After 3 days of driving and taking the slow non tolls roads through France, we finally arrived at the Italian Lakes. We are hoping to spend the next week just enjoying campervan life and visiting Venice on a budget. Can we do 48 hours in Venice for under €100
Lago D'Orta
We decided to head to Lago d'Orta first as it was the nearest Lake once we had taken the Simplon Pass train. To try and keep costs down and also be able to have a proper base to leave the van while we are exploring, we use the ACSI discount card and App to find campsites.
Camping Orta looked perfect as it is on the edge of the Lake and near the historic town of Orta San Giulio that we wanted to visit. It is listed as being OK to get the discount in May but when we tried to book in at reception she said that this week is an exception as it is the German school holidays so we needed to pay the full price! Not a great start - but luckily the full price was only €29 instead of €23 and other than the price it was a fantastic base with great views across the lake and mountains.
We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the town and island of San Giulio over the next 2 days and for most parts we were really lucky with the weather.
The town was full of beautiful, colourful historic buildings and the church was being decorated by the local florist for a wedding that afternoon. We loved just sauntering through the streets and ducking down all the little side alleyways to the lake side. We followed the locals and bought some freshly baked foccacia from a side street baker that was just delicious.
We took the local ferry transfer to the island which was easy enough to book online and was only €3.50 each return. We spent an hour exploring the church and quaint alleyways. We didnt realise that the ferry stopped running for an hour and a half at lunch time so we were stranded for a while - this also coincided with the most torrential storm with nowhere on the island to shelter.
Lago Maggiore
After 2 nights on Lake Orta we were ready to move on and headed for the little town of Lesa on Lago Maggiore. We booked into another lovely little campsite with pitches right up to the lakeside - Camping Solcio which was €27 a night. The weather was lovely and sunny and to be honest we just enjoyed a couple of days chilling out on the lakeside beach reading and sunbathing after the long week of driving we had done. We did get the bikes out and did a 15km ride exploring the lakeside and the town of Stresa.
Lago D'Iseo
After a couple of days of R and R on Lago Maggiorre we were going to head for Venice for 2 nights which was a 5 hour drive. However the weather was so beautiful when we woke up and the forecast for the following few days was not great so we thought we would make the most of it and stayed around the lakeside until lunch time. We then set off for a quick nights stop on Lago D'Iseo which was only 3 hours away. This way we could explore an extra Italian Lake in the sun and head of to Venice early in the morning.
The campsite we chose was quite dated but it was a good base to explore the town of Iseo on our bike sin the sun. We even had chance to have a swim and an icecream.
The campsite was next to a nature park for waterbirds, it was also inundated with a type of long legged rabbit that came in from the nature park. There were dozens of them all over the campsite and unlike our english rabbits these were not shy and just munched away on the shoots by our feet!
Venice in a campervan on a budget
Venice was one of our bucket list destinations on this trip, we don't normally visit cities and were a little worried about where to stay. We follow a few European campervan groups on facebook and followed a top tip on there to stay at the Aire just before the main bridge to cross into Venice.
Porta San Giuliano Venice Aire was just perfect for our needs. It was €18 a night and had a toilet and shower block. It was a 10 minute walk to the tram stop that takes you into Venice or a short walk to a 'ferry' stop - which seemed to be more of a private taxi boat - but was apparently €10 each way.
There were vans from pretty much every European country parked up, and even more fascinatingly 2 Chinese motorhomes that were on a huge road trip with a turn around point of Morocco! The map of their journy made interesting reading - we thought we were on an epic roadtrip!!
Venice was everything we had hoped for and more. From the moment we stepped off the tram and started walking through the narrow passage ways and alleys, we were hooked. The buildings were a beautiful mixture of quaint architecture, almost floating above the winding network of canals.
It is not an easy city to navigate through and we had to turn around several times after reaching a watery dead end with no bridge to cross.
But, oh how wonderful the views from those different bridges were!
From some it was just a mere glimmer of something picturesque at the end of a long straight passageway, the houses decorated with colourful flower boxes from every window.
From other bridges you can watch the romantic journey of the decadent gondalas ferrying their passengers through the glistening network of canals. My favourite view has to off the Ponte dell'Accademia where you can see the vast dome of Santa Maria Della Salute from one side and the brightly coloured bustling hotels and museums from the other. All this whilst a steady stream of river taxis and ferries cart tourists from all around the world to their destinations.
People watching in Venice is quite fascinating. It is a bucket list destination for people from all walks of life. We strolled through the lavish streets adorned with high end boutiques and jewellers with uniformed doorman to keep out the riff raff. At the other end of the spectrum, we found ourselves on a very intimadating alley full of street sellers and hawkers who were quite persistant in selling their wares.
Keeping to our budget, we found a fab little pizza takeaway that was popular with the locals and ordered a family size margharita pizza with a large bottle of beer; all for the bargain price of €16! We ate on the marble steps in a lovely piazza whilst watching the world go by.
Later in the evening, having spotted happy hour signs appearing outside many of the restaurants, our budget also stretched to a refreshing Aperol Spritz. We were careful to keep away from the cafes and bars around San Marcos Piazza as we had heard horror tales of people being charged extortionate service charges for drinks.
We returned back to the van weary but both agreeing it had been the most wonderful day. We had walked nearly 12 km in total, got lost many times and loved every moment. Infact we loved it that much we decided to go back for a second day.
One of the main tourist areas in Venice is around the Basilaca di San Marco and the Palazzo Ducale and it had been heaving by the time we got there in the late afternoon the previous day, so we decided to have a really early start and try and avoid the crowds so we could have a good look around and go into the church.
We arrived at the tram station by 8.30 but it is about a 3.5km walk through all the narrow alleyways to get to Square and thats before you factor in getting lost a few times. Before we knew it, it was after 10am when we arrived and the huge guided tourist groups were already out in force and it was as busy as ever. The queue to get into the church was stretched for as far as the eye could see so we admired the view once more, took lots of lovely photos of the outside and went for a coffee and croissant instead.
The weather on our second day in Venice was more stormy and atmospheric which actually gave it a very dfferent feel and we got some of fantastic photo's. However, I was not loving life when the torrential rain storm finally arrived just as we got off the tram and had a 1km walk back to the van with nowhere to shelter.
So how much did the most fantastic 48 hours in Venice cost us?
Surprisingly, not as much as we thought!! Obviously this does not include the travel costs to get to Venice as we were driving that way anyway on our way down to Slovenia and Croatia.
Aire camping fees (2 nights) - €36
Trams into Venice (2 days) €12
Pizza and beer - €16
Aperol Spritz - €12 with a tip
Coffee and croissants - €8
postcard and stamp - €2.50
Toilet - €1.50
TOTAL = €88
We have released our first vlog from this road trip showing our toll free travels through rural France and a trip on the Simplon Pass train through the mountains in Switzerland to get to the Italian Lakes. You can catch it through the link below
So after a fab week in Italy we have moved onto the north coast of Croatia. In next weeks blog, I will give a break down of costs for the first 2 weeks of our travels and reflect on our time by the coast.
Have a great week
Jackie and Richard x
Went to Venice last year. I love it, it’s the most amazing place. It’s worth taking the water bus which takes you round to the other islands which are quieter but interesting in their own way. Have a lovely trip!
Your photos and description of Venice brought back some good memories for me from my visit there, which only seems like it was a couple of years ago but was in fact in 2008! Even though you've had some rain, the weather looks better than the Dales which seems to have reverted to winter - there have been several frosts this week. Looking forward to watching/reading about the next stage of your trip.