the tracks). We almost missed the train because I had misremembered the timetable…

So we took a train at 11:20-ish to get to Rome by 12:30 and then walked from Roma Termini to the Forum Romanum. Originally it had looked like no tickets for the Colosseum would be available that day. When we arrived at the Forum, we found out that the tickets for visiting the Forum were automatically also tickets for the Colosseum. Thinking those would be for another day we decided nevertheless to buy them for two of the adults given that all the kids would be free and we wanted to give them the chance to explore the Forum. To our (nice) surprise we were then informed that access to the Colosseum with our tickets would be at 4 p.m. that same day. So apparently when Colosseum-only tickets are sold out nevertheless combination-tickets for Forum and Colosseum are available? Or something like that? Well nevermind, we were happy.

The kids were duly impressed with the Forum and looked at the various triumph arches and columns and so forth.

We had some free time before the appointed Colosseum entry so we headed into a side-street at random, looking for food. By complete chance we came across “Grammo Bistro” in Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, 56 https://goo.gl/maps/UfznTGQfRxxrDSKv5. The bistro is picturesque as hell, the sandwiches are delicious (and freshly hand-made), the staff is extremely friendly and very patient with fuzzy (and picky) little children - in short: massive recommendation! Looking at their entry on Google, apparently you can also get some rather massive sets of antipasti that look delicious!

After this lunch, we headed to the Colosseum. Given that we only had tickets for two adults, I stayed outside in the shade and had a cold drink. The visit took about 1:30 hours and the kids were very impressed and, according to their own words, happy to have seen it (they had been primed via Asterix ..).

After that we walked back to the train station and caught the train back to Orvieto.

Birthday Dinner in Bolsena

On the beach day with the birthday we had dinner in Bolsena. Walking around a bit we selected Antica Trattoria Piazza del Corso http://www.anticatrattoriabolsena.com/ as our goal. Again, we encountered extremely tolerant staff (given that our children were again not the calmest and not the simplest to handle) and the food was delicious. Recommended, the Pizza della Casa was particularly good!

Going for a little stroll after dinner we came across Bolsenas main church which looks like it was designed by a committee that couldn’t agree on a style of church and so just went with “all of them”. Kinda charming, I think. The somewhat grandiose name of the church is “Basilica di Santa Cristina Santuario del Miracolo Eucaristico”.

Parco dei Mostri

Located near the small town of Bomarzo (which looks to be worth a visit on its own!), this is a park from the 16th century, created at the behest of a probably rather mad local prince. Apparently he wanted something different from the typical geometrical gardens of the time and had an architect shape all the naturally existing rocks in this piece of wood into monsters, a crooked house, a temple, an elefant .. it’s delightfully weird! Website at http://www.sacrobosco.it/enter.php?lang=eng.

It isn’t exactly cheap and also looks to be a prime spot for local school-trips but we enjoyed it (after initial disappointment by the realization that “Monster Park” wasn’t an amusement park with a roller-coaster and so forth, as our son had assumed).

Orvieto

We parked behind the train station and then took the funicular up to the old town. There we walked to the dome (stopping for ice cream at “La Musa” https://www.gelaterialamusa.com/dicono-di-noi/. The dome is very impressive, in an “this is much too large for the town around it” kind of way (but then again, we live in Ulm, so …). Heading back through the old-town, we then also descended the Pozzo di Sant Patrizio, a historic well. It isn’t exactly cheap to enter but very impressive architecturally and also nicely cool … it is a circular shaft that has a dual circular stairwell so that you can walk down and back up again without ever hitting traffic coming the other way (a double-helix). It dates from the 16th century.

We already decided that next time we were visiting Orvieto, we would do the “Orvieto Underground” guided tour, as that looks very interesting.

at night in Bolsena

That evening, my wife and myself headed into Bolsena alone to have a drink. First, we walked around a bit, first down towards the harbour and then (after all the bars there turned out to be of the TV-with-football on kind) back up the hill. In the end, we selected Enoteca Aenos (lovely old-school website at http://aenos.altervista.org/) and had very nice glasses of wine while sitting outside at night. Our verdict is that “Est! Est!! Est!!!” is overhyped and overrated (even though the whole “propter nimium est est est”-story is very nice) and that Orvieto Classico is much better, if you like white wine. All in all, very high recommendation for this bar/wine dealership!

Alas, on the next day we already had to leave again. Very sad and so forth. After putting down the tents and getting the car packed up (rather hard after a week of camping) we did a last swim, a last visit to the bar and then headed onto the A1 back north to Verona

road trip

driving back north on Friday on the A1 was rather uneventful. A small traffic jam near Firenze again but that was basically it.

