It was time to leave Italy and hop on to the enormous Grimaldi Lines ferry from Civitavecchia to Barcelona along with thousands of other returning holiday makers. Our GB plates were absolutely the odd ones out in a crowd of Italian and Spanish cars. The embarkation process took hours but (eventually) we made it on board and were very grateful for our cabin; 22 hours is a long time on a boat, especially with two holy terrors, er, small boys to contend with.

The best thing about our ship was the pool on the upper deck, next to a bar turning out tasty cortados (coffee, not cocktails 😢) Our cabin was also fine. The refuse in the corridors and toilets was a bit grim though! Grim-aldi: aptly named, we decided.

Disembarkation can only be described as hell-raising. It was as if the driver of every car had placed a high stakes bet on who could get off the ferry first with the fastest spinning wheels. Somehow we made it off the boat alive and intact; surfing the adrenalin rush and giving thanks to random deities for our survival, while nudging a big white Audi out of our way on the gangplank, we set a course for our next stop: Fontjoncouse.
 

  

  

  

  

 

 

We wish we’d planned to spend more time in Rome. We didn’t expect it to be quite so calm, beautiful and… to be honest, so friendly. We had been prepared for sweltering August weather, chaotic traffic congestion, pickpockets and legendary tourist rip-off experiences like the family in the papers who paid €35 for two ice-creams. Instead, we spent most of our time strolling and playing in quiet pedestrianised streets where people in Vespas drove carefully around us (one man pretended to race Cormac on his Micro scooter and kindly let him win). Mornings and evening were pleasantly warm (as opposed to boiling); we retreated to our air-conditioned apartment for lovely long siestas during the hot afternoons. It may have been because all the Roman residents were away at the beach but it suited us perfectly. Our taxi drivers were mostly helpful and accommodating; the restaurants we ate in were fab; the waiters were charming; the gelato was to die for and our days out had something for everyone!

Our visit to the Vatican Museums/Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica was a particular highlight – we spent quite some time in the Raphael galleries with the mamas appreciating art, Little Wildberry looking for the rest of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Raphael, Leonardo etc) and Big Wildberry carefully studying each painting to find the spears, swords and arrows used to ‘kill the bad guys’!  In our usual style we had set off at 7am in order to avoid the legendary crowds, and amazingly we were allowed in to the Vatican museums before official opening hours. So we had the extraordinary privilege of being practically on our own, wandering through gallery after gallery surrounded by priceless works of art. We were able to stroll around peacefully at our own pace; the boys could lie on the cool marble floors and look at the sumptuous painted ceilings without fear of being trampled underfoot.

At the end of this extraordinary day we saw the Pietà. Even little Wildberry, totally sick of it all by then, was impressed. An awesome day.

  

 

 

     

 

Wow! Rome is an incredible place. There is a real sense of ancientness. Today, for example, while wandering about we found a foot. An enormous stone foot. A small sign nearby informed us that it was a fragment of a Roman statue. Now it’s part of today’s streetscape, along with the flower boxes and Vespas parked nearby; in fact there was a small bag of dog poo beside it. And all around there are hundreds upon hundreds of similarly mind-boggling sights. No wonder the people of Rome are so cool. And the coffee is pretty decent too.

 

  

  

  

  

 

We couldn’t leave Tuscany without mentioning our day at the stunning Baratti Beach. A beautiful, natural beach with forest coming right down to the sand. Surrounded by a crowd of mellow Italians, we played in clear water while a super yacht swung gently at anchor a short distance away.

  

   

 

We spent a wonderful day exploring some of the medieval villages in the region, falling in love with the Tuscan countryside in the process. All except one little WB who was less impressed and saw little point in climbing around cobbled streets and churches, no matter how beautiful they may be. After some negotiations and gelato bribes we successfully completed our tour and arrived in the coastal town of San Vincenzo for the evening.

We had the most incredible luck to find a parking space, dinner and a circus festival, in that order. The town was full of clowns and street performers. We can recommend dining by the sea while the sun sets, then watching a passionate tightrope tango.

Two sleepy boys could manage no more and we left around 11pm while all around us it felt as though the party had just begun. Children younger than ours were busker-watching and enjoying Gelato cones. How on earth do the Italians do it?

