PREPIS/TRANSCRIPT

Without further ado, let's get started!

July 2021, Covid and mask times, it feels kinda (kind of) unreal now, doesn't it? Have you travelled during Covid, or did you rather stay safe at home?

My best friend since high school and I decided to finally, after being confined to our houses for months, head out and travel around for a little bit. We planned an Italian-French road trip starting in Venice, through Verona, Lago di Garda, Bologna, the French Côte d'Azur, Nice, and other coastal cities, Monaco, Avignon, and back. We were on the roads for more than two weeks and love to reminisce about those times. Have you ever visited any of the mentioned places? Let me know in the polls (v anketkách) below this podcast episode.

I will very untraditionally start with our packing situation. There were just the two of us in a Skoda Octavia, which, if you do not know, is quite a spacious and big car. Our car trunk was full, and so were the back seats. I cannot imagine if more girls had ended up going with us! But we brought literally everything we needed, such as my camera and of course, my yoga mat, and basically, for every day, a fresh outfit because it was obviously summer and it was hot and humid! We needed some city clothes as well as swimsuits and some hiking clothes, as we had a variety of activities planned. So don't be afraid to go only with your partner or a friend in the car if you're going for a longer time. You will need the space!

Before heading out for a road trip kind of holiday, make sure that you check for any highway tolls and vignettes. We needed an Austrian vignette, and then we paid for tolls at toll stations in Italy and also in France. It can be quite a sum if you travel a lot by car on highways, so don't be surprised! On the way back, we went through Germany, but you don't need to pay there.

If you plan a longer road trip, I advise you to give yourself enough time for each place you want to visit and not rush as much because, in the end, you are (gonna) going to be exhausted. Something unexpected can occur, such as a car accident, or as you will hear about soon, I had sunstroke, and that would throw us off our plan if we didn't have any time reserve.

Enough yapping (blabotania) and let's get into it!

We started our trip in Venice, Italy. It is about a six-and-a-half to seven-hour drive from where I live, which made it a perfect first stop for us. I am going to Venice with my family this year as well, but this time we have to pay an entrance fee of 5 euros per person to visit the city. You might want to check that before you go, as it applies only to certain days of the week. You might be able to avoid it; however, there are fines if you do not have your QR code with you and get checked by the police. Back then, it wasn’t a thing. We spent one evening and one whole day there, which was perfectly enough to soak in the atmosphere and wander through those typical romantic Venice canals and streets. If you are on a tight schedule, you will be perfectly fine with just one whole day there. Prepare for crowds of people in the summer season, definitely!

A budget-friendly tip: do not stay on the main island. The infrastructure and buses to and from Venice are plentiful, and you will save a lot of money by staying off-shore. We stayed, and are staying again this time, in a hotel a 20-minute bus drive away. There is a bus stop right in front, but you have to buy the tickets in a little kiosk in advance as you will not get them on board. You might want to check out some highlights of Venice and visit them, but you will probably get there naturally just by walking around and following the landmarks. If you find Venice even half as amazing as I did, you will enjoy it immensely.

Next on our itinerary was Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet. It is said that if you touch Juliet’s statue’s breast in one of the tourist courtyards, you will be very fortunate in love. There is a great market with souvenirs related to their story, and it was hard for us to find anything not themed around Juliet. Lol. On the main square, you'll find the Verona Arena, which is essentially a Colosseum, I guess. We didn’t end up going inside because there was a huge queue, but we had the best red wine risotto instead. I haven’t had anything similar since.

You can pretty much walk around without worrying about transport, as all the main points of interest are within walking distance. The medieval streets are beautiful, and a river flows around the historical centre. You can check out the bridges, and if you walk across, you'll reach a panoramic view of Verona. I definitely recommend taking the time to do that. You might want to take the funicular up, as it is on a steep hill and can be quite challenging in the summer season. The funicular is a small cable car that will take you up and save you some breath. Verona is perfect for a one- or two-day trip; there is plenty to see and take in.

You can connect it with a trip to Lago di Garda, which is about an hour’s drive from Verona, depending on the exact place you want to visit. Keep in mind that driving around the actual lake can be challenging due to narrow streets and heavy traffic. So, plan precisely where you want to go and expect to spend more time there rather than less.

We went to check out Sirmione. Oh gosh! The parking situation was absolutely terrible. Make sure to check out several parking places in advance and save them on your phone, just in case they are full. At the entrance to the town, there is a fortress, and as you walk towards the centre of this place, you walk by the shore of the lake where people swim. There are also some thermal baths and stinky springs. We decided to visit the archaeological site of Grotte di Catullo, which offered breathtaking 360-degree views.

