A wonderful week taking in the last of Italy and crossing the border to Austria.
From Chioggia we drove onwards towards Venice, staying at a lovely and convenient camp-site at Fusina, just across the lagoon from Venice. Our 9am ferry took us to within minutes of St Mark's square with its magnificent cathedral. We climbed to the top of the nearby tower for superb views, checked out the Bridge of Sighs and the Rialto Bridge then on recommendation, explored the less touristy places – still packed with bridges large and small over the hundreds of canals but not packed with tourists, just Venetians going about their daily business. After a wonderful, quiet canal-side lunch and countless kms, we returned on the ferry for a late supper.
We stayed in the area a little longer to enjoy cycling alongside the local river to admire both the countryside and villas. The info we'd been given was somewhat ambiguous, resulting in our cycling 8kms in a circle, discovering that the point we had gone wrong was called Malcontenta – most appropriate!
Towards the end of the week we began to head towards Saltzburg, Austria – driving along the crotch of Italy, towards Trieste, spending time at the ancient town of Grado on the Adriatic (reached via a 5km causeway), Aquileia, one of the most important Roman cities until the 5th century, with a Basilica boasting the best preserved mosaic floors in the world and Udine, a lovely city with some impressive Renaissance buildings.
From a charming camp-site at the foot of mountains in Gemona del Friuli, we finally crossed into Austria on 27th, Jane's birthday! The architecture had been getting more Tyrolean in the miles approaching the border but once crossed, it definitely looked like Austria with its timbered, balconied and pitched roof houses. It's weird that everything changes within just a few yards – the signs, the language, the menus. Our first Austrian stop was at Macdonalds (!) in Villach to use the wi-fi, then onwards to Spittal-an-der-Drau for a wonderful celebratory meal.
On Sunday, we drove through superb scenery to Heiligenblut. This pretty alpine village is the start of the Hochalpinestrasse (famous high alpine road), 48 kms long with 36 bends and an altitude ascent 2,504 metres. It takes you through the heart of the Hohe Tauern National park, passing by the foot of the Grossglockner, the highest of over 100 peaks in the area, where there is Franz Josef glacier.
It happened that we arrived in Heiligenblut on the day of the annual festival called the Wallfahrt, where thousands of walkers converge on the town after a 9 hour walk over the mountains from Fusch........to eat, drink and be merry. There was a beerfest-like atmosphere with big bands, wonderful food and singing in this idyllic ski-resort (in winter) and hub for hikers and mountain bikers in the summer. We checked into a beautiful camp-site in the valley and walked back up to the village to join in the partying, finding bench seats in the main marquee set up in the village square, with the band right in front of us and for the next 3 hours soaked up the merriment, as well as the beer, wurst & kartoffel salad.
Our onward journey will take us on the Hochalpinestrasse but since the weather, whilst warm, does not boast blue skies, we may delay for a day or so. There is so much to do from here and some lovely alpine walks. So, we'll wait and see..........................
Since Chioggia: Fusina; Venice; Mira; Latisana; Grado; Aquileia; Palmanova; Udine; Gemona-del-Friuli; Tarvisio; Villach; Spittal-an-der-Drau; Winklern; Heiligenblut.
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