Selce, Croatia

So, by now, we have driven down the front of the boot, down to the toe and partially circumnavigated the island of Sicily. Now it is time to drive across the foot and up the back of the boot.

Surprisingly, the toe of Italy is quite long, so we decided to scoot up the Autostrada before heading across to the Italian Instep. We found a Stehlplatz where we could overnight for the grand price of “0 Euros” (Yippee!!) and met a couple of Germans travelling in their Mobile homes (Wohnmobiles). Peter & Bettina were on holiday from Frankfurt and Klaus was enjoying some summer whilst his wife was off driving a bus for the Andre Rieu tour. Both were quite chuffed that they didn’t have to try and communicate in English.

We had a few places that we wanted to see in the heel of the boot – Lecce, Otranto, Gallipoli & Gagliano. We drove to Gallipoli and found a really nice spot to stay for a couple of nights. The campground was a couple of kilometres outside of the town but they would drive us into town and then pick us up at a pre-arranged time. We spent a lovely few hours walking around Gallipoli, including walking through the old Castello which had been rescued sympathetically – enough restoration to stop it falling down but not too much done to make it look like something else. One of the things we discovered was a large circular room, with a dome roof inside one of the towers – the acoustics were amazing!!

From Gallipoli, we headed to Otranto where we encountered the World GP for JetSkis on the beach! We enjoyed walking around the old town and stopped for a drink – we love the fact that if you order a drink in the afternoon, you get nibbles with it – olives, nuts and savoury biscuits (flavoured dough baked in circles).

On our way to Otranto, we detoured via S.M.Leuca which is a small settlement right on one of the corners of the heel. There is the ever-present church which was built in that location due to an alleged-miracle that occurred – something about an icon that didn’t burn when the church was destroyed by the Turks (or whoever was invading that week). The outlook was lovely with lots of water all around!!

A few nights previously, when we met Peter & Bettina, Peter told us about “the carbuncle” which is an section which looks like a lump on the back of the calf. We decided to head up there for a few days of R&R – who knew that sightseeing could be so tiring! We found a campsite at a place called Manfredonia – where we met Peter & Bettina again!!! What a small world! We had 3 very relaxing days there, going for walks down to the beach – yes, we did go for a paddle but the temperature difference between the water and the air made the water feel REALLY cold!

Have I mentioned how much we are enjoying Italian food?? I love going into small stores and buying olives, nice prosciutto, sampling some different cheeses and if you pay more than 4 Euros for a bottle of wine, then it’s too much!!

I have to admit that there isn’t a lot on the east coast to see, so we headed inland a bit to catch up on stuff in the middle that we had missed. Our first stop was Assisi, home of Saint Francis and Saint Clare. Assisi is also the home of drawn-thread embroidery. We managed to buy some examples (“Ouch!” said our bank account) and then MJ insisted on visiting the Basilicas of Santa Chiara (St Clare) and San Francesco (St Francis), and of course, these two Basilica had to be at opposite ends of the town so lots of walking involved!

Now, when MJ was at school, she read a lot of Shakespeare, so at her insistence, we headed up to Padua – the setting of “The Taming of the Shrew” and the town to which Romeo was banished after killing Mercutio. Sadly, Shakespeare love affair with Italian settings doesn’t reflect in those towns. Having said that, Padua is lovely with an Oval “Square” called Prato delle Valle which is sounded with about 70 statues of people famous in Padua – not a single William Shakespeare! It is also a lovely cool area where the locals sit to enjoy the good weather and get a break from the heat by sitting under any of the many trees. Another beauty in Padua is the Scrovegni Chapel which was built and decorated by Giotti with a pretty amazing array of frescoes in 1305. It is still in very good condition and pretty amazing to see.

Our last stop in Italy was going to be Venice. In 2008, when MJ was at University in Germany, she went to Venice for a weekend and remembered a campground that wasn’t very far out from Venice, so we managed to find it. The Camping Jolly had changed their target and these days there are more cabins where you get backpackers staying or bus tour groups of young people who are out to see how much they can drink and still go sightseeing the next day!! Thankfully, we were on the opposite of the campground from these groups, so we weren’t too disturbed by all the noise.

Even though we have been to Venice before, there are always things that we hadn’t seen, so we wanted to get out to the island of Murano to see some of the history of the glass for which Murano is famous. Again, more walking around, but we also enjoyed a bus boat trip out to the Lido and back – so lots to see whilst saving our poor sore feet.

It is now time to say Arrivederci to Italy as we headed past Trieste to the Slovenian border, crossing the strip of land, about 30 kilometres, which gives Slovenia access to the Adriatic Sea and reaching Croatia.