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Venice and Lake Garda, Italy
  • Wolfgang Bader
  • Lacie Bader

Venice and Lake Garda, Italy

A 11-day adventure by Wolfgang & Lacie Read more
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  • Trip start
    May 1, 2024
  • Venice and Lake Garda, Italy
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    Stopover in Innsbruck

    May 1, 2024 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Taking a break after four hours of driving in Innsbruck, about the halfway point to Venice. Seeing the Alps come into view for the first time on the way is always so exciting! Had some fried noodles and rice from an Asian place for dinner. It was good, but looking forward to ten nights of pizza and pasta from now on! 😂Read more

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    Arriving in Venice

    May 2, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Not much to say about today...left the Austrian campsite and headed towards Venice. Had some great views on the way, but it rained most of the trip unfortunately. The drive was about four and a half hours and we got to relax, have dinner, and play some games once we arrived and set our camper up.Read more

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    Venice - Day 1, Part 1

    May 3, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Started off the day early after being woken up by kids on the playground at 7:30am. 😵 But that just meant for an earlier start! Arrived in Venice a little after 9 and went straight to our first point of interest...La Fenice Theater. It was our first time there and it was beautiful, definitely worth the visit. From there, we went to the spiral staircase of Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, which was another first for us. For being "just" a staircase, it was really cool to climb the stairs and it had a great view of all the beautiful red rooftops of Venice as well as St. Mark's tower from the top. Also had a delicious lunch of a panini and pizza!Read more

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    Venice - Day 1, Part 2

    May 3, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Afterwards we headed towards St. Mark's square and got our first cannoli of the trip. 😝 Delicious! We've been to the Doge's palace on our previous trip, but it's so impressive we couldn't resist doing it again! And we're thankful we did because we ended up seeing the prisons which we somehow missed out on last time. That was the last of the "real" attractions we saw for the day, but afterwards we had a lot of fun running around window shopping in all the shops! Finished off the day with dinner of spaghetti aglio e olio and pizza bread back at the campsite before totally crashing once we got back to the camper!Read more

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    Venice - Day 2, Part 1

    May 4, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Day 2 of Venice began with us hopping on a water bus and going straight to the island of Murano, known for its blown glass. We took a tour of a glass blowing factory and, even though it was a Saturday and there was only one guy working, it was fascinating to watch how things are made and shaped. We got some lunch (another sandwich and pizza!) and walked around the island after, looking at glass shop after glass shop. I was drawn into one by, to no one's surprise, a collection of black cat figures and the artist lead us through his studio in the back showing us where he worked, his supplies, and his failed creations collecting dust in one corner. I felt kind of bad walking out empty handed after that, but they were certainly for bigger wallets than ours. 😂Read more

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    Venice - Day 2, Part 2

    May 4, 2024 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    After a few hours on Murano, we went back to the main island and did some more wandering before our next planned stop, the Leonardo da Vinci Museum! But, not before more cannoli! Tiramisu flavor this time, along with cappuccino for a much needed caffeine kick lol. The museum was really fun, with some facts and info about his artwork...but where it really got interesting for us was upstairs where all of his inventions were, including interactive models of many of them! Really cool. I searched for my favorite store full of lovely cat-themed art, only to see that it's temporarily closed. I was SO sad. 💔 We checked out some of the more photogenic bridges a bit afterwards and headed back to the campsite for dinner for our last dinner before we take off for lake Garda tomorrow. Gnocchi for me tonight and spaghetti again for Wolfie...and we shared some pizza bread with marinara sauce and olives. Yum!Read more

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    Lake Garda - Day 1

    May 5, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    It was bittersweet leaving Venice today. :( It's my favorite place, but we were also excited to move on to Lake Garda for the first time for both of us! It was just under a three hour trip through gorgeous Italian countrysides. The lake is surrounded by beautiful mountains and cute towns and we can't wait to explore them a bit more in the coming days. The campsite is at the top of a steep hill with narrow paths and we needed SIX people to get our camper into a spot that was...probably not meant for a camper. And I have a feeling the owners will not be offering it to people with a camper in the future. 😂 We also tried our new kayak out and it was unfortunately a bit brief because I got a little seasick, but we'll be picking up some dramamine tomorrow in hopes it helps for next time lol.Read more

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    Malcesine, Lake Garda

    May 6, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Finally allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit today since we didn't have any real plans! It was a little drizzly so we just decided to do some much needed grocery shopping and check out the nearby town of Malcesine. We walked around the narrow cobbled streets and stopped in all sorts of cute shops. We got some focaccia sandwiches for lunch and then visited the Malcesine castle, where we climbed the tower and got to see the whole town from above. We even got to hear the 600 year old bell ring from directly next to it. After that, we got some absolutely delicious gelato and headed back to the campsite to relax with some games. For dinner, instead of eating out, we decided to cook some delicious risotto with fresh mushrooms in the camper...tasty!Read more

