Exploring Portonovo, Italy

Zagan the motorhome has been resting all day in the, shouldn’t really be, free car park at Portonovo (N43.56260, E13.59477). As today is a Bank Holiday, we suspect a machine to pay for the parking won’t be appearing any time soon. He has moved his tyres slightly though, shifting to the other side of the car park to allow a convoy of four Italian motorhomes to park together (they have now been joined by three more, it looks like there’s a gathering taking place).

Another two have just arrived, this is where it’s happening!

Last night we went to sleep with the sound of the waves just audible about Charlie’s snores (two beaches in one day left our puppy happy by tired). Every so often a car would go by, our car park has three roads into it, the one we came in and two others which go to dead ends at the sea. They are quite clearly sign-posted as dead ends, one even has a no-entry sign on it (no idea who would drive up or down it though), but everyone heads down them anyway? I can only assume there was a lot of late night sea viewing going!

I was awoken by an engine pulling in beside us, I had no idea of the time but it was gone 11pm. I listened for ages but no door opened, so no one was coming to tell us to shift, this morning when we woke it turned out we had been joined by another motorhome. By mid-morning there were three motorhomes in here, another one joining just after lunch. Word has got out, the car park is free, and this was before the convoy arrived.

Jay and I went to explore the area this morning, Charlie was still tired so opted to stay in bed. There was a mystery to solve, we were confused as to why the sun had come up 90° away from where we had expected it to be – we’re on Italy’s east coast, surely it should rise above the sea?

The area we are in is a national park, and has miles of walkways marked out with wooden railings and signposts. In Portonovo there are two beach areas, two hotels and two lakes – they like to do things in pairs around here.

One of Portonovo’s beaches

You have to be fit to go birdwatching here

We wandered around one of the lakes, and noticed a big increase in people compared to yesterday – the resort is coming alive. Families wrapped up in winter coats walk and play on the pebble beaches next to diggers clearing the flotsam washed up over the winter.

It looks like the early Easter may have caught the beach restaurants off guard as the Bank Holiday was being ignored by numerous tradespeople in an attempt to get the places ready as soon as possible, but it clearly wasn’t going to happen in the next couple of days.

As the sun burned off the cloud we sniffed out the only open gelato seller for a little post walk treat, here we found an information board with a map on it. Mystery solved, we’re on a sticking-out bit of the coast looking north.

Collecting Charlie we headed for the beach next to our car park for some stick chasing and a stone skimming lesson for me – let’s just say I need some practice. Just after 3pm the local police escorted a parade of people through the car park, following a person carrying a cross – the only sign we’ve seen around here that it is Easter. Tomorrow we plan to head inland to a town for a final meal out in Italy, a final gelato and maybe another Easter parade or tradition.

As it’s the weekend the beer was cracked open a while ago, and there’s a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge for me as soon as I’ve finished this post.  We talked about our feelings about Italy and leaving it and what we hope to get from Croatia – which we both agree should be a nice little holiday for us as you have to stay on campsites. We’ve also been discussing our lifestyle after seeing updates on Facebook from people who have the next 4, 8 or 12 days off. I can just about remember the excitement of leaving work for a few days and the stress of having to get everything done before you go. It’s anther of the things that make me so thankful of the life we have chosen, you can’t really put a price on the freedom we have, but it’s worth a lot more than a salary.

Have a great long weekend folks and be sure to get out and enjoy it.

Ju x