Verona

We had booked at Agricampeggio Corte Comotto thinking that we only needed a lawn to place our tents, basically. A very nice campsite for a night or two, it will be awesome in a few years once the trees they have have grown a bit more. Nice and clean, reasonably priced. Nice feature: a short-ish walk will take you to the local train station at “Dossobuono” from where a 10-minute train ride will take you into Verona Porta Nuova (main station). From there, another 20 or so minute walk will take you to the famous Arena. But first, our kids had a marvellous time playing in the fountain in front of the train station.

The area around the Arena is always super busy and this was the case even more so as at the time of our visit, an opera festival was going on with a premiere of La Traviata scheduled for that night and Aida the next day. Since (I guess) the stage setting for two operas doesn’t fit inside the arena, a lot of the surrounding area was filled up with parts of that, which looked quite cool. Being hungry, we got some pizza and focaccie at “La Conchiglia di Garda” https://goo.gl/maps/4oi5X7qJPXJPNJu36. Not super-special but nice.

As the second sight to check out we walked to the Ponte di Castelvecchio and the kids climbed around on the stairs while we hung out in the small amount of shade on offer. Walking back to the Arena, we had ice-cream at a place I remembered from when I had been to Verona last time, “Gelateria Savoia Verona” http://www.gelateriasavoia.it/. Then we decided to go for the inevitable and walked to the “Casa di Giulietta”, an interesting experiment in fleecing the gullible. Or something like that. I find it fascinating, even more so than the Mona Lisa - droves of people going to a house that looks like many others in this city and crowd around a simple balcony, simply because somebody decided to call it “Juliets balcony”. P.T. Barnum-level Marketing genius, truly.

Having marvelled at the masses we continued onwards and rested for an hour or two in the shade of some trees in the park at “Piazza Indipendenza”, having shopped for cold drinks at the supermarket behind it on Piazza Pescheria. Somewhat rested, we then walked for a bit along the banks of the Etsch (or Adige) river untill we hit Ponte Pietra, our second very old bridge of the day. Turning back around we sort of meandered through the narrow streets keeping the direction vaguely towards the Arena. By random chance we came across “Corte Sgarzerie”, extremely picturesque, even for Verona. Continuing onwards, through Porta dei Borsari (another Roman structure), we headed back to the Arena where we used the underground washrooms once more.

last dinner

Then we walked back to the train station and got back onto the train to Dossobuono. After decompressing for a bit at the campsite and everybody having a shower, we had to decide between the at least four restaurants in the village. Being somewhat tired, we went for the nearest one, that being Pizzeria e Trattoria Isola della Pizza. https://goo.gl/maps/hQ94zyECEGj4fFum8.

First interesting aspect was how they handled our question about “tavola per dieci?”. We were used to that request being followed by a flurry of activity, wherein a number of waiters would collect tables and move them together. This restaurant was prepared! They set up two regular tables (sized for six) about two meters apart and then, from some storage shed, retrieved a contraption of welded steel profiles which they slotted in between the two tables. A flat piece of metal was then placed ontop of that and bam - table for, well, at least 16 I would guess.

We ended up not ordering any pizza whatsoever, despite the name of the place. We had various kinds of Gnocchi (with tomatoes, Bolognese but also with truffles), some very large salad and a local speciality. Since the menu was only available in Italian, I had my phone out trying to look up various words online (my kitchen-vocabulary could be better) and so came across Pastissada de Caval, which turned out to be (extremely tasty) horse-meat goulash (more or less). Recommended!

The whole dinner turned out not very expensive and we headed to bed afterwards. There was a bit of rain and wind during the night, but not too much and luckily our tents were dry again in the morning (I hate having to pack a wet tent). Fueled by anxiety that the rain might return (there was thunder in the distance and a few solitary drops) we had the tents down by 9:30 and got on the way back home.

road-trip home

Driving via the Brenner motorway on a Saturday when Bavarias and Baden-Württembergs school-holidays end may not have been the best idea. It took about 9 hours (including two breaks) to get home. Driving via Switzerland might have taken less time even though it would have been a detour. Well - we got home in the end.

lessons learned

• Italy is still awesome
• 25 years on, Bolsena is still a lovely destination
• Rome is still loud, hot, sticky and chaotic as it should be
• we (as in my family, myself very much included) need to be a lot more organized around the campsite. Looking for things took up too much time
• still, our first longer camping holiday was a full-on success.
• even though the site-seeing trips were very nice, a day or two more at the beach are needed!