Italy Week 3!

We reached Tiber campsite before lunch and had a nice relaxing day doing very little.

Monday 18th April

We went to Roma again, purely to see the Sistine Chapel. We took up the offer of a guide and set off for the museum.

Unfortunately, you have to go through the Vatican museum to get to the Sistine Chapel and doing a tour was the easiest and quickest way...it also meant we got to skip at least 3 hours of queueing!

Much to my dismay, it was absolutely heaving! There seemed to be no limit on the amount of people allowed in at once and it was almost impossible to see much unless it was at least six feet up in the air! Our tour guide was a guy named Anton from London, he spoke far too fast, our group was too large and if he went beyond ten feet of me; his mic didn't transmit to our headsets properly. It was all very frustrating and hot!

After two hours and far too much walking, we reached the Chapel.

It was PACKED!!!

Contrary to what we had previously been told - and what is on the Vatican website - we were allowed to take photos and I took loads. The ceiling was, of course, amazing! Parts of it looked 3D and the nine panels in the middle told the story of Genesis.

Mum and I were in an awful amount of pain by then and were, frankly, pleased to get out at the end - the pain followed us all the way back to the campsite :(

Tuesday 19th April

I was very stiff when I woke this morning, but was soon able to move after some tea and a shower.

We set off for Venezia; Sean the SatNav said it was just under 500km and would take about five hours.

In reality, it took six and I was shattered when we arrived at Fusina campsite. We checked in and hunted for somewhere to stick the van - there's no organisation in Italian sites, you put your van wherever there is room and hope your electric cable will reach the hook-up point!

We ate dinner and read for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday 20th April
Today is my mothers 69th birthday and today she got to go to Venice and ride on a Gondola - something she has always wanted to do!

Venice is incredible - even when you disregard the fact that the whole place is slowly sinking - there is NO road traffic! A city with no cars! It's so quiet and relaxed and peaceful!

We only managed to explore a small section as we were still feeling the effects of walking around the Vatican museum and then driving for a whole day! But we had a lovely day and ended it with a lovely meal followed by a gondola ride.

Thursday 21st April
Mum went back to Venice today, the boys, Isis and I elected to stay at the campsite (which is a LOT quieter in the day - there seem to be nightly parties here unfortunately!) and I had a lovely day of sun bathing burning, reading and knitting!

Friday 22nd April
We left the Venice campsite at lunchtime, I have today, tomorrow, Sunday and until 3pm Monday to get to Calais which 1397km away - I need to travel approximately 350km a day!

I travelled 300km today, we made it out of Italy and across the Austrian border. As we're travelling along roads without tolls; there are very few places to stop overnight, so we've stopped in a little town car park for the night.

Saturday 23rd April
I've had to drive 400km today to get us to the halfway level. My right leg and foot really hurt and I'm hot and tired.

We've made it across the border into Germany - that means there are Rastenplatz! We found one on the A8 near Stuttgart - it's surprisingly quiet and there are toilets!


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Location:Europe