 

  

  

  

  

 

 
  

   

  

  

 

Park Albatross is the mother of all Italian campsites. Outside of high season I imagine there is nowhere better. In August though, it’s a bit like trying to navigate Oxford Street on the last shopping weekend before Christmas. Our advice would be: don’t.

Teeming crowds and lengthy queues aside, the camp is extremely well organised and our pitch was spacious enough to create an outdoor shaded playroom for the boys which they loved. The temperatures were perfect – warm during the day and cool during the evening. Even the mosquitoes were less vicious  than the beasts we had fended off in Venice. We enjoyed swimming in the pools and listening to live music in the evenings in the main Piazza. The boys’ highlight was probably riding on the little train that periodically carried exhausted campers back to their bases around the massive site.

 

  

  

 

Oh Howard, how right you were. After a week or so of camping even a basic hotel feels like a palace. And our Best Western Plus Resort Hotel in Modena, although very reasonably priced, was far from basic. The friendly proprietor welcomed us warmly, recommended a local restaurant where we had probably our best meal so far in Italy, and practically waited on us hand and foot. We had free and reliable wifi, which helped us recover from the Great iPad Disaster of 2015 when Cormac’s iPad had to be rebuilt from scratch. We had an amazing breakfast buffet complete with children’s play area. We had air conditioning and a swimming pool. And we had a wonderful afternoon exploring Modena, which is a gorgeous little place. We drove away to Tuscany wishing we had planned to stay a bit longer in the region, and vowing to become loyal Best Western customers in the future.

 

  

  

  

 

It’s no joke planning a day trip to see one of the world’s most famous cities, especially in 35 degree humidity. We dragged the Wild Berry Boys from their beds at 6.30am and cycled about 6km to the port in a bid to catch the first ferry at 7am. The eldest WB kept up manfully on his little red bike and certainly earned his gelato that day.

Our reward was Piazza San Marco almost completely to ourselves for at least an hour. Venice is glorious first thing in the morning. We watched all sorts of interesting boats transporting cargo along the canals, and managed to go up the Campanile in the very first lift – even the Basilica seemed easy; the queue was manageable and the boys chased pigeons happily while we waited.

After our cultural efforts, we spent a small fortune on coffee (€7 for an espresso!) at a café in the Piazza – but hey – it was Venice. We explored beautiful side streets and canal bridges. Then we got hot and tired. The obligatory gelato helped us explore a few more blocks before the Wild Berry boys began to fade. The eldest managed to fall asleep on a bar stool over lunch; the youngest passed out on a vaporetto as we cruised down the Grand Canal. The crowds of tourists became so overwhelming that even the restaurateurs were fed up. It was time to say goodbye to beautiful, smelly, hot Venice and catch a ferry back to our relatively peaceful Lido di Jesolo. As a reward for cycling home again we managed to find a local restaurant complete with playground and the most fantastic local gelato bar – two gelati in one day; the boys couldn’t believe their luck.

 

  

  

  

  

 

Campeggio Ca’Savio is on the Lido di Jesolo, bordering the Laguna Veneta and the Adriatic Sea. We’d chosen it for its easy proximity to Venice but it turned out to be a world unto itself and an introduction to large-scale European camping. Tent pitches were in a wonderfully shady, mosquito-infested pine forest – forewarned, we were armed with an array of increasingly poisonous (but effective) repellents. The beach was a long, soft stretch of sand that sloped gently into the warm Adriatic: perfect for small children. There was a shaded playground, a mini club and – such a highlight – a Lego tent where children could create all manner of machines every afternoon. But best of all, the main pool had a PIRATE SHIP IN IT. Words cannot describe how marvellous it is to have a pool with a pirate ship in it, especially one with a mermaid spouting water decorating the bow, and TWO water slides to port and starboard.

We decamped quite efficiently from Camping Jungfrau and bade a reluctant farewell to Switzerland. We had hoped to see something of Lake Maggiore en route to our new campsite near Venice, but did not have enough time to do more than drive around the edge of the lake and marvel at the palatial houses. The journey from Switzerland to Italy did however offer some amazing scenery – and we somehow ended up on the Lötschberg car train from Kandersteg to Goppenstein, taking us in hot, smelly, pitch black darkness right through the mountains. Little WB slept through the whole thing but big WB was wide awake and, like his parents, will probably never forget it.