14-15/07/2014 : Italy – Lake Orta

Monday

We got up this morning with a sense of excitement. The last time Jo and I were in Italy was before we were married (25 years this year) and in fact Jo had expected me to propose to her in Venice on that occasion (I didn’t!!!). We were looking forward to today. The first hour or so was another spectacular drive  - the middle bit not so exciting and the last hour was great as we drove through rice fields towards Arborio and Lago D’Orta.

View across the town and Lake Orta

The lake is stunningly beautiful and we found the motorhome parking area in Orta San Guilio straight away. However we went for a walk and a short way up the hill we found another one which was much nicer, and was in fact the free ‘sosta’ that I had read about in the ‘Our Tour’ travel blog. We legged it back down the hill to move.

 

Alleys and jetties all around the town

A walk into the town of Orta San Guilio revealed the stunning beauty of the town. It seemed very affluent , with beautiful villas set amongst trees on the hillside, all overlooking an island. We wandered around the lake’s edge looking for somewhere to swim from. The water was very clear and full of fish. Back at the van we relaxed and had a chat with Amelia on the phone.

View from our 'Sosta'

Jo is absolutely bowled over by the smell of jasmine, which seems to be everywhere. We are running low on provisions, so we think we have identified a local shop to cycle to tomorrow. Jo has also identified where to get pastries from (the local petrol station / café!)

The Sostas in Italy don’t seem to be as well set up as they are in France – we are not yet sure where to empty waste water and fill up as there are no service points at most, but we are sure we will overcome that – all part of the adventure! We are out of our French comfort zone.

Miles today : 136

Sosta : free

Tuesday

Running low on supplies today so we cycled off to try and find a shop and located a tiny mini market where we were able to get essentials, then bought croissants from the petrol station! Actually there was really nice coffee bar and bakery attached and had a very Italian feel.

Spent the morning at the beach and swimming in the lake. Only 5 minutes walk from Frank. Once you were 100 yards from shore the views were amazing. I wished I had a waterproof camera.

Great pizza!

We returned to the van to discover it full of ants. Jo exterminated them with spray. We had a long walk along the lake path and had a call from Jack. When we got back to the van we sat outside for an hour with a cup of tea and got eaten alive by mozzies. We were both covered in bites including in places where the sun does not shine,so how the buggers got in there I do not know. We relaxed inside the van with wine having applied cream to bites and then went out for Pizza. We had a lovely walk back in the twilight, Jo remarking that nothing could be more romantic and I had to agree!!

Got back and place was alive with ants again. I crawled around in the dark with a torch and found that they were marching in via one of the rear steady legs. Lifted the legs after judicious spraying ant killer and went to bed fingers crossed we wouldn’t wake up to a total infestation.

Our swimming spot

No miles today. 

Sosta free.