And what kind of mountains… the Dolomites in the north of Italy. The most important thing of the day that I had forgotten to write about in the previous post. Important – as it had taken me quite some convincing, but then it was of course my sweet husband who wanted to go further than planned;). We had a delightful walk up on one of the mountains of the ‘Five Peaks’, a well-spent 2 hours as break to our day and to get some exercise again;).

We have been warmly welcomed by our friend Ghazaal, who introduced us to her friends Siavash and Ali for a delightful stay in Torino, after we found our chosen camping had closed down and we would have been sleeping ‘in the street’ or it would have become our first night of wild camping. Instead we were offered kindness and chats in the comfort of another home which welcomed us.
Torino is a very lined/squared city (such as cities in the USA) and has several big squares, as well as the biggest square of Europe (when studying Urban Planning you know all these things!).  And then there is the river Po, for many a solace in this place.
After a magnificent breakfast and although pouring rain, we decided to continue our route through the north of Italy. Friday 4 to Saturday 5 July we spent on a camping just under Como.

And the next day… scenic routes along the Como lake! Small roads, challenging Italian drivers, but beautiful views, with a cup of cappuccino in Blevo, a little town at the lake. We went to Iseo, at Lago Iseo and found a camping at the lake, of course an invite to stay although its price was more than we had ever paid so far! Well worth the view, despite the loud Italian crowd which also stayed at this camping. Very idyllic, we found a spot between two olive trees and set up our table and chairs: guarantee for dinner at the lake!
And although the Netherlands was playing in the evening (World cup against Costa Rica), and our wish was to enjoy the starry sky for a while, we were in bed by 22h50, in for a wonderful nights sleep.

On Sunday we continued our journey to ultimately Nova Levante-Welschnofen. We had wanted to stop earlier, but the two campings we passed asked ridiculously high prices for a night’s stay (EUR 38!), that we decided to continue to the place we had had in mind in the first place and that we would see what we would find there. A parking in front of the tourism office awaited us, with on the other side of the river a little recreational area, even with toilets! They were open when we arrived, locked when we returned from our walk in the village after our dinner. A pity, but nevertheless, we decided to stay in the car, in the parking and try out our first night of ‘wild camping’. Quite scary I found, my mind busy and challenging to fall asleep. We have curtains all around, so nobody can see us, but still, what if…???
We were awake at 6h20 (a first this early!), moved all our stuff from the passenger front seat into the back and drove off, to stop straight away again for some breakfast at the local bakery (Naeckerly); delicious and a wonderful way to leave this hospitable village – Nova Levante!

For the last two days everything has been indicated on the road in both Italian and German. So finally I realised that the two names the cities here are made up of, are also Italian and German and that a city is not called i.e. ‘Bolzano-Bozen’, but Bolzano in Italian and Bozen in German.

Today we ended up at our last night in Italy for a moment; we are in Forni di Sopra in the Dolomites of northern Italy. The drive today has been spectacular, the mountains rugged and rough and the passes many (three in total, with the highest 2239m and the one with the most ‘tornanti’ (hairpin bends) had 33! So much for the incredible safe driving of my husband, thank you!!! At times so close to the edge and with crazy on-coming traffic, I was grateful that Saeed drove. But he, a fantastic driver is nothing without a great navigator next to him;).