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    Lake Garda - Day 3

    May 7, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    It was a dreary day here today, unfortunately...it rained the whole morning and a lot of the afternoon! :( We didn't want to do anything we had on our list of things to do in the rain so we hung out and played some games. Made some soup for a small lunch and the rain finally eased up around 3. We ran into town to grab some more gelato for dessert and I ended up adopting a new friend while we were out...she reminded me of Salem and I couldn't pass her up. 😂 When we got back we decided to try to take the kayak out again! After a dramamine, CBD oil, and two ginger tablets (maybe a bit overkill...lol 🫣), we set off and I did NOT get sick! Yay! We had a lot of fun and paddled around a nearby island and a little further down the shore before coming back after it started drizzling again. It was chilly (about 63°) and, even though we weren't cold out on the water, coming back to the camper we definitely felt pretty chilled. Hoping tomorrow is warmer because we're itching to get back out! Made some dinner ourselves again, this time bowtie pasta with cheese and pepper sauce (very similar to Alfredo) and it was THE best pasta sauce I've ever tasted. Omg. Definitely need to bring some of that back home. 😝Read more

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    Sirmione - Day 4, Part 1

    May 8, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Today was a bit nicer, thankfully! Still a few raindrops in the afternoon, but it was pleasant after being in the sun for a little while. We decided to drive all the way down south to the peninsula of Sirmione today. We kind of got off to a bad start with having to take a long and un-scenic detour because of an accident, searching for a parking spot for 45 minutes, and then the city streets being packed like sardines with people. But after getting out of the center, having lunch and dessert, and making our way to our first point of interest, it got a little less packed and we started enjoying ourselves more. First, we went to the Grottoes of Catullus...which actually aren't even grottoes at all, but rather the ruins of a 2000 year old Roman villa. We stayed there for hours there was so much to see! Also had a nice drink at the Jamaica beach on the way through the ruins!Read more

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    Sirmione - Day 4, Part 2

    May 8, 2024 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    After the Grottoes we went back to what was the packed city center from earlier to see the Sirmione castle...thankfully at that point it wasn't as overrun as earlier in the day. The castle was great, but what we thought was the coolest part was the walled port that held the boats used to control the lake in the 1500's. We walked along the ramparts and climbed the many stairs leading to the top of the tower...the view of Sirmione from above was beautiful, especially with the sun reflecting on the lake. After that we headed back to the car and were able to take the scenic route along the coast back home! After getting back to the campsite we immediately left again to walk to the restaurant a few minutes away. We got a lovely little lakeside table and both ordered our favorite spaghetti aglio e olio which was excellent! (and I forgot to take a picture...whoops, lol)Read more

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    Lake Garda - Day 5

    May 9, 2024 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Took it a little easier today and didn't stray too far from the campsite. The weather was gorgeous!!! Sunny, warm, and clear views in all directions. We decided to take advantage of it and go on a *real* kayak trip today. We set our goal to Malcesine, the nearest town where we've been doing most of our shopping and wandering, and back again. It's about an hour's walk and we thought we could do it in a similar paddling time. The water was really wavy today, but thankfully it didn't bother us! It was a lot more work that we were anticipating, but we did it! We paddled 4.8 miles in and hour and 47 minutes with a couple breaks for pictures in between. We were absolutely beat when we came back, though...hoping we won't be too sore to take it out one more time on our last day tomorrow! Grabbed a vegan burger and nuggets with fries for lunch and came home and took a much needed nap, lol. Cooked some spaghetti pomodoro with some black olives and capers thrown in and ate it outside since it was still wonderfully warm! It was SO good and the perfect atmosphere to enjoy such a fantastic dinner to. 🥰Read more

  • Venice and Lake Garda, Italy

    Riva del Garda - Day 6

    May 10, 2024 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    Last day at Lake Garda! Kind of sad with how beautiful it is and how much fun we've had, but we're also looking forward to being home and back to normal life. We spent it going up to the northernmost part of the lake, Riva del Garda. It was such a pretty little town, made even prettier with the water and all the colorful buildings in the bright sunlight on a beautiful day. We walked around all the streets filled with a million restaurants, ice cream parlors, and souvenir shops, overwhelmed with choices for what to do for lunch lol. We ended up "just" getting some focaccia to save room for gelato after, but for being so ridiculously simple (oil and rosemary for me and cherry tomatoes for Wolfie) it was probably one of my favorite things I've eaten this whole trip. 😂 I really have to learn how to make it!!! Afterwards we pigged out on our last ice cream cones in Italy looking out over the lake. It was absolutely CRAZY how many wind and kite surfers there were in just that small section of the lake. Then we went up the historic 13th century watchtower to admire everything from above! Afterwards we headed back towards the campsite to do some shopping for the long trip home tomorrow and went to the nearby restaurant one more time. More spaghetti aglio e olio and a marinara pizza for Wolfie and a Mediterranean salad for me! Yum!Read more

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    Home again!

    May 11, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Whew...what a long day. 😩 Got started packing pretty early at about 8am and ended up getting on the road at 9:20 (and thankfully got out of the campsite easier than we got in, LOL). The GPS said it was supposed to be a little over 7 hours. Surprisingly, the first 6 hours of driving went by super easily...but that didn't mean we only had an hour left. Between a handful of breaks to pee or eat, the looong delays towing the camper through the Alps, and still having to go on a small shopping trip for the rest of the weekend, we made it home after about 11 hours...ugh. Proud of Wolfie for pulling through with the drive. Despite it being so long, we had fun together! Now I'm thankful to be back at home with my babies. 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛ All in all, an amazing vacation. We'd love to do it again in a couple years!Read more

    Trip end
    May 11, 2024
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