Via Italy to Croatia

Planning

The idea of a holiday trip was born in our heads as early as February. TURKEY - 14 people "only" with four cars…. only 5-6 thousand km both ways, overnight stays: tents, motels…. The plans were verified for 4 months, mainly due to the distance to be traveled. At the meeting in June, a new idea came up: 7 days in tents on Lake Garda in Italy, where our base for sightseeing was supposed to be, then transfer to Croatia to the island of Ciovo, town of Slatine near Trogir, and private accommodation there.

Stage I - Italia

We left Żywiec for Italy around 21.00 without a reservation, only entering the town of Garda in the navigation (about 1000 km from Żywiec). The journey was fantastic and fun, each stop involved studying the map and changing your destination further south. Finally, we stopped at Sirmione, which we reached around 10 o'clock. Hurray !!! The search for a camping place for four families has begun. Campsite on a campsite around the entire shoreline of Lake Garda. Unfortunately, it turned out that there was a complete lack of beds. So we decided to go further along the lake. Moving in this way, we reached the town of Desenzano Del Garda, which is directly adjacent to Sirmione, and there ……. We found Camping Vo, which turned out to be a lovely place for active rest. Already on the first day of our stay, we knew that the plans for an intensive sightseeing tour would be definitely verified, or if you prefer, very limited. The change of plans was mainly due to the beautiful view, the location of the campsite, close proximity to the beautiful town which turned out to be Desenzano del Garda (about 15 minutes walk), where in the evenings local pubs were teeming with life, and above all direct access to the beach, crystal clear water in the lake and swimming pool. Of course, on Lake Garda, there are great conditions for practicing all kinds of water sports.

Desenzano Del Garda served us as a starting point for visiting the monuments of Padua, Bologna and Verona. From here you can also organize a boat trip to, for example, the wonderful tourist and holiday town of Sirmione. Narrow, beautifully flowered streets, charming little shops where you can buy original souvenirs. A huge castle and a huge park connected with a health resort dominate the whole city. Sirmione is also famous for having thermal waters. You can eat something good and drink delicious Italian wine in small restaurants near the port. This town really made a huge impression on me.

Stage II - Croatia

After seven days we left hot Italy and after 10 hours of travel we arrived in Croatia on the island of Ciovo in the town of Slatine. The quarters turned out to be very nice air-conditioned apartments with direct access to the Adriatic Sea. Unfortunately, the view of the airport in Split was not the most beautiful one, on average, planes flew overhead every 10 minutes. The lack of freshwater showers on the beach turned out to be a nightmare. The whole town of Slatine is one street that leads to a disgustingly smelly, dirty port and there are only scattered papers on both sides of this street. There are a few dingy pubs in the port, but we did not dare to try anything there because of the smells coming from the kitchen and combined with the smells of the port. We were shocked !!!!

For the above-mentioned reasons, we avoided walking to the center of Slatine. For the evening madness we went by boat to Trogir, 8 km away, or by ferry to Split. Both Trogir and Split are beautiful historic cities that should be visited. However, tourists who appreciate peace and quiet during their holidays will not experience them here…. These towns, unfortunately, are teeming with life around the clock.

This year we loved northern Italy, and we will try to forget about the unfortunate stay in SLATINE in Croatia very quickly.

Next year, maybe TURKEY !!!