Saturday 17th November 2007

The night was surprisingly quiet on the whole and it wasn't until six or six thirty that we were woken by the trains. It must have been very close to freezing over night and it was still very cold. A quick dash from the bed allowed me to put on the gas heating, fill the saucepan with water and light the gas. The low-power electric kettle takes ages to boil and this gives the heating time to warm things up but the gas boils much faster and it was still very cold when I filled the teapot. A relaxed two cups of tea allowed Henrietta time to warm up before breakfast.
We decided that we would stay for another night so that we could watch the rugby and I could enjoy a drink. We enquired about buses at the tourist information and discovered that they were every 20 minutes from the city centre. We had a quick snack on the hoof and caught the bus to the stadium. Unlike Bath, we arrived just over 1 hour before the game and the stadium was deserted apart from a coach of Perpignan supporters in the car park. For 16 Euro (£11.20) we had covered 'seating' in the main stand, very close to the halfway line. I had the foresight to buy two natty Benneton Traviso cushions (2 Euro each) because the 'seats' turned out to be concrete and, without the cushions, we would have had totally frozen bums by the end of the first half.
We tried some beer whilst we were waiting for the kick-off but that was far too cold and they brought out some hot mulled wine, which seemed like a good idea. This kept us going though the very cold first half and a top-up at half-time made the second half bearable.
The match was excellent but, although we were neutrals, we really wanted Treviso to win. They lost 29 – 17 and Perpignan thoroughly deserved their victory. Their small band of supporters, with the mandatory two large very noisy drums, were delighted. We got talking to some of their supporters after the match – they were, understandably confused by the fact that there were two Bath supporters in Italy watching Treviso v Perpignan. They had lost to Newport Dragons by 5 points the previous week in Perpignan in what they described as "a very hard match", so victory was sweet this week. I have to say that, on that performance, Bath could have beaten both of these teams, but it was a very enjoyable match to watch.
We caught the bus back to the city centre and had a meal in 'Toni del Spin', a traditional trattoria. We had the local speciality of 'Risotto al Radicchio' as a first course. For those that are not familiar with it, radicchio looks like a red lettuce and is grown and used extensively in the Veneto region, Treviso being the main area of production. In addition to risotto, it can also be found in ravioli, as a vegetable accompanying a main course or even in deserts. The slight bitterness and crunchy texture was ideal in the risotto. I had guinea fowl served with a liver, heart and salami sauce served with polenta. Polenta is very popular here and at least a third of all of the main courses, including Jane's chicken Treviso style, were served with it. After rice and polenta, we couldn't face desert, with or without radicchio! The whole meal came to £31 (44 Euro) and it was very refreshing that a good restaurant did not load the price of the wine - £2.80 (4 Euro) for half a litre of good red wine.
After my comments yesterday about flowery tourist information brochures, I would like to share this Province of Treviso brochure description of Radicchio:-
}An intense red wine... with a pleasant bitter taste yet of a crunchy consistency, radicchio of Treviso has a kind of vertical vocation, aimed directly at the sky, according to a gothic line... the other from Castlefranco entirely golden, with its Baroque extravagance, has the joyfulness of a magnificent open flower". Even allowing from the translation, that has got to be total rubbish!
Photos: Right in the centre of Treviso is this mill and behind is the fish market on an island in the river; Perpignan fans nervously await the kick-off; the Perpignan scrum half passes the ball from the break-down.

