October 4, 2023 • 19 mins
Join me in this special episode recorded in Italy as I explore the stunning Dolomites, also known as the Italian Alps. Get an insider's look into my rental Road Surfer camper van, affectionately named the Cozy Cottage, as well as a rundown of the various camping options in Europe - from free, full service rest stops (called sostas in Italy) to luxury private campgrounds complete with wellness spa features.
The Dolomites are not just a scenic backdrop but a culturally rich experience waiting to be explored. Hear what it's like to drive the Alto Strada highway while hiking, dining, exploring quant villages, and becoming part of the friendly camper community along the way. So sit back, relax and get ready to be transported to the stunning world of vanlife in the Italian Alps.
Remember to check out my Instagram @thewaywardhome for some visual aids to this amazing adventure.
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I've been traveling in Italy in a
campervan for the past 10 days,exploring the Dolomites, or the
Italian Alps as they're alsoknown, parking in both luxury
campgrounds and Sostas, whichare rest stops, and really
enjoying my road surfercampervan rental.
In this episode of the WaywardHome Podcast, I'll tell you all
about my campervan and our tourin the mountains of northern
Italy, Andiamo.
(00:21):
Welcome to the Wayward HomePodcast.
All about van life, boat lifeand nomadic living.
We'll bring you tips,interviews and stories from the
road and on the water.
Now here's your host, kristenHaynes.
Hey there, I'm Kristen Hayneswith thewaywardhomecom and I
spend half the year in mycampervan and half on my
sailboat in Mexico.
I hope to inspire you to livenomadically too.
(00:42):
So for the past 10 days I'vebeen touring around northern
Italy in my wonderful roadsurfer campervan.
Alright, so we are headed northup to the Dolomites in northern
Italy these are also known asthe Italian Alps, these
beautiful, jagged peaks, and weare heading up here for many
nights of camping and hiking andexploring the culture.
I can't wait.
But before we get up there, Iwant to show you a little bit
(01:04):
around my campervan, which isfrom Road Surfer.
I'm super lucky that they didgive me 11 nights for free in
this van so I could review itand share it all with you.
So the campervan model I got iscalled the Cozy Cottage, and boy
it has been super cozy.
They call these semi-integratedRVs over here in Europe, which
means it has a lot of componentsthat are RV-like, even though
(01:25):
it's in a tiny rig.
So I have a full wet bath witha toilet and a shower.
I have running water, hot water, heat, air conditioning and a
stove and a sink and a fridge.
It's been an amazing experience.
So I'm going to show you aroundjust a little bit.
So you enter the RV in thisside door and immediately on my
(01:46):
left I have this full kitchen,which is lovely.
There's a view out the windowwhich I can open and close with
a screen and a shade.
There's running water Checkthis out and there's a simple
two burner stove right herewhich I can open right up, put
my pots and pans on.
I have running water and a sink, lots of drawers for storage
(02:08):
space, a fridge.
The only bummer about thisfridge is it is a three-way
refrigerator, which means itruns on electricity a battery,
but only when the van is drivingand it's supposed to switch
over to propane when the van isstopped.
Unfortunately, the propane didnot work at all during our
entire trip, so the fridgecontents would get warm unless
(02:28):
we were plugged into an outletor the van was running.
So that was the only bummer ofthis van, but everything else
worked wonderfully and I wasjust so excited to have this
vehicle.
So with the kitchen unit on myleft, I turn to my right and I
see two front swivel seats andthen I see a little table with
seatbelts for two, so two peoplecan sit on one side of the
table and then you can swivelthe two front seats and you have
(02:51):
the two other people with atable in the middle.
There's tons of storage spacein this RV.
These overhead cabinets areeverywhere in the kitchen, in
the living area and in thebedroom.
I just love that.
Another thing that's been reallyinteresting for me to live with
is having a full wet bath.
Some of you might know, in mySprinter van I do not have a
(03:11):
bathroom at all.
We chose not to put a bathroomin because they are kind of
difficult to deal with With thistoilet.
This is a cassette toilet, apermanent one by Thetford, and
here you just open it up and yougo in there and it goes in this
cassette that you have to takeout and then dump.
And so we decided to only gonumber one in this cassette,
(03:32):
because the thought of justcarrying raw sewage around and
dumping it down a hole reallygrossed me out.
But it has been nice to havethis toilet in here, just for
you know.
Number one we do have a way togo in our other van too, but
this just looks more like atoilet.
We have a sink.
We have plenty of storage spacein here, which is fantastic.
There's one of the storagelockers, and what's really cool
(03:53):
is we have hot water for anindoor shower, and the way this
works is you can just open upthe mirror and it slides open
and creates a shower compartment, so you cannot get your entire
bathroom wet.
I just love this part of thevan and we've taken many showers
in here after long, hard hikesin the Dolomites, which has just
(04:13):
been fantastic.
