Somehow I envisaged a drive through Europe to Venice would be a feast of delightful vistas and leisurely stopovers to enjoy the countryside. Today has been such a mixture of delightful looking cupola’ed church towers and rustic villages on hill and mountain sides but all were impossible to capture on camera because of wall to wall lorries all around us on the auto strada. We were intrigued to see cargoes from all over Europe – Czechoslovakia, Hungary, France, Spain, Poland and Germany but noticed only one lorry from the UK (with one contact address in Dartford!)
The book of maps informed us that we would be travelling along the south bank of Lake Garda but any view of this was enticingly out of sight – just over the horizon … and blocked by about 5000 lorries all going the other way.
We were doing well when just as we approached Venice the road building authorities did it to us again and whisked us along a new piece of road and we found ourselves on the way to Trieste with about 15 miles to cover before we could turn around and come back again. Naturally, we had to pay a hefty toll for travelling so far along a road which we had no desire to be on at all!! Hhhmmm. We will be glad to leave the car parked up tomorrow and travel from Mestre into the centre of Venice by train for a days outing. Wish us luck – we have no Italian phrase book or map of Venice but K is doing very well at remembering all his Italian office speak and has managed really well so far, Correction – he has just returned from hotel reception with a map of Venice but I feel sure that we will be true to form and get lost in no time.
STOP PRESS Have just had worrying information that our Minoan Line ferryboat from Venice to Patras has been seconded to evacuate people from Libya ... so we may be in Venice for longer than we had anticipated!!!!
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