Friday 16th November 2007

Set off for Treviso, partly to visit the city and partly hunting for rugby. We haven't seen any live live rugby this season, so we are getting withdrawal symptoms! The Camperstop Europe book didn't show a stop in Trevisio and, needless to say, there weren't any proper campsites open at this time of the year. We had, however, identified at least two camper stops not far from Treviso where we could stay. We did a tour of the car parks in the centre without finding anywhere with spaces that would take a motorhome but, by going down side roads, we eventually managed to find some (free) off-road parking only 10 minutes walk from the centre. We wanted to find the tourist information office but didn't know where it was. A pleasant tour of the city followed and we took in the sites whilst trying to locate the tourism office. As normal, it was closed when we arrived but opened again at 14:00 and it being 13:00, we decided to have some lunch.
Jane spotted a poster advertising Treviso v Perpignan tomorrow and we decided that we would definitely go to the match. We asked the tourist information lady about campsites and she confirmed that they were all closed but she told us about a free camper stop in a Treviso car park, complete with water, waste water and WC disposal. This is exactly what we needed and we headed for it. It turned out to be in a different place from the position shown on the tourist information map, which caused some rather rushed driving decisions, but we got there in one piece and parked up with 3 other motorhomes. We chose a place on the other side of the small car park from the other vans and settled down for the evening. Then we discovered the detail that we hadn't been told and, being dark, that we hadn't seen. The rear of Henrietta was about 10 metres from a railway line and an extremely long and very noisy train came past. It was at this point that we understood why all of the other motorhomes had parked over the other side – we moved!On our walk we came across an unusual fountain.
Jane spotted a poster advertising Treviso v Perpignan tomorrow and we decided that we would definitely go to the match. We asked the tourist information lady about campsites and she confirmed that they were all closed but she told us about a free camper stop in a Treviso car park, complete with water, waste water and WC disposal. This is exactly what we needed and we headed for it. It turned out to be in a different place from the position shown on the tourist information map, which caused some rather rushed driving decisions, but we got there in one piece and parked up with 3 other motorhomes. We chose a place on the other side of the small car park from the other vans and settled down for the evening. Then we discovered the detail that we hadn't been told and, being dark, that we hadn't seen. The rear of Henrietta was about 10 metres from a railway line and an extremely long and very noisy train came past. It was at this point that we understood why all of the other motorhomes had parked over the other side – we moved!
On our walk in the morning we came across an unusual fountain and later found it highlighted in the tourist information brochure. The normal tourist information brochure would describe it in the following terms "The fountain by Famousi Sculptori clearly embodies the spirit of the Trevigiani (inhabitants of Treviso), reflecting the bounty of this fertile area whilst referencing the many sculptures and paintings of Our Lady feeding the Christ Child". This brochure, refreshingly and bluntly describes it as "The Fountain Of Tits". The water is drinkable too - quite the most interesting drinking fountain that I have seen!
Photos: Ship passing the Fusina campsite; River flowing through Treviso; The Fountain of Tits.

Thursday 15th November 2007

Venice was gorgeous. We caught the No. 16 (boat) and arrived in Venice in the way that you should – by sea. It was cold but bright, which allowed us to see the city at its best. Venice is busy at all times of the year and this was no exception. St. Mark's Square was heaving and the restoration work on the pillars in front of Ducal Palace rather spoiled the view. The Rialto bridge, although crowded, looked as graceful as ever from a distance and the boats and gondolas added to the picture. As soon as we got away from the main tourist trails, we were in amongst the locals and out of the crowds. Venice was as intriguing as ever with its mixture of run-down buildings, magnificent churches and beautiful palazzos and piazzas. It really is a city to wander around and we never tire of doing so – we had seen all of the major sites on our last visit, so we just enjoyed wandering.
We have been having many problems using the Barclays Travel Money card over the last few months and now our debit card was being rejected. Running low on cash, it was time to ring Barclays! The debit card was not a problem and was actually quite encouraging. They had spotted that we were using it abroad and not at home and wanted to check that it was us using it. We had also used it in Hungary and there has been incidents of fraud in that country. After Jane had convinced them that she was the genuine Jane, all was well. The Travel Money Card was much more frustrating with a very long phone call with lots of time on hold. Despite the fact that the card was being continually rejected even for small amounts, Barclays insisted that there wasn't a problem with it. Surprise, surprise, when we tried it later it worked, so they obviously did something to solve the problem even if they didn't tell us. This is not how we wanted to spend time in Venice, but it had to be done.
After fitting in a few minutes on the Internet, it was time to catch the last No. 16 back at the rather early time of 18:30. It was lovely to watch the lights of Venice fading as the boat sped across the water to Fusina. The crew were obviously keen to finish their day's work as the journey back only took 13 minutes compared to 20 minutes on the way out!
Photos: Fusina Campsite with the industrial area next door; Arriving in Venice by sea; Venetian ambulance speeding down a canal with blue lights flashing and sirens sounding; Rialto Bridge; Frustrating phone call to Barclays – the warning triangle sign on the door reads "It is prayed not to be based here" - we hope that we obeyed!; Venice looks completely different at night.