The van also has a little ladderleading up to this bed and the
bedroom in here is supercomfortable.
You do have to order bedding.
It costs extras.
We have a bedding bundle fortwo people.
There's tons of storage.
It's huge.
It's like a queen size bed andthere's windows and a roof hatch
and plenty of ventilation.
We have slept so well in thisvan.
(04:34):
I just love it.
Another component that's beensuper vital to us in this van is
the heating system.
It has a propane heating systemwhich, when we were up in the
Alps, was completely necessaryfor us to stay warm in the
evenings and in the mornings.
A warm, dry heat, you know,just easily came on in the van
through many different littleheater vents throughout the van,
(04:55):
and that was something that wejust both enjoyed so very much.
I couldn't have done theDolomites without the heater.
So yeah, now that I've givenyou a tour of the camper van and
you can go and see thesepictures on my Instagram account
as well, just go toinstagramcom forward, slash the
wayward home and you can seemany more pictures of my journey
up here in Italy, in theDolomites and in this road
(05:18):
surfer camper van.
All right, so let's continue ourtrip north up to the Dolomites,
which wouldn't be completewithout a stop at one of these
incredible rest stops that youfind here in Italy.
Come on, let's go get a coffee.
We are at a rest stop off ofthe Alto Strada here in Italy,
near the Dolomites, and theseare really awesome rest stops
because you go in and there'sthese espresso makers and you
(05:41):
can order all kinds of espressodrinks.
So we just got due a Americanoto Americanos and a Panini which
they heated up right therebehind the countertop.
So these are a fancy version ofUS rest stops, where everyone's
kind of standing around outsidedrinking their fancy coffees,
eating and using the restroom,and it's a fun experience going
(06:05):
into these rest stops that are aglorified version of the ones
you find in the US.
So now we're going to drink ourcoffee, eat our Panini before
we get on the road.
We also noticed that they havefull-time staff that are
attending to the bathrooms here,keeping them cleaner and
organized, so that's really nice.
So going to an Italian reststop is actually a wonderful
(06:27):
experience.
Bon appetit.
To get to the Dolomites you haveto go up the Alto Strada, which
is a toll road which is fairlyexpensive.
We aren't used to these in theUnited States.
It probably cost 10 or 15 bucksfrom Milan to get up to the
Dolomites on this Alto Stradatoll highway, also known in
German as the Autobahn.
So we took that up after ourone night at Lake Garda
(06:48):
Campground and we drove up thesecrazy, windy, skinny roads with
this RV to the Alpi di Suisiparking lot.
Now this is down in a littletown called Seizer Alm.
It's at the bottom of theGondola chairlift and we camped
there for free for two nights,which was just incredible, and
we met a lovely German coupleand they showed us around Alpi
(07:08):
di Suisi.
We had phenomenal food it'scalled South Tyrolian food at
one of the mountain huts.
It was fantastic, one of thehighlights of our entire trip.
So our first two nights wespent up there at the chairlift
for free and enjoyed eating atthe restaurant.
There was the possibility ofgrabbing water for our rig and
it was just an all-aroundwonderful experience.
(07:29):
After that we kept on drivingthrough the Dolomites, and it
was a little bit rainy at first,and so we were driving down
these crazy highways and passes.
The Dolomites are a series ofthese craggy peaks between like
8 and 11,000 feet high orsomewhere around there, and in
between these mountains arethese these valleys, and what
connects the valleys aremountain pass roads.
(07:51):
These are not particularly easyto drive.
They're narrow and you have todeal with buses coming head on
at you, big cars, rvs andeveryone's just crawling up and
down these incredibly windymountain passes.
They'll sometimes tell you howmany turns are left on the
mountain pass roads andsometimes you'll see like, oh,
there's 10 hairpin turns lefttill I get to the bottom.
(08:13):
But we also really enjoyed thesemountain passes because these
were the places where we couldgo on phenomenal hikes, because
at the top of the pass you'realready up pretty high, you know
.
Otherwise you're parking at thebottom and taking a cable car
up which can cost anywherebetween, you know, 25 or 30
dollars per person round trip.
So think about it, that canreally add up if you keep taking
(08:33):
the cable car everywhere.
So sometimes we would try topark at the top of the mountain
passes and just embark on hikesfrom there.
So one of the passes we parkedout was wonderful.
We did an eight-mile hike andwe went to see something called
the Cinque Torre.
It was five towers and it'swhere many soldiers hit out
during World War I and foughtthe enemy from up there.
So it's kind of an open-airWorld War I museum that we
(08:57):
really enjoyed, and so that wasone of the mountain pass hikes
that we did.
We also enjoyed staying at acouple of campgrounds.
So up here they don't have thefederal and state-run
campgrounds that we're used toin the United States.
They're pretty much all privateand sometimes they're
phenomenally nice.
