Venice – Our view from our bedroom.

A 7 hour drive today from the Austrian Alps to Venice. This would have to be one of the most spectacular drives ever. unfortunately we were unable to stop and never at the right spots for photos so I haven’t got much to show. Collette did try with the phone while driving but not great results.

We were on the road by 7 am. The route took us 12 km along the edge of Lake Traunsee and there was a photo at every turn. It was like driving through the jig saw puzzles of the alps, reflecting lakes, window boxes in bloom and just magnificent Alpine scenery. This continued non stop for about 5 hours until we got through the Italian mountains.

I say ‘through’ the mountains. On the tollway there would have been over 20 tunnels through the mountains, some quite short but many 5 to 10 km long. It cost us 28 Euro for the Austrian and Italian toll roads but it saved about 90 minutes driving.

As you would expect, the tunnels in Austria were pristinely finished, well painted and signed, and mostly 2 fast moving lanes each way. The Italian tunnels by comparison were bare concrete, no signage, poorly lit and 1 slow lane each. However they were very functional and got us there.

Some through the windscreen photos to try to give some idea.

And one of the driver.

The crop shown out the window is grapes and they are everywhere in this part of Italy, directly north of Venice.

We found a great campground, very old and well established, at Fusina, directly across the harbour from Venice. Fusina is the port area for Venice shipping. We backed onto the harbour, opened the back door, and gazed across the water to Venice.

Overlooking our campsite this Viking seems to be silent at the moment.

Empty ships have been parading past all afternoon. We are right on the channel to sea.

Tomorrow morning we catch the early ferry to Venice and have a day exploring this beautiful city.

David & Collette