Wednesday 14th November 2007

Ciro had promised to tell me about two vineyards that he buys wine from and that we could visit for wine tasting and buying. Both of these are great hobbies of mine, so I was keen to meet up with him at 08:00. Our Europe map is not detailed enough to locate the vineyards but with the addresses provided by Ciro, we will be able to find them using the Garmin.
Ciro is submitting a paper to an international conference that will be held early next year. It has to be submitted in English and he asked me if I would be willing to check it over – from an English point of view, not an academic point of view! Ciro's English is excellent and we made very few corrections but it was very interesting to read even the incomplete paper. Ciro has proposed a method of costing the impact on the environment of an action such as the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest in order to grow crops. He will be publishing the paper later on his blog (http://ecosistemi.blogspot.com/) and there is already material on there, so go and take a look. I am looking forward to being able to read the finished paper. Ciro also put forward a very thought-provoking and persuasive argument that, in the light of world population growth, society needs to start to design cities to minimise the effect on the environment. This is likely to mean the creation of new cities in order to ensure that the population is close to the services and employment that it requires thus minimising travel and energy use. This is particularly relevant in the UK where, I would suggest, public transport is poor and the average distance between home and work is high. That combined with the distance travelled in private transport for services (shopping, schools etc.) and our very congested roads, must make us very inefficient in fuel usage.
I can honestly say that this is the first time that I have ever met an environmental economist running an organic farm and it was great! Ciro was not only a very pleasant person, he was one of the rare breed of academics with real practical knowledge. I hope that we will be able to call back in March when we intend to come back through Italy so that we can find out how the paper was received. We will also ensure that it is at a weekend so that we can taste the fruits of his labour. I only hope that Ciro will forgive me for dropping the trap door of the waste tank into the tank!
Before we left, we did a quick tour of the farm to see all of the animals. The wild boar were great and the buffalo just stood with their noses in the air looking very snooty. They were very large and I didn't fancy the idea of milking them!
We set off from La Via Antigua and the speedometer was working! We decided to visit Ciro's first recommendation of the Ornella Molon vineyard at Campo di Pietra. We arrived to the minute at the time that they closed for their two-hour lunch break. There wasn't much to see in the village but we noticed that the 'Osteria' attached to the winery was very popular, especially with manual workers – lorry drivers, builders etc. This is normally the sign of a restaurant that serves good food at reasonable prices and so we went in. There were no menus, just a set meal with three choices for first and main courses. Water was included in the price and probably wine as well, although we stuck with water. For the first course I had penne with bacon and tomato sauce and Jane had a vegetable soup. For the second course, I had liver and onions with spinach and Jane had escalope of pork with wild mushrooms and peas. It was very good quality food and, at 10 euros each, very good value.
The winery was now open and we were able to test the wines. We only had one sample of each wine between us and as I was driving, Jane had to drink more than me (a real hardship!). Their young, fresh wines were very good but we were not impressed by their barrel-aged wines. These were very deep in colour but were somehow too strongly flavoured. We came away with three bottles of their Merlot and three of their Traminer. The latter is a beautifully fragrant wine similar to the Alsace Gewurztraminer but without the spice of the Alsace wine.
The journey to the Venice campsite was not the most exciting that we have had – huge number of lorries and very congested motorway. The approach to the campsite ('Camping Fusina') is not inspiring as it is highly industrial and also one of the main lorry routes to the port. However, providing that you look forward from our pitch, the view is really good – over the lagoon to Venice. Unfortunately, Venice is distinctly lacking in hills, so it appears only as a small line on the horizon. The good news is that the ferry to Venice leaves from a pier only approx. 100 metres from the campsite entrance. Tomorrow it is Venice re-visted – hopefully warmer than it was when we visited it in December 2005.
Photos: Wild Boar in heaven; Inquisitive pig; Snooty buffalo.