Two hours from Verona lies the student city of Bologna. I cannot choose which city I would recommend more, as they are different from each other and both offer plenty to enjoy. My favourite experience was having spaghetti Bolognese in its birthplace – Bologna. Piazza Maggiore and especially Basilica San Petronio were magnificent, such a massive structure. It literally towers over you as you stand below. If you do not want to travel to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, you will see two such towers in Bologna. They look like they are going to fall for sure! Santuario Madonna di San Luca is the only place where you will need to go by car. It is located on top of a hill, offering 360-degree views of Bologna and revealing a stretch of greenery behind the city.

This wraps up the Italian part of our trip. Next, we took a five-and-a-half-hour drive to France. We passed through Nice, which has a crazy roundabout right when you enter the city, but we drove up to the mountains in Mercantour National Park to change up the scenery a little bit. We needed to escape from the crowds of people for a while. We booked a room in the house of a French guy who did not speak English. I understood literally nothing; however, my friend has unique skills for communicating without understanding the language. We needed to wait for him to finish watching the launch of a rocket into space, which was on TV. This start was a little annoying, but the rest of the stay was perfect. He had a backyard with a pool, and the surroundings were very photogenic, which was amazing for me. I did yoga there. He prepared a French breakfast every morning: French baguettes, jam, and butter. It was simply idyllic, exactly what we needed. The fact that the bathroom and bedroom were in the same room was a little uncomfortable, but the backyard made up for it. We mostly stayed outside anyway.

I truly enjoyed those refreshing, misty mornings in the mountains, the peaceful surroundings, and dinners amidst the trees on terraces. I have a pretty funny story to share, connected to not understanding French. As I mentioned, we spoke zero French, so French menus were a true nightmare for us. I was translating some menu items and came across something I thought was a 'schnitzel,' which I ended up ordering. However, the translator was not on my side, and I ordered a rare steak instead. I couldn’t chew it, but it wasn’t THAT bad!

We did some hikes and visited freezing cold waterfalls, which my friend dipped into, but I passed on that opportunity. One hike I definitely want to mention is the hike to Eze, a tiny little town on top of a hill. You can drive there, but we hiked up on a path called Nietzsche’s Path. The views were stunning. After all that, we headed down to spend some time in Nice. We booked a place for our car in a shopping centre near our hotel if you wonder. I have never seen such small parking places! Oh gosh!

After our first day in Nice, I woke up with sunstroke and my period. I had a fever, was throwing up, and spent two days lying in bed binge-watching an entire season of some series on Netflix. The day before, we saw the Nice sign, strolled down the beach, and visited the city centre and a park on the hill. Nice has a certain vibe, but to be honest, I expected a little more. Nice served as our base camp for other trips in the following days.

We went from Nice to Monaco, which is just a short trip by train. We saw the famous Monte Carlo, took a peek inside the Prince's Palace of Monaco and the square, and visited the Oceanographic Museum, which was truly entertaining. Of course, we couldn’t miss the harbour with its expensive yachts. Everything was absolutely clean and accessible on foot.

Be aware that Monaco might not be included in your mobile phone plan. When I turned on my mobile internet, 50 euros was immediately charged to my phone number because of roaming. Luckily, I had a limit set! My friend had Telekom back then and she was fine, but we didn’t realize we should check that beforehand.

In the evening, we returned, and for the rest of our stay there, we visited some cities down the coast such as Antibes or one historical town in the mountains called Saint Paul de Vence.

Our last destination was Avignon, which is around three hours from Nice. We wanted to visit the city and then head out to check out the notoriously famous lavender fields in Provence, but that, oh, didn't end up going so well. Avignon was perfect; there is a huge Papal Palace in the centre with the river Rhone flowing by. We bought some ice cream, walked around the park, and explored the city at a slow pace. At the time, they held a theatre festival, but everything was in French, so we didn't attend any of the performances. However, we soaked in the atmosphere and enjoyed the decorations, funny posters, and costumes people had.

The next day was supposed to be absolutely perfect. The opposite was true, though. We missed the lavender harvest by a few days! By the end of July, the lavender is gone. We were driving around Provence, searching on the internet for some locations that might have a late harvest, but to our huge disappointment, we didn't see any blooming lavender fields.

The final day of our trip didn't meet our expectations, but overall, we cherish the memories until now. One thing we could have done differently was to split the 15-hour journey from Avignon to Slovakia into two parts. What we thought would take 15 hours turned out to be almost 24 hours due to traffic jams, accidents, and one final storm not far from Vienna, along with heavy rain in Slovakia. Now we know better! We don't recommend driving such a long distance in one go because, as you can hear, we encountered some unexpected delays. A similar situation happened when I was travelling from Belgrade, Serbia. The journey was supposed to take 6 hours, but we ended up waiting almost three hours at the borders. You never know what might happen.

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