And some of these campgroundsdo have an area, sosta, which is
(09:17):
kind of a rest stop adjacent tothe campground, which is way
cheaper than purchasing a normalcampsite.
For example, at the first onewe only paid $22 per night and
then we paid an additional feeto access a swimming pool and a
variety of steam rooms andsaunas.
That was an additional price.
They also had a restaurant onsite and they had a little store
(09:37):
on site.
It was just a lovely experiencewith these stunning views of
the Alps all around us, and fromthere we did take a cable car
up to the top of this onemountain peak and hiked around
up there.
Beautiful, bright green grasson the hills and these stunning
gray, jagged rock formations ofthe mountains in the background.
It's really like nothing I haveever seen before.
(09:58):
One thing I really like aboutcampervanning over here in
Europe is that campers are partof their culture.
They love campervans andcampers and they are just
everywhere.
I love that they're accepted.
You don't feel like you're onthe fringes of society like you
often do in the US, andsomething I really like is that
many of these small townsthroughout the Alps have a
parking lot dedicated to campers.
(10:20):
You're allowed to park there.
They're often free or a verysmall fee and then you can walk
to town and enjoy the pizzerias,the restaurants.
You can go grocery shopping.
So we stayed in those at leasta few times throughout the Alps
and they were always a wonderfulexperience.
Everyone was just so respectful.
Nobody was loud, there weren'tcrazy barking dogs or blaring
(10:40):
music.
It was just, you know, nice.
And sometimes I wonder wouldthis work in the United States?
Would people be this respectful?
Maybe this is why we don't havethese things in the United
States.
So right now I'm in somethingcalled an area sosta.
This is in Italy and also inother parts of Europe, but it's
called a sosta here in Italy.
It's basically a rest stop forcampers.
(11:04):
The campers are parked prettyclose together.
It's like a gigantic rest stopfull of gravel.
There are power stations aroundso everyone can plug in.
There's one bathroom withtoilets and showers, but all
these RVs are crammed in prettytight within about 10 feet of
each other, and these so stasare tend to be pretty close to
little towns and cities.
For example, here we're at thesouthern end of Lake Garda, just
(11:26):
a little bit east and south ofMilan, and from here you can
just walk into the cutest littletown and have dinner and coffee
, ice cream, groceries, but it'sreally easy just to get
downtown, which makes this aninteresting parking area,
because we really don't havethese in the US near towns.
Everyone parks here and it'sbeen very respectful.
You don't hear people playingmusic really loud or speaking
(11:49):
really loud, or you don't evenbarely hear a dog bark.
The only issue is that a lot ofpeople smoke.
So often you get smoke waftingover to your van, which is
really gross.
But there's a little, you know,bathroom with paid showers.
Nice hot showers are prettycheap about a euro for four
minutes and the campgrounditself is cheap, basically big
parking lots, so it's only about20 to maybe 22 euros a night
(12:13):
and it's nice because it's justright here in the downtown core,
easy to get places, easy towalk around, and this is
something I really wish we hadin the States.
We've been using these so stasquite a bit and it really cuts
down on camping expenses and Ithink it's just a fantastic idea
.
With that being said, I reallyenjoyed the experience of being
able to park and just walk totown.
I just often wish I could dothat when I'm visiting small
(12:35):
towns or cities on my road tripsin the US.
Of course, what's lacking overhere are the sheer amount of
public lands we have in the US,the amount of boondocking, the
incredible natural beauty thatyou could just go and park for
days by yourself in the middleof nowhere.
Boondocking around here is notreally a thing.
You're typically in some kindof campground or sosta or one of
(12:56):
these free parking lots, butyou know they look like a
parking lot.
It doesn't look like you're outin the middle of nature,
somewhere gorgeous, like we havewith the acres upon acres, upon
thousands of acres in the USrun by public land management.
They don't really have thathere.
What we've noticed about themountains here is everything
seems to be extremely developed.
Obviously it's a culture that'sbeen here for thousands and
(13:18):
thousands of years.
It has built roads and bridgesand buildings.
You'll see castles and oldbuildings everywhere.
So kind of every inch of landor a lot of the land not every
inch, but a lot of the land isbuilt up, and in the mountains
they're built up.
As I said before, you just drivefrom valley to valley and you
find these incredible littletowns, and even up in the
(13:39):
mountains, at 8,000 feet, youhave mountain huts, and at these
mountain huts we ate the mostphenomenal food.
So to me it was a reallyinteresting experience to do a
really hard hike and just bedying at the top.
And you know just, I typicallywould eat what?
A peanut butter and jellysandwich and some carrot sticks.
But you go to a mountain hutand you have fine dining.
(14:00):
It's such a weird experience,and the meals we had were
affordable like 14 bucks foreach of our plates, $5 for a
beer, $4 for a glass of wine,and so the food prices here have
actually been way better thanin the US, and the food quality
has been really good as well.