Tuesday 13th November 2007

A gentle start, then dump grey water, take on fresh water and empty chemical toilet before paying the bill and setting off. We wanted to try one of the many Agritourism sites listed in the Camperstop Europe book and had chosen one on the way to Venice. This was only a relatively short drive, so we decided to take a diversion to a town marked on our Europe map with a blue underline, indicating that there was something of interest there. This was the only reason that we had stopped at Venzone and that had worked well.
The journey started inauspiciously when the speedometer resolutely refused to move from zero as we pulled off. This turned out not to be a momentary problem and I had to estimate the speed using the rev counter. I had, however, remembered that the Garmin could be set to display the speed and so I stopped and fiddled with the settings until I could see the speed. This turned out to be very efficient and made things much easier. We then spent the journey deciding where we would take it into a garage and keeping an eye out for Ford garages – there weren't any!
Cividale del Friuli turned out to be another medieval town with Roman roots and we drove right through the town, often down rather narrow, medieval streets, to find a large car park on the other side of the river. Like Venzone, the tourist board had helpfully provided a guide to the town available free from a dispenser in the car park. A short walk took us over the river on Il Ponte del Diavolo (The Devils Bridge) and into the town and we followed the map to view the sites. There is an archaeological museum in the centre of the town and we took the opportunity to visit it. The Roman town was founded in 50 BC and, being a very important military base, it was elevated to the status of a 'Civitas' and this was corrupted over the years to become 'Cividale'. There was not a great deal of Roman material on display as most of the Roman remains are buried under the modern town but the highlight of the museum were the grave goods from a number of 7th and 8th century graves from cemeteries within the town. These showed a strong Celtic influence with Celtic patterns on the brooches and dress fastenings. These and the other jewellery were beautiful and in excellent condition after expert restoration. Unfortunately, the only English translations in the museum were two boards about the early church architecture, probably the least interesting area. I must try to improve my Italian and Friulano!
We intended to have a snack at lunch time and chose 5 euro (£3.50) pizzas at a small, very popular restaurant. Well, it would have been a snack if we had one pizza between the two of us – they were enormous. We simply couldn't finish them all and, like most other people in the restaurant, we left the less interesting parts of the rim. Dinner was cancelled that night and we just had a snack!
One of the places that we visited was the 'Celtic Hypogeum', which is a complex of man-made interconnected grottos with many niches cut into the rock at different heights and reached by steep steps down from the road level. Some experts believe that they were used for Celtic funeral rites, others that they were prisons used by the Romans and Longobards. The more likely explanation is they they were Jewish ritual bathing places used between the 13th and 17th centuries and associated with a nearby synagogue. Still the Celtic explanation sounds much more exciting!
A miracle then happened – when we set off from Cividale, the speedometer worked! So, we decided to wait for a few days to see if the problem returned.
We used the Garmin to direct us to the Agritourism site using the address in the Camperstop book. The book also has GPS coordinates but when I entered these, it indicated a place 5 km away from the address. The Camperstop book was published with an erratum correcting some of the GPS coordinates for the UK and France, so it was quite likely that these coordinates were also wrong. They proved to be incorrect as using the address took us right to La Via Antigua at Torre di Mosto including one kilometre down a dirt track. We were greeted by barking dogs (Jane wasn't at all keen) and the owner Ciro. After completing the paperwork Ciro offered us a glass of local organic wine and we chatted about his business and our travels. After studying Economics at university, Ciro became a business consultant before giving that up at the age of 35 to take over his parents' farm. He now runs an organic farm and restaurant with a few camping places and also spends time studying. That however is a much too simplistic description.
On his farm, Ciro has pigs, wild boar, pig / wild boar crosses, two types of moufflon, sheep, goats and buffalo. He also grows cereals and vegetables – all organic and all for the table. He also has dogs and horses but, I hope, these are not for eating. Ciro is also interested in cross breeding and hopes to purchase mountain goats from Austria to cross breed with his goats. He even has his own mill, made in Austria, that uses proper millstones. As you can see, he is a real enthusiast!
Unfortunately, the restaurant is only open at weekends, otherwise we would have certainly had a meal. Instead, it was back to Henrietta and a non-organic tuna salad.
Photos: Cividale - river and town walls; Lovers' padlocks with The Devil's Bridge in the background; Celtic Hypogeum.

