From Wild Camping to Campeggio

If you've ever been wild camping - i.e. staking claim with your Campervan freely without a designated lot or campsite - you know that there are both pros and cons.

The pros: you don't have to pay a penny, you can set up your view wherever you please, no reservations to double check or need to set arrival times, if you don't like your spot you can move in an Italian heartbeat (a busy train track forced us to a new destination) and, of course, a certain adrenaline rush from doing something you're not supposed to - the threat of being caught actually makes it to both lists.

The cons: no proper toilet (especially harrowing when parked by the local lake make-out trail - thank you, giant oak tree for your shelter), no electrical charging station, no showers (washed my face with a boiled pot of water on our little stove), you have to clean your dewy windshields and keep the lights off to keep from being found out, and, lastly, you have to stay rather quiet, which is not easy when you're on your luna di miele.

Having driven through five countries our first day and arriving past the hour campsites near Lake Como close, Hannes and I were forced to try our hand at wild camping, of which mio marito is a pro. Needless to say, we survived, and enjoyed a snuggly evening by the quiet of Lago Di Varese in Gavirate, Italy. The following two nights were spent in a ghost town of a campsite, Valdeiva in Deiva Marina north on the Riviera from Cinque Terre, where we took a lot of lovely hot showers and reveled in the more civilized campeggio experience. Yet even then, the gypsies in us will treasure our first wild night of living on the edge and waking to the vision of Italian school kids rowing on the lake as their headmaster cried 'Basta!' in the fragrant and crisp Ligurian morning air.

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Our morning lake view where we sat eating cereal and yogurt in mugs and planned our Cinque Terre adventure.




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Location:La Boheme B&B, Lucca, Italy