We haven't encountered reallyany bad or fast food, and that
(14:21):
could have been just becausewe're touring in this part of
Italy that the food is great.
But I don't know, maybe therest of Europe is good too.
So that's something I've reallyenjoyed is just the quality of
the food.
The beer and the wine is justvery good at lower prices.
So I'll tell you a little bitabout the last campground we
stayed at, which was just thisincredible experience.
(14:41):
Again, this was one of thosehigh end fancy campgrounds, but
we stayed outside in the Sostaarea, which is more affordable.
This one was a little more thansome of the other ones at 37 a
night, but it was still half theprice of what you'd pay to go
into the campground.
This was called CampgroundSexton and it was on the far
east side of the Dolomites,about two and a half hour drive
(15:02):
from Venice, and this campgroundhad this incredible sauna area,
which they call a wellness areahere, and it wasn't cheap.
It was about $30 per person.
But let me tell you there werenine saunas and steam rooms
there and it was the best saunaexperience I've ever had in my
entire life.
For example, one of the saunasactually had a crackling wood
(15:24):
fire inside, so you could sitthere and watch the fire and
this dry heat.
Another sauna was full of hay,so you would sit in this sauna
and just smell this earthy scentof hay.
That was very grounding andjust an amazing thing.
I've never had that.
Another sauna was full of woodchips this big bowl of wood
chips in the middle, so youcould relax and just smell
(15:44):
freshly cut wood.
There was another one that wasa dry and wet sauna at the same
time, so it was dry, but thenthere was a little bit of
humidity in the room and thatwas.
I liked that one a lot as well.
There was an infrared sauna,there was a steam room, and you
can pay this money.
Oh, and there was two jacuzzi's.
You could sit in two differenthot tubs in various locations.
(16:06):
So you pay that $30 and, oh mygosh, it felt so good.
After our 12 mile hike, we did a12 mile hike up to the Tray
Simei, which is another jawdropping rock formation in the
Dolomites, and I'll post photosthere on Instagram Again, that's
instagramcom.
Forward slash, the wayward home, and I also have a Facebook
(16:26):
page called the Van LifeCollective and I'm posting all
these photos on there so you cango there and see what I'm
talking about.
But these rock formations,these hiking trails, these
mountain huts, the culture upthere I don't think I mentioned
this, but all of Northern Italyused to be more like German,
austrian, and so up there you'llhear three different languages
(16:46):
with a largely German influence.
You hear tons of German, you'llhear Italian sometimes and
you'll hear this local languagecalled Ladin, which is pre-Roman
, which is a pre-Roman language,and so you'll see lots of these
beautiful craftsmen stylebuildings, like you'd expect to
see in Germany, full ofoverflowing flower pots, and
(17:08):
it's just a wonderful experience.
Everything's so clean and niceand I just I can't believe my
Dolomites trip is over.
I actually have to turn this RVin tomorrow and I'm a little sad
about it.
I really loved being up there,the sheer amount of hiking
trails, the combination of freecamping and staying at these
luxury campgrounds, the food andthe wine being phenomenal, and
(17:30):
having this rig, this cozycottage from Road Surfer.
I highly recommend it.
Even though our fridge didn'twork properly the entire time,
it still worked enough when wewere plugged in and we were
driving and we chose not to havetoo many perishables in here.
But having this Road Surfer vanis definitely something I would
do again.
I know this one was free for me, but I would pay for it again
(17:52):
because it's affordable.
I think this one is $100 anight and it's a good size rig.
You know, I think it's sevenmeters, which I'm not going to
do the math on the spot, butthat's what it is, and it's tall
enough to walk around in andit's spacious and it's heated
and it's just so cozy.
There were many timesthroughout the trip where we
were like, yeah, this is a cozycottage and we love it.
(18:14):
So, yeah, that's it for ourcampervan rental here in Italy.
We'll see where we go next.
We're probably going to stay inEurope for a little while longer
and keep on touring around, sostay tuned to the Wayward Home
podcast and, again, go follow meon social media.
I'm on Facebook, I'm onInstagram and I'm on YouTube.
I'm going to film a short tourof this rig as well, so you can
(18:34):
take a look inside, andhopefully you'll be able to come
over here to Europe sometimeand check out a road surfer and
the campervan and RVing cultureover here, because, man, it's so
cool, it's so different fromthe US, and so I think it's a
great way to see Europe.
It's still cheaper than a hoteland you have everything you
need, from the shower to thetoilet, to the cooking, to the
(18:55):
fridge, to a cozy place to hangout and have all your stuff.
Because, you know, the lastthing I want to do in Europe is
bounce from hotel to hotelcarrying my heavy backpack.
It's nice just to havesomething in one place and the
ability to drive around andreally see the countryside.