Monday 12th November 2007

It was time to say a reluctant “goodbye” to Slovenia (we will definitely return) but were also looking forward to visiting Italy. We shall miss that fantastic view of Triglev and its surrounding peaks, surely the best view of all of the campsites so far. We certainly recommend Camping Kamne to anyone travelling in this area and, given that it is open all year, it is also very useful out of season. The site is very busy in the main season and you will need to book but out of season there shouldn't be a problem. The facilities were quite basic when we were there but this was largely due to the fact that they were extending the shower block, so they will be much better next season.
The Garmin satellite navigation wanted to take us back towards Ljubljana and then through a toll motorway tunnel into Austria and then down into Italy, despite the fact that there is a major crossing directly into Italy just down the road. The Garmin mapping in Slovenia is very poor and unless you want to go somewhere on very major roads, it is worse than useless. Let's face it, if you want to use the major roads, they are very well signposted and if your destination is not on a major route then the Garmin is likely to take you on a totally inappropriate route. Needless to say, we ignored the directions, which resulted in many “recalculating” announcements from the Garmin. Once we crossed the border into Italy, it suddenly knew where the roads were and the directions became sensible again - mapping in Western Europe is good. We took the opportunity of filling up with diesel before we left Slovenia as the price here (1.03 Euros per litre) is cheaper than anywhere else that we have travelled.
We had a very short journey to our next site at Gemona del Friuli, so we took the non-motorway route and stopped off at Venzone. This is a pretty and interesting medieval town with a pre-Roman origin but also an important strategic site in Roman times. According to the tourist brochure, after the Roman times, it was successively invaded by “the Guards, the Marcmanns, the Visigoths, the Huns, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines, the Longoboards and the Carolingians”. Half of those, I hadn't even heard of but it doesn't sound like it was a good time to live there!
We had lunch in a small café / restaurant in the square near the main church and were able to sample excellent local food. We only wanted something small and I chose Frico Misto on the basis that I had no idea what it was. I was impressed when it arrived – cheese had been melted into a thin sheet and then shaped into a basket, rather like the brandy snap baskets that used to be popular in England. In addition, there was a small cheese and potato(?) omelette (or something like one) and a slice of fried polenta. It was delicious and turned out to be a traditional Friulian dish.
I had noticed that the tourist guide (free and available near the car park) had Italian, English, and German translations but also had a language and a flag that I didn't recognise. I asked the café owner about it (in sign language!) and he indicated that it was Friulano. Although there are some common words with Italian, this is much more than just an Italian dialect and I found out later that it has a Celtic root from one of the many invading hoards that overran the area.
We had seen quite a lot of the town before we found out the details of its recent history. At 09:00 on 6th May 1976 the area of Friuli was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale. Out of the 600,000 inhabitants of Friuli, 1,000 were killed and 3,000 were injured. The damage to the towns and villages was enormous – 1,500 buildings destroyed and 70,000 damaged. Over 100,000 people where left homeless. While the inhabitants were attempting to rebuild their houses and lives, further tremors shook the area until, on 15th September, a second major earthquake, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale, destroyed what remained of the standing buildings. When we first read in the tourist leaflet that Venzone had been “destroyed” by the earthquakes, we assumed that this was a quirk of the translation and that it had probably been badly damaged. It was only when we saw the photographs that we realised the scale of the devastation – 90% of the buildings were destroyed.
What followed the destruction was quite remarkable. The residents of Venzone lobbied their government to have the old town completely rebuilt as it was before the earthquakes and that is exactly what was done. Walking through the town, it was difficult to believe that it had once been destroyed and it was only inside the church that it became clear how much had been achieved. There were pictures of the areas where the stones of the church were stored in neat rows indicating where they had come from. Of course, much of the ornate stonework and the frescoes were damaged or destroyed but where possible they had used the original materials and replaced missing stonework with new carved stone. Venzone is heralded as an example of how to deal with rebuilding historical sites after such devastation but the cost must have been huge.
One of the delights of travelling when you have plenty of time is discovering unexpected treasures like Venzone.
On then to Gemona del Friuli and Ai Pioppi a small site tucked behind a bar next to the fire station. We had arrived quite early, so we took a walk around the town and again came across references to the damage caused by the 1976 earthquakes. Gemona was a pleasant enough place but did not have the historical heritage of Venzone.
Photos: Venzone church after May 1976 earthquake; Venzone church after September 1976 earthquake; Venzone church today; Sculpture to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the earthquakes – carved from a single tree trunk;

