Modena – Italy
When we arrived in Lake Como, we’d only just crossed the border from Switzerland. In Switzerland, most folk seem to abide by the traffic rules. Italy is different (more on this later). Leaving Cernobbio late morning, we headed East, skirting our way around Milan (another time, Milan… when you’re less hot), and made our way to Modena. En route, we stopped in Maranello, to visit the Ferrari Museum. It was beautifully put together with a stunning collection of the finest Ferrari’s ever made.
We targeted Modena as we wanted to break up a longer drive, opting for this small city due to its UNESCO World Heritage architecture. After a couple of interesting hours driving along Italy’s motorways, we arrived at our accommodation – the VittorioVeneto25 suites which were comfortable and well located for the old town.
Modena has a lovely historic town centre, wrapped around a cathedral and bell tower, both with beautiful architecture. They were also quite wonky, suffering from subsidence that seems to plague this part of the world (Pisa, anyone?). We spent a hot but enjoyable few hours wandering around the town and dining in a great little restaurant in one of the piazzas.
San Marino
Leaving the next morning, we set out for our first joint ‘new country’ of our travels. Despite being a month into our journey, we’ve previously spent time in each of the countries we’ve travelled through, so today we were aiming for one of the smallest countries in the world (5th actually) – San Marino. This turned out to be another challenging driving day.
In most Western European countries we’ve driven through, there is a collective conscience on the road; people conform to a set of rules which are designed to help the whole road system to work efficiently. Things like driving in one lane, indicating when changing lanes, waiting for a gap, minimal tailgaiting, etc. In Italy, none of this applies – it’s self-destructive. People drift absent-mindedly between lanes (at 130kph). Some people decide to hedge bets and straddle two lanes. Others tailgate everyone, then when you move over to let them pass, they cut right in front of you, causing you to brake… Kind of ‘driving up your arse’, followed by ‘reversing into your face’.
Undertaking is normal, as is using the hard shoulder if you feel like it. All of this leads to an incoherent chaotic mess. There are constant phantom jams – mathematical ghosts, where traffic jams appear as if out of nowhere (look them up; they’re fascinating). The system just collapses when so many people follow their own rules. It also leads, unsurprisingly, to lots of accidents… which cause very real jams.
The drive to San Marino was about 4.5 hours of ‘fucks sakes’, lots of hard braking (hazards on, etc), misleading roadwork signs/speed limits, and witness to at least two crashes. However, we arrived, frayed, but safely at the top of Monte Titano, the mountain on which the City of San Marino, their capital resides. What a place.
Despite the fierce heat, we explored the beautiful stone-pathed ancient city, Like a Dubrovnik in the sky, visiting each of the 11th century castle towers, hanging over the 1500ft cliffs peering down to the valley below. San Marino is the world’s oldest surviving republic, founded in 301AD. It’s no wonder this 24 square mile state has survived with this outstanding vantage point to see off invaders.
Ferrara – Italy
The next day (after a poor night’s sleep due to a loud party at our hotel 🤬 AND bad aircon 🥵), we left early morning to avoid the worst of the weekend traffic. Stopping for cheap fuel before leaving San Marino (€1.58 vs. €2.40 in Italy) we headed back along the road to Bologna, then turned north, stopping in the town of Ferrara for a coffee (and waffle covered in Nutella… Bad Ben). Ferrara is yet another town oozing in history and has it’s own UNESCO listed castle in its centre. They hand them out like sweeties here.
We didn’t stop for long, thrilled for more absurd road shenanigans. After many delays, but thankfully only one witnessed accident, we made it to Trieste, our stop for the next two nights.
Trieste – Italy
Trieste is a coastal city on the north east coast of Italy. Looking on a map, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it should be part of Slovenia. We were staying in the Grand Hotel Duchi d’Aosta, in Trieste’s magnificent port Piazza, surrounded by ornate, gilded buildings; grand relics of a very wealthy past.
We wandered around the harbour, dwarfed by the giant cruise ships that stop here. We had a swim in the pool, overheated in the sauna and had a nice local dinner before watching the sun set over the Adriatic.
The next day it was a run around the harbour, a wander up to the castle (yes, another one), and a mooch around the shops [mostly closed – it’s a monday]. Later that day, we went to see The Odyssey at the cinema (Odissea in Italy). I really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t really Shona’s cup of tea – although she generously said ‘I can appreciate the cinematography’. High praise.
Bled – Slovenia
Another country today (a new one for Shona). We left Trieste in the morning and drove north, crossing the border into Slovenia. Despite pretty heavy traffic, we made good time and arrived at Lake Bled at 12pm. Everyone will have seen the picture postcards of Lake Bled; it’s iconic, with it’s castle towering on a sheer cliff overlooking the azure blue of the lake, in the middle of which is Lake Bled Island, dominated by its pretty church.
For the first time in a while, it wasn’t sunny today, and rumbles of thunder could be heard echoing around the surrounding mountains. After checking into our apartment for the night, we took a walk (and an umbrella) around the path surrounding the lake, into Bled town, then headed up the steep path to the castle. A spot of speed-tourism around the castle, and then completed the circumnavigation of the lake on foot before the rains hit.
That evening, we had a lovely meal at a local restaurant and needed an actual jumper on the walk home! The next morning we hired a wee rowing boat and paddled our way out to the pretty little Lake Bled Island for a mooch around. We then hit the road to drive to our next country. On our way out of Slovenia, at the border, we were flagged over by Slovenian customs. Providing our documents, they informed us that we’d neglected to buy the Slovenian Vignette for using their motorways (something I’d done for Switzerland but forgotten to get the Slovenian one). A 300 yo-yo fine later (reduced to €150 for good behaviour… well, being a stupid tourist), and we were on our way again. Harsh lesson learned, but I suspect not the last tourist tax we’ll pay.
Travels with Sklaroffs 