So I hope you enjoyed this tourof my road surfer campervan and
my brief itinerary of a Dolomite.
(19:16):
Of course, I will be creatingan itinerary over on the Wayward
Home when I'm done with thistrip, so keep your eye out for
that and subscribe to my emaillist.
Come on over and hang out withme.
You can find that atthewaywardhomecom.
Forward slash subscribe andI'll see you over there.
So I've been traveling in Italy in a
campervan for the past 10 days,exploring the Dolomites, or the
Italian Alps as they're alsoknown, parking in both luxury
campgrounds and Sostas, whichare rest stops, and really
enjoying my road surfercampervan rental.
In this episode of the WaywardHome Podcast, I'll tell you all
about my campervan and our tourin the mountains of northern
Italy, Andiamo.
(00:21):
Welcome to the Wayward HomePodcast.
All about van life, boat lifeand nomadic living.
We'll bring you tips,interviews and stories from the
road and on the water.
Now here's your host, kristenHaynes.
Hey there, I'm Kristen Hayneswith thewaywardhomecom and I
spend half the year in mycampervan and half on my
sailboat in Mexico.
I hope to inspire you to livenomadically too.
(00:42):
So for the past 10 days I'vebeen touring around northern
Italy in my wonderful roadsurfer campervan.
Alright, so we are headed northup to the Dolomites in northern
Italy these are also known asthe Italian Alps, these
beautiful, jagged peaks, and weare heading up here for many
nights of camping and hiking andexploring the culture.
I can't wait.
But before we get up there, Iwant to show you a little bit
(01:04):
around my campervan, which isfrom Road Surfer.
I'm super lucky that they didgive me 11 nights for free in
this van so I could review itand share it all with you.
So the campervan model I got iscalled the Cozy Cottage, and boy
it has been super cozy.
They call these semi-integratedRVs over here in Europe, which
means it has a lot of componentsthat are RV-like, even though
(01:25):
it's in a tiny rig.
So I have a full wet bath witha toilet and a shower.
I have running water, hot water, heat, air conditioning and a
stove and a sink and a fridge.
It's been an amazing experience.
So I'm going to show you aroundjust a little bit.
So you enter the RV in thisside door and immediately on my
(01:46):
left I have this full kitchen,which is lovely.
There's a view out the windowwhich I can open and close with
a screen and a shade.
There's running water Checkthis out and there's a simple
two burner stove right herewhich I can open right up, put
my pots and pans on.
I have running water and a sink, lots of drawers for storage
(02:08):
space, a fridge.
The only bummer about thisfridge is it is a three-way
refrigerator, which means itruns on electricity a battery,
but only when the van is drivingand it's supposed to switch
over to propane when the van isstopped.
Unfortunately, the propane didnot work at all during our
entire trip, so the fridgecontents would get warm unless
(02:28):
we were plugged into an outletor the van was running.
So that was the only bummer ofthis van, but everything else
worked wonderfully and I wasjust so excited to have this
vehicle.
So with the kitchen unit on myleft, I turn to my right and I
see two front swivel seats andthen I see a little table with
seatbelts for two, so two peoplecan sit on one side of the
table and then you can swivelthe two front seats and you have
(02:51):
the two other people with atable in the middle.
There's tons of storage spacein this RV.
These overhead cabinets areeverywhere in the kitchen, in
the living area and in thebedroom.
I just love that.
Another thing that's been reallyinteresting for me to live with
is having a full wet bath.
Some of you might know, in mySprinter van I do not have a
(03:11):
bathroom at all.
We chose not to put a bathroomin because they are kind of
difficult to deal with With thistoilet.
This is a cassette toilet, apermanent one by Thetford, and
here you just open it up and yougo in there and it goes in this
cassette that you have to takeout and then dump.
And so we decided to only gonumber one in this cassette,
(03:32):
because the thought of justcarrying raw sewage around and
dumping it down a hole reallygrossed me out.
But it has been nice to havethis toilet in here, just for
you know.
Number one we do have a way togo in our other van too, but
this just looks more like atoilet.
We have a sink.
We have plenty of storage spacein here, which is fantastic.
There's one of the storagelockers, and what's really cool
(03:53):
is we have hot water for anindoor shower, and the way this
works is you can just open upthe mirror and it slides open
and creates a shower compartment, so you cannot get your entire
bathroom wet.
I just love this part of thevan and we've taken many showers
in here after long, hard hikesin the Dolomites, which has just
(04:13):
been fantastic.
The van also has a little ladderleading up to this bed and the
bedroom in here is supercomfortable.
You do have to order bedding.
It costs extras.
We have a bedding bundle fortwo people.
There's tons of storage.
It's huge.
It's like a queen size bed andthere's windows and a roof hatch
and plenty of ventilation.
We have slept so well in thisvan.
(04:34):
I just love it.