Sunday 11th November 2007

Our plans were weather dependent today – move on to Italy if it was bad, stay one more night if it was good. We decided to stay another night as the sun was shining and it was even slightly warmer than yesterday. Lake Bohinj was our destination, about 30 km beyond Lake Bled but as the crow flies (or, more probably, the eagle flies) only 12 km from the campsite on the other side of Triglev.
We parked at Zlatorog, at the far end of the lake near to the cable car station. Although a trip on the cable car with the associated from Vogel mountain was tempting, we really wanted to walk. Zlatorog was the starting point for a walk up to Slap Savice (the Savice Waterfall – what a great word for a waterfall – Slap!!), but we had already seen waterfalls in the area and the guidebook said that it was closed at this time of the year. It was a one and a half hour round trip to the falls and we didn't want to get there and find that we couldn't see it. So, option three was the circumnavigation of the lake on foot and that is what we went for.
Unlike Bled, Bohinj has more dramatic mountains close to the lake with very steep mountain slopes, popular with mountaineers, just a few hundred metres away from the northern shore. When we arrived, there was no wind and the surface of the lake was like glass and gave the most wonderful reflections of the mountains (see photos). It was the northern shore where we started our walk. At this time of the year, sunlight in areas surrounded by mountains is very restricted and we knew that the whole shoreline would be in the shade by mid-afternoon. The northern shore was bathed in sunlight and, given that the air temperature was about 5°C, this made the walk much more pleasant. We were surprised by the number of people that we met on the walk having been used to meeting very few people at other times. It was Sunday and locals and those from further afield, especially Ljubljana, were taking advantage of the sunny weather and beautiful scenery. It was good to see that the 'walkers' code' was followed here – almost everyone that we met said hello or rather 'Dober dan'. We found a bench in the sun and stopped for a picnic with a super view (see photo) and completed the round trip in about 4 hours at a very gentle (Jane's) pace.
We drove through the villages of Stara Fuzina, Studor, Vas and Cesnjica on the way back and admired their typical rural Slovenian village architecture. Everywhere in the Slovenian countryside you will see many hay drying racks in field and near farms. Recently, the summers have become hot and dry but, even 20 years ago, the pattern would be hot mornings with a thunderstorm in the afternoon. This caused a problem for hay production – the hay must be completely dry before being stored in the barns ready for the winter cattle feed. The Slovenian solution was to create drying racks where the farmers would hang the hay to dry, sheltered from the rain by a small roof. Most of the racks are single but the double hay racks, called 'toplars', are unique to Slovenia.
The drive back to Dovje was beautiful – with the sun setting behind us, all of the snow-covered mountain peaks on the journey were turned a lovely shade of pink, accentuated by dark clouds above and behind them.
Photos: Bohinja reflection with boat; Bohinja reflection without boat; Bohinja picnic view.