TRAVEL WRITING CHALLENGE
Italy — Without a Doubt
The A to Z of my favorite travel destinations
I don’t even need to think twice about it. There is no other country that can compete with the place Italy has in my heart. I’m sure there are prettier beaches, more spectacular coastlines, and less over-run mountains. Yet still, I fell in love with Italy before I knew what love really was.
If they would have offered Italian language classes in my school I wouldn’t have thought twice about writing myself in. Instead, I took what was closest to it. French.
And I still remember the first words of my French teacher in grade 5. He was trying to tell us what an amazing language we were going to learn and that there was only one language above it. Italian.
So back to that one.
Bella Italia.
My parents were by no means rich having immigrated from Romania to Germany but they never let us feel there was something we couldn’t have because of money reasons. At least not things we needed.
They also traveled with us. A lot. We never stayed in hotels or flew anywhere. We traveled as far as the car could take us and surely drove my dad more than once crazy fighting on the back seats.
1999 — Visiting Italy for the first time
And one of those journeys started in 1999. We were heading to Italy for the first time. My parents had booked us in a trailer on-site at a campsite in Cavallino.
“Cavallino-Treporti is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Venice, Veneto, northern Italy. The commune occupies a peninsula which divides the Venetian Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea.” — Wikipedia
We stayed at this campsite for 10 days. Not only in 1999 but for a few more years to follow. The campsite was at the end of a long stretch of beach which was good for us children because if we did get lost, we were told to look at the lighthouse, walk all the way towards it, and then we’d be back at camp.
While we mostly played in the sand, swam in the sea and ran around, we did one day trip each year to no other city than the famous Venice.
Taking a bus to the end of the peninsula and then a ferry to the world-famous island, we spent the day wandering through tiny alleyways and crossing beautiful bridges.
Not having enough money to afford the out-of-proportion prices of the city, we never bought food or drinks but carried our own sandwiches with us. But we always got ice cream on one of the streets further away from the main tourist trails.
As we grew as children, we did move to bigger campsites a few years later. With more entertainment options and bigger pools to swim in, even though I was rarely ever in the pools. I’m a saltwater girl and loved the ocean since I was a toddler.
2005 — Exploring the Italian side of the Alps
A few years later we’d get our first experience of the Italian mountains. We went to the Dolomites in 2005 and hiked around the world-famous “Tre Cime di Lavaredo”.
Back then already I was inspired by flowers and their incredibly strong power to grow in the most hostile environments. Like these bell flowers blooming in the bare limestone rock.
I had a cheap analog camera as my first one and want to say I remember taking this picture.
I also did take over my mom’s job of gluing the prints into my photo book and wrote the words below on this page. It just took me another 17 years before I returned to the Dolomites.
While my father scanned all the old prints above for me yesterday (thanks dad), I found the next images all on my hard drive. Digital photography on the rise.
2008 — Cavallino with friends
In 2008 we were back in Cavallino together with a befriended family. The younger daughter was my age and I’m still friends with her to this date. We both loved playing volleyball and beachball.
Beachball is the wind-friendly version of badminton. Solid bats and a rubber ball the strong ocean wind doesn’t affect.
And while I am talking about spending our summer holidays on the beach, this was usually early June. We could have hot days but we also had enough rainy days and temperatures as low as 7 degrees Celsius (45°F).
However, together with my dad we always went for the ocean. While my mom hated and still does hate the smallest ripple in the ocean, my dad and I went crazy in the waves.
The Adriatic sea is surely no rough Atlantic ocean but can get big waves nevertheless. I recall us sneaking past the coast guards more the once to play in the waves when nobody was allowed to.
And, according to the pictures on my hard drive, swans do live in the ocean as well.
2010 — More playtime in Cavallino
More pictures are to be found from 2010. Back in Cavallino. Back on the beach.
I was a very active teenager and loved doing all kinds of sports that evolved around a ball. Soccer was one of the games I played mostly with the boys.
Yes, I was the goalie. And yes, I did have some injury and wrapped my calf in sports tape. I always had something.
Another picture of the beach shows you more of some apartment blocks just next to our campsite and boats for rent on the water.
This campsite even had tennis courts and my family decided to give it a try even though none of us really knew how to play. We had fun and we did some exercise.
2010 — Lago di Garda
In the same year, I drove a second time to Italy. It was August and together with my ex-boyfriend, we spent 5 days on the beautiful lake Lago di Garda. Located in the Alps this lake is nestled between the mountains.
Up to that day, I had never seen such clear water.
Also, it was during a time in my life when I didn’t hike anymore. My parents hiked with us each year several times a year from before we could walk and I got to a point where I didn’t want to hear the word “hiking”.
However, now not connected to my parents and together with my partner, we thought it would be nice to get up that mountain and enjoy the views from above.
And so we did. Luckily. Because the views were spectacular.
I also do remember walking through tiny villages at the edge of the lake and sipping cocktails in hidden bars.
The passion for photography already on my side, I did capture this butterfly with the lake and the mountains in the background.
2013 — Back in Cavallino
During my studies, I met a girl who also always traveled down to Cavallino in June, together with her parents. Staying at a campsite.
And so, in 2013 we drove down together.
We stayed at a campsite on the other end of the beach, even closer to Venice.
And so we also visited Venice together. With her, we traveled a lot on the canals. Not on the exorbitant expensive gondoliers but with the water taxi. Those boats are cheap and bring you around the entire island.
On our way back we also got off on the other islands in the Venetian lagoon, Murano and Burano. Known for the making of glass (Murano) and for their colorful houses and lace work (Burano), these two are often overlooked by tourists visiting the neighboring sister island.
Then something happened in my life that turned a lot upside down. I found the magic of Africa and left the European continent for several years.
2022 — Back to the Dolomites
Fast forward to 2022, now married with the best travel partner one can imagine, I did go back to the country I first fell in love with. While we could have just as well gone hiking in the Austrian Alps, I wanted David to place a foot into the magical country.
Just over a month ago we did a multiple-day hiking trip through the magical mountains of northern Italy.
It was good to be back. In the mountains and in Italy.
And I’m sure this won’t be the end of this story. I haven’t been South of Venice yet and most of Italy lies beyond that line. I’ll be back to explore more of it.
This is a response to a writing prompt started by Sam Millichap and continued by Adrienne Beaumont. Read their stories with “I”.
“Incredible Istanbul — Travels to I” and
“Iceland”
We welcome Jerry Dwyer and Michael Rhodes who also started to join the fun. Here are their stories with “A”.
“Amazing Auckland” and
You can find the full series of the “A to Z of my favorite travel destinations” in the reading list here.
A — “From Akwidaa to Axim”
C — “My Southernmost Destination in the World — The Cape”
E — “The Only Water to be Found for Miles — Epupa Falls”
G — “Ghana — Because of the People”
Join my email list here if you would like to read more travel essays or sign up for the Medium membership to receive unlimited access to my and other writers’ stories out here (I will receive a commission fee in return).