Another component that's beensuper vital to us in this van is
the heating system.
It has a propane heating systemwhich, when we were up in the
Alps, was completely necessaryfor us to stay warm in the
evenings and in the mornings.
A warm, dry heat, you know,just easily came on in the van
through many different littleheater vents throughout the van,
(04:55):
and that was something that wejust both enjoyed so very much.
I couldn't have done theDolomites without the heater.
So yeah, now that I've givenyou a tour of the camper van and
you can go and see thesepictures on my Instagram account
as well, just go toinstagramcom forward, slash the
wayward home and you can seemany more pictures of my journey
up here in Italy, in theDolomites and in this road
(05:18):
surfer camper van.
All right, so let's continue ourtrip north up to the Dolomites,
which wouldn't be completewithout a stop at one of these
incredible rest stops that youfind here in Italy.
Come on, let's go get a coffee.
We are at a rest stop off ofthe Alto Strada here in Italy,
near the Dolomites, and theseare really awesome rest stops
because you go in and there'sthese espresso makers and you
(05:41):
can order all kinds of espressodrinks.
So we just got due a Americanoto Americanos and a Panini which
they heated up right therebehind the countertop.
So these are a fancy version ofUS rest stops, where everyone's
kind of standing around outsidedrinking their fancy coffees,
eating and using the restroom,and it's a fun experience going
(06:05):
into these rest stops that are aglorified version of the ones
you find in the US.
So now we're going to drink ourcoffee, eat our Panini before
we get on the road.
We also noticed that they havefull-time staff that are
attending to the bathrooms here,keeping them cleaner and
organized, so that's really nice.
So going to an Italian reststop is actually a wonderful
(06:27):
experience.
Bon appetit.
To get to the Dolomites you haveto go up the Alto Strada, which
is a toll road which is fairlyexpensive.
We aren't used to these in theUnited States.
It probably cost 10 or 15 bucksfrom Milan to get up to the
Dolomites on this Alto Stradatoll highway, also known in
German as the Autobahn.
So we took that up after ourone night at Lake Garda
(06:48):
Campground and we drove up thesecrazy, windy, skinny roads with
this RV to the Alpi di Suisiparking lot.
Now this is down in a littletown called Seizer Alm.
It's at the bottom of theGondola chairlift and we camped
there for free for two nights,which was just incredible, and
we met a lovely German coupleand they showed us around Alpi
(07:08):
di Suisi.
We had phenomenal food it'scalled South Tyrolian food at
one of the mountain huts.
It was fantastic, one of thehighlights of our entire trip.
So our first two nights wespent up there at the chairlift
for free and enjoyed eating atthe restaurant.
There was the possibility ofgrabbing water for our rig and
it was just an all-aroundwonderful experience.
(07:29):
After that we kept on drivingthrough the Dolomites, and it
was a little bit rainy at first,and so we were driving down
these crazy highways and passes.
The Dolomites are a series ofthese craggy peaks between like
8 and 11,000 feet high orsomewhere around there, and in
between these mountains arethese these valleys, and what
connects the valleys aremountain pass roads.
(07:51):
These are not particularly easyto drive.
They're narrow and you have todeal with buses coming head on
at you, big cars, rvs andeveryone's just crawling up and
down these incredibly windymountain passes.
They'll sometimes tell you howmany turns are left on the
mountain pass roads andsometimes you'll see like, oh,
there's 10 hairpin turns lefttill I get to the bottom.
(08:13):
But we also really enjoyed thesemountain passes because these
were the places where we couldgo on phenomenal hikes, because
at the top of the pass you'realready up pretty high, you know
.
Otherwise you're parking at thebottom and taking a cable car
up which can cost anywherebetween, you know, 25 or 30
dollars per person round trip.
So think about it, that canreally add up if you keep taking
(08:33):
the cable car everywhere.
So sometimes we would try topark at the top of the mountain
passes and just embark on hikesfrom there.
So one of the passes we parkedout was wonderful.
We did an eight-mile hike andwe went to see something called
the Cinque Torre.
It was five towers and it'swhere many soldiers hit out
during World War I and foughtthe enemy from up there.
So it's kind of an open-airWorld War I museum that we
(08:57):
really enjoyed, and so that wasone of the mountain pass hikes
that we did.
We also enjoyed staying at acouple of campgrounds.
So up here they don't have thefederal and state-run
campgrounds that we're used toin the United States.
They're pretty much all privateand sometimes they're
phenomenally nice.
And some of these campgroundsdo have an area, sosta, which is
(09:17):
kind of a rest stop adjacent tothe campground, which is way
cheaper than purchasing a normalcampsite.
For example, at the first onewe only paid $22 per night and
then we paid an additional feeto access a swimming pool and a
variety of steam rooms andsaunas.
That was an additional price.
