We arrived in Marostica while it was dark. It did make it a bit more of a challenge, and after passing a castle, and making a U-Turn, we found the parking lot, just not exactly the space. We did put ourselves next to another camper, but we were more parked among cars.

Just at the end, to add to the challenge, it began to rain. It continued all night and into the day. We settled in, didn’t do much, but we did play a round of a game Kasey picked up on the base. It is a variation of Clue, like and Escape Room Version. While we were close on solving the the murder, we missed something, and a couple of clues that would have helped.

We stayed in our parking space, as we were parked in by cars until the lot thinned out in the evening. It was still wet, a drizzle could be felt, but I moved Holly to where we could fill up the water tank, which took nearly 45 minutes. I then parked along the wall of a building, where I think the campers are supposed to park. Other campers joined us, and lot was over half full. We began to think maybe we were in a place that had more to offer than we knew?

The next morning most of the clouds had passed, and it was a touch warmer. We decided to head to the castle wall and follow it to an entrance. We had done a little research and discovered the plaza features a chess board large enough to play on a human scale, kind of like Mel Brooks “History of the World” where he proclaimed it is good to be the king. They Knights are mounted on real horses! As we made our way into the plaza, we went past several shops, and some smaller Chess Boards.

We continued down the road, and eventually exited out the other side. There was a park area, and another map of town, showing us that we had missed an upper section, in addition to the upper castle, which was too much of a climb for us. We thought it would be more shops, most of them were closed for the afternoon, or cafes, some were open, some weren’t. What we found was a couple of churches. The lower one looked as though it was to have a service of some kind. A woman carrying in a large flower arrangement had single white rose fall out of it. We added it the Madonna Statue.

We made our way back down to the plaza, and it was about time for an afternoon meal. We had seen a cafe open with pizza on bread. We thought about sitting down to eat, but brought it back to the camper instead. Our final night was pretty peaceful, and we were on our closer to Venice tomorrow.

The next day we were headed to another Park4Night Spot. Villa Vardo Park. While it would have services of Grey Water Dump, and Toilet Cassette Emptying, that is usually all the frills you get. However, this spot was in a park, so there was a little more in the area, than the usual.

It was later in the afternoon, and we settled in a space where we were a respectful distance from the other two campers already parked there. We made and ate dinner, and settled in for a night. It rained again on our first night, and the wet weather lasted into the day. Since the lot was not crowded, we decided to head out and do more grocery shopping. It was Sunday, so not all places were open, so we made our way about 15 kilometers to a Conad Superstore. We have found that we like Conad, it is a little upscale, but has everything we could need. This store had a Wine Dispensary, where you can fill your own bottles, or use on the ones supplied. It was right next to the meat hanging on the wall.

The next day was a complete turn around from the previous, once again, we paid with rain for a nice sunny day. We decided to stay another night to enjoy it. While Kasey and Salsa walked around the area, they seemed to restrict dogs on the grounds of Villa Varda Park, I went out on a motorcycle ride. We also met some of our camping neighbors. She was from Southern Switzerland, he was Italian. They had been full time in their camper for several years. They were a wonderful couple, and she spoke great English, one of the five languages she knew. We invite you to follow them at https://www.facebook.com/share/g/17hH7FP8bx/https://www.facebook.com/share/g/17hH7FP8bx/ 

After another night, we had breakfast, packed up, and got ready to head to Venice. Our neighbors came out to say good-bye, and we made our way further east. We also have an empty Gas Bottle, and finding out to exchange or refill them is a challenge in every country. So far, we were not having much luck in Italy. We need the LP Gas to run the refrigerator, cooking food, and occasionally heat water and the living space.

The campsite in Venice is pretty automated. It takes a picture of your license plate and you pull in through the gate. You pick your own space. We found one near a power source. I parked and went up to the reception area to pay for the service of having electricity. They also have dump and water services at the end of the campground, near the dated, and a little scary, restrooms.

It was pretty quite at night, we could hear the planes coming into land at Marco Polo Airport, but we were still able to sleep. The next day, we made the short walk over to dock, and bought tickets for the ferry to cross into Venice. Salsa was required to wear a muzzle, she was not happy.

Our first stop, after hopping off the ferry, and marking we needed to return, was the Basilica of Saint Mark. It was a little over 2 kilometers, so it took a little bit to wind through the streets, and cross lots of bridges over the canals.

 We bought a couple of gifts along the way included a magnet and a Christmas Ornament, plus a gift for our son Will. Our next mission was to find some pizza for lunch. Despite what Google Maps said, our first few choices were closed. We had seen one on our way to the Plaza, but had no idea how to get back to it.

We crossed the Rialto Bridge, the landmark we didn’t know we needed to see, and it was a pretty busy area. We finally found a place for pizza. I went adventurous with a Seafood Pizza that included tiny squid. Kasey stayed conservative, but neither one of were impressed with our pies. It was so-so.

The next mission, and item to check off the list, was to top off ouur okay pizza with some Gelato. We made our way down some more streets, both wide and narrow, until we found a place with the treat we were looking. Kasey went with Snickers, her favorite candy bar, I went with Strawberry.

That was followed by more walking through the city on the water to find and complete our final task on our must do list, a Gondola Ride. As luck would have it, we not only found a Gondolier willing to take Salsa, but we knew how to scoop her up and get her on the boat. She is still afraid of water. Once onboard, she settled right in. Our tour guide also spoke English and was very informative.

Then more walking to find a Gondola Ride – Salsa

With our checks in all the boxes on our list, and then some, we made our back to the Ferry Pick Up. We made our way through areas we had not been before, some nice open courtyards filled with the kids who had just been let out of school. They still had a lot of energy! We had to wait a bit for the Ferry, but we had a great moonlit view of Morono Island. Tomorrow, will be heading down the coast, and the back of the boot.