LT
19 June, 9.30pm Verona, Italy
Our last morning in Istanbul was a mixture of rushing and
waiting. We got up early, as we had
booked an 8am transfer to the airport (wanting to leave plenty of time in case
traffic was heavy), and we needed to do our final packing and tidying before
then. Despite our best intentions, it
was a rush to be ready for 8 but the taxi was right on time and so were
we. We got to the airport around 8.45am,
and found that one of our drink bottles (in a bag at the top of the pile of
bags in the car) had entirely emptied itself onto Katriel’s suitcase. The outside of her case and a few items at
the top were soaking wet, but there was nothing we could do about it. Security was very tight at the airport, and
there were luggage scanners right at the entrance. In the process of fussing with Katriel’s wet
bag, we managed to drop another drink on the floor and leave a puddle. Nice
one. The man at the scanning machine
looked questioningly at the wet case, but we just shrugged and repeated “water”
over and over. In general we found
people in Turkey to be reasonably abrupt and to the point, to the extent that
they come across a little unfriendly. Or
maybe we just met some unfriendly people!
The lady on the check-in counter for Turkish Airlines was the same, very
efficient, direct, and not at all warm.
Having ticked all the boxes we sat down to wait. Peter had a
frustrating experience trying to buy snacks, having finally found a shop and something
the right price for the spare cash we had, he had to produce his passport to be
able to buy it. Unfortunately I (with the passports in my bag) was at the other
end of the airport waiting with the children.
As well the flight was delayed, and, because of the delay, the gate was
changed, to the other end of the airport, a 10 minute walk away. But we did eventually get on a plane, had a
delicious meal served by very efficient (J)
staff and arrived in Milan.
It took us a while to sort out the details of the car
collection, and pickup point etc, but by around 4pm local time we found
ourselves in possession of our wheels for the next month, a Peugeot 7-seater
wagon. Katriel’s car-seat, which has
been around the world taking up space and being generally awkward to deal with,
finally got to serve its purpose, and we set off for a little village near
Verona, about 130km away. Now, vehicles
in Italy drive on the right-hand side, so with me sitting in what felt like the
driver’s seat, and Peter gripping tightly to the wheel in the ‘passenger’ seat,
there were a few tense moments (!).
Finding a way off the motorway to get petrol before we ran out was the
first challenge, followed by finding a drink before we all died of thirst. The
motorway does not show off much of the scenery, but we did see some very ‘Italian’
villas and other buildings once we exited.
Italy is hot! Hotter
than Turkey probably, possibly even hotter than Cambodia, though not as
humid. We spoke to someone who told us
that they are having a bit of a heatwave here at the moment, getting up to 40
deg during the day! Having spent a day
here now, that is entirely believable.
Our accommodation here is a ‘camping’ village – consisting of
several hundred mobile homes (bigger and flasher than caravans), pools, hundreds
of sun-loungers, hydroslides, an on-site supermarket, several cafes,
restaurants etc. It is all very flash,
and rather more ‘glamping’ than camping.
Our mobile home has two bedrooms, each with ensuite bathrooms, kitchen,
an outdoor patio with picnic table, sunloungers, outdoor furniture, washing
rack etc – the whole works! It’s well
fitted out, with fridge, microwave etc and all cutlery and everything as
well. I doubt that anyone here is
Italian, but there is a range of nationalities to be sure.
We arrived here too late on Monday to be able to swim, just
unpacked the car, made up our beds, then went out to try to find some
dinner. We found a small village nearby
and drove around until we found a little pizza shop, and had our first dinner
in Italy – authentic Italian pizza!! It
was so great, thin base, cooked in a stone oven, and pretty cheap as well. We sat outside at a picnic table as the light
faded, and were joined by the tiny (2-year-old) daughter of the shop owners,
who wanted to share our tea and make friends.
She and Katriel started a game with the car key and they chattered and
giggled away – super-cute! They were
lovely people, and if we can, we’ll go back and eat more pizza.
Peter managed to drive on the right-hand side down some
pretty skinny roads and in the dark this time to get us back to camp, and we
hit the sack – it had been a long day.
This morning Peter and Katriel went out to find some
breakfast. They happened to be down near the pools at 9am, opening time. The campers in the know all queue up at the
pool entrance, and on the dot of 9 when the gates open, they surge in and grab
all the best-placed sun-loungers and sun umbrellas and set themselves up for
the day. Obviously we weren’t that
organised today, but even when we did arrive there were just so many seats it
was easy to find one – so we won’t be queuing up tomorrow either!
After breakfast we headed down to the pools and hydroslides (all included in the accommodation fee,
surprisingly!) They were great fun, and
it was so nice to see the kids letting off a bit of steam and having their own
fun – after all this time traipsing around temples and palaces and having all
their activities planned for them.
Around lunchtime we hopped out and got changed as we needed
to get to a mall to do some final shopping for somebody’s birthday. We found lots of interesting shops, in
particular a fantastic place to buy ice-creams!
And we found some nice birthday treats as well, so it was a success.
Unfortunately my pathfinding skills on the way home were not so successful and
we got to see a little more Italian scenery than we had anticipated. We still got back in time for a quick swim
and slide before tea, which was our first home-cooked dinner in about 2 ½ weeks. Fresh pasta, yum!
Alyssa and I found a little market set up down near the
pools after tea, and managed to find a few clothes to buy.
Heading to Venice tomorrow.
Sorry internet here is not convenient or cheap - pics and updates tomorrow :)
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