They also had a restaurant onsite and they had a little store
(09:37):
on site.
It was just a lovely experiencewith these stunning views of
the Alps all around us, and fromthere we did take a cable car
up to the top of this onemountain peak and hiked around
up there.
Beautiful, bright green grasson the hills and these stunning
gray, jagged rock formations ofthe mountains in the background.
It's really like nothing I haveever seen before.
(09:58):
One thing I really like aboutcampervanning over here in
Europe is that campers are partof their culture.
They love campervans andcampers and they are just
everywhere.
I love that they're accepted.
You don't feel like you're onthe fringes of society like you
often do in the US, andsomething I really like is that
many of these small townsthroughout the Alps have a
parking lot dedicated to campers.
(10:20):
You're allowed to park there.
They're often free or a verysmall fee and then you can walk
to town and enjoy the pizzerias,the restaurants.
You can go grocery shopping.
So we stayed in those at leasta few times throughout the Alps
and they were always a wonderfulexperience.
Everyone was just so respectful.
Nobody was loud, there weren'tcrazy barking dogs or blaring
(10:40):
music.
It was just, you know, nice.
And sometimes I wonder wouldthis work in the United States?
Would people be this respectful?
Maybe this is why we don't havethese things in the United
States.
So right now I'm in somethingcalled an area sosta.
This is in Italy and also inother parts of Europe, but it's
called a sosta here in Italy.
It's basically a rest stop forcampers.
(11:04):
The campers are parked prettyclose together.
It's like a gigantic rest stopfull of gravel.
There are power stations aroundso everyone can plug in.
There's one bathroom withtoilets and showers, but all
these RVs are crammed in prettytight within about 10 feet of
each other, and these so stasare tend to be pretty close to
little towns and cities.
For example, here we're at thesouthern end of Lake Garda, just
(11:26):
a little bit east and south ofMilan, and from here you can
just walk into the cutest littletown and have dinner and coffee
, ice cream, groceries, but it'sreally easy just to get
downtown, which makes this aninteresting parking area,
because we really don't havethese in the US near towns.
Everyone parks here and it'sbeen very respectful.
You don't hear people playingmusic really loud or speaking
(11:49):
really loud, or you don't evenbarely hear a dog bark.
The only issue is that a lot ofpeople smoke.
So often you get smoke waftingover to your van, which is
really gross.
But there's a little, you know,bathroom with paid showers.
Nice hot showers are prettycheap about a euro for four
minutes and the campgrounditself is cheap, basically big
parking lots, so it's only about20 to maybe 22 euros a night
(12:13):
and it's nice because it's justright here in the downtown core,
easy to get places, easy towalk around, and this is
something I really wish we hadin the States.
We've been using these so stasquite a bit and it really cuts
down on camping expenses and Ithink it's just a fantastic idea
.
With that being said, I reallyenjoyed the experience of being
able to park and just walk totown.
I just often wish I could dothat when I'm visiting small
(12:35):
towns or cities on my road tripsin the US.
Of course, what's lacking overhere are the sheer amount of
public lands we have in the US,the amount of boondocking, the
incredible natural beauty thatyou could just go and park for
days by yourself in the middleof nowhere.
Boondocking around here is notreally a thing.
You're typically in some kindof campground or sosta or one of
(12:56):
these free parking lots, butyou know they look like a
parking lot.
It doesn't look like you're outin the middle of nature,
somewhere gorgeous, like we havewith the acres upon acres, upon
thousands of acres in the USrun by public land management.
They don't really have thathere.
What we've noticed about themountains here is everything
seems to be extremely developed.
Obviously it's a culture that'sbeen here for thousands and
(13:18):
thousands of years.
It has built roads and bridgesand buildings.
You'll see castles and oldbuildings everywhere.
So kind of every inch of landor a lot of the land not every
inch, but a lot of the land isbuilt up, and in the mountains
they're built up.
As I said before, you just drivefrom valley to valley and you
find these incredible littletowns, and even up in the
(13:39):
mountains, at 8,000 feet, youhave mountain huts, and at these
mountain huts we ate the mostphenomenal food.
So to me it was a reallyinteresting experience to do a
really hard hike and just bedying at the top.
And you know just, I typicallywould eat what?
A peanut butter and jellysandwich and some carrot sticks.
But you go to a mountain hutand you have fine dining.
(14:00):
It's such a weird experience,and the meals we had were
affordable like 14 bucks foreach of our plates, $5 for a
beer, $4 for a glass of wine,and so the food prices here have
actually been way better thanin the US, and the food quality
has been really good as well.
We haven't encountered reallyany bad or fast food, and that
(14:21):
could have been just becausewe're touring in this part of
Italy that the food is great.
But I don't know, maybe therest of Europe is good too.
So that's something I've reallyenjoyed is just the quality of
the food.
The beer and the wine is justvery good at lower prices.
So I'll tell you a little bitabout the last campground we
stayed at, which was just thisincredible experience.
(14:41):
Again, this was one of thosehigh end fancy campgrounds, but
we stayed outside in the Sostaarea, which is more affordable.
This one was a little more thansome of the other ones at 37 a
night, but it was still half theprice of what you'd pay to go
into the campground.
This was called CampgroundSexton and it was on the far
east side of the Dolomites,about two and a half hour drive
(15:02):
from Venice, and this campgroundhad this incredible sauna area,
which they call a wellness areahere, and it wasn't cheap.
It was about $30 per person.
But let me tell you there werenine saunas and steam rooms
there and it was the best saunaexperience I've ever had in my
entire life.
For example, one of the saunasactually had a crackling wood
(15:24):
fire inside, so you could sitthere and watch the fire and
this dry heat.
Another sauna was full of hay,so you would sit in this sauna
and just smell this earthy scentof hay.
That was very grounding andjust an amazing thing.
I've never had that.
Another sauna was full of woodchips this big bowl of wood
chips in the middle, so youcould relax and just smell
(15:44):
freshly cut wood.
There was another one that wasa dry and wet sauna at the same
time, so it was dry, but thenthere was a little bit of
humidity in the room and thatwas.
I liked that one a lot as well.
There was an infrared sauna,there was a steam room, and you
can pay this money.
Oh, and there was two jacuzzi's.
You could sit in two differenthot tubs in various locations.
(16:06):
So you pay that $30 and, oh mygosh, it felt so good.
After our 12 mile hike, we did a12 mile hike up to the Tray
Simei, which is another jawdropping rock formation in the
Dolomites, and I'll post photosthere on Instagram Again, that's
instagramcom.
Forward slash, the wayward home, and I also have a Facebook
(16:26):
page called the Van LifeCollective and I'm posting all
these photos on there so you cango there and see what I'm
talking about.
But these rock formations,these hiking trails, these
mountain huts, the culture upthere I don't think I mentioned
this, but all of Northern Italyused to be more like German,
austrian, and so up there you'llhear three different languages
(16:46):
with a largely German influence.
You hear tons of German, you'llhear Italian sometimes and
you'll hear this local languagecalled Ladin, which is pre-Roman
, which is a pre-Roman language,and so you'll see lots of these
beautiful craftsmen stylebuildings, like you'd expect to
see in Germany, full ofoverflowing flower pots, and
(17:08):
it's just a wonderful experience.
Everything's so clean and niceand I just I can't believe my
Dolomites trip is over.
I actually have to turn this RVin tomorrow and I'm a little sad
about it.
I really loved being up there,the sheer amount of hiking
trails, the combination of freecamping and staying at these
luxury campgrounds, the food andthe wine being phenomenal, and
(17:30):
having this rig, this cozycottage from Road Surfer.
I highly recommend it.
Even though our fridge didn'twork properly the entire time,
it still worked enough when wewere plugged in and we were
driving and we chose not to havetoo many perishables in here.
But having this Road Surfer vanis definitely something I would
do again.
I know this one was free for me, but I would pay for it again
(17:52):
because it's affordable.
I think this one is $100 anight and it's a good size rig.
You know, I think it's sevenmeters, which I'm not going to
do the math on the spot, butthat's what it is, and it's tall
enough to walk around in andit's spacious and it's heated
and it's just so cozy.
There were many timesthroughout the trip where we
were like, yeah, this is a cozycottage and we love it.
(18:14):
So, yeah, that's it for ourcampervan rental here in Italy.
We'll see where we go next.
We're probably going to stay inEurope for a little while longer
and keep on touring around, sostay tuned to the Wayward Home
podcast and, again, go follow meon social media.
I'm on Facebook, I'm onInstagram and I'm on YouTube.
I'm going to film a short tourof this rig as well, so you can
(18:34):
take a look inside, andhopefully you'll be able to come
over here to Europe sometimeand check out a road surfer and
the campervan and RVing cultureover here, because, man, it's so
cool, it's so different fromthe US, and so I think it's a
great way to see Europe.
It's still cheaper than a hoteland you have everything you
need, from the shower to thetoilet, to the cooking, to the
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fridge, to a cozy place to hangout and have all your stuff.
Because, you know, the lastthing I want to do in Europe is
bounce from hotel to hotelcarrying my heavy backpack.
It's nice just to havesomething in one place and the
ability to drive around andreally see the countryside.
So I hope you enjoyed this tourof my road surfer campervan and
my brief itinerary of a Dolomite.
(19:16):
Of course, I will be creatingan itinerary over on the Wayward
Home when I'm done with thistrip, so keep your eye out for
that and subscribe to my emaillist.
Come on over and hang out withme.
You can find that atthewaywardhomecom.
Forward slash subscribe andI'll see you over there.
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