Ciao Bella,

Ciao, Ciao, Ciao……..food, friends and a lot of passion were the ingredients of our last two months in Italy.

After leaving Alice, we took a “holiday time off” from writing 🙂 We met so many friends and family during these last two months that the writing took a little bit longer than usual. Much has happened but all good. We enjoyed being on the road again but had to get use to the busy holiday season and hot weather.

We left Les Granges in the beginning of June. We said goodbye and see you later to all our friends we met during the season and went towards Barcelona to get our yearly check of the car. We go the advice to drive through de Massif de Chartreuse and Parc National des Ecrins. A really beautiful part of French. We stopped to meet friends nearby Chambery and spend some days on the lake with them.

After the check up of the car, we took the boat to Sardinia. We booked a hut so we slept very well and when we woke up, we were close to the Island. We met our friends, Sander & Marijn with their daughter Vie. We first saw them in the Norther part for a couple of days and after spending a week separate we met again somewhere in the middle for some days. Sardinia has beautiful beaches with super clear water to snorkel. We have never spent so much time at or around a beach as we did on Sardinia. We had to get used to the temperatures which were at least 30+ degrees every day and at night it did not get cooler than 24 degrees. We always tried to find a spot around water for a dip. The Northern part of the Island is quite dry and especially in summer isn’t really green. After being in Scandinavia we are just to spoiled with how beautiful nature and mountains can be. We found it hard not to compare the nature and we found it not very impressive. The middle is a little bit beter and has a couple of national parks.

During our time on the Island, we met the Fam. Zuurstof again. We met them in Portugal and French and they are like us a nomadic family but from Belgium. We spend nice days together at the beach and enjoyed each other’s company.  

For the first time we experienced the “holiday season” again. When we left in 2019, we spend the summer in the east of Europe with less tourism. The next two years we travel with COVID so almost no tourists. But now and especially in Italy/ Sardinia it was full force holiday season. We had never seen so many campers as we did see in Italy and at Sardinia. It scared us a bit and we had to get used to the busyness of it all.

After 4 weeks on the Island, we took the boat back to the main land. We arrived in Civitavecchia and met with our dear friends Herman and Sindy. Sindy’s parents celebrated their 50^th anniversary and rented a beautiful house in Tuscana. We spend a day and night together with the fam. Fransen. We had an amazing time! Thank you so much Fam. Fransen for taking us into the family for these days. It was great to see everybody again!

A couple of days afterwards, Lillian’s sister came with her husband and kids. We spend a week in Umbria around Lake Trasimeno. It was one of the hottest weeks of this summer, 40 degrees +. We spend the mornings or late afternoon sightseeing but mostly we stayed at the pool of their apartment. Morgan couldn’t be happier. The whole week she played with her nieces and we enjoyed our time together so much, wonderful! After that week we drove to the Adriatic coast to meet with our friends Govert, Nienke and their daughter Liselotte. We spend a day in their beautiful agriculture farm and had a lot of fun. 🙂

After saying goodbye, we drove to Parco Nazionale Monti Sibillini. We found a spot in the middle of nowhere on a mountain and stayed for a week. We really needed just nothing. No people, no heat, just the 3 of us and nature. We had to sort out all kind of stuff. We both were/ are looking for a consultancy job and Morgan had to finish some schoolwork. It was a wonderful time with all our friend and family but after almost two months of constantly visits it was nice to just don’t travel. Being in the mountains where it wasn’t hot. Parco Nazionale Monti Sibillini is a park that connects Umbria with Marche and has a lot of options. We did some walks and swam in the lakes in the parkl. We could breathe again.

As of September, Stephen found a freelance job with CanvasHeros. Because of the start of his job, he had to go back to the Netherlands for two weeks. One week at the office and one week to see family and friends. Lillian and Morgan decided to stayed in Italy and had two weeks “girl time” hahahaha. They drove to the National Park Gran Sasso in region of Lazio. After the National Park they drove again to the Adriatic coast and spend some time around the beaches there. The week of the 15^th of August is the busiest week of the year in Italy. The 15^th is a national Holiday and in that week nobody works. Everywhere it was completely packed with campers and people. Funny enough we always look for the quiet places to park but the majority of the Italians are looking for companions. They love to be together and making fun together. Unfortunately, they still forget to clean up when they leave. The trash everywhere is really horrible.

The last days we spend close to Rome. We met a lovely family in Sibillini National Park and they invited us to meet up again. They run a sail and surf school close to Rome and even without speaking English, Morgan and their two girls, Azzurra and Gaia have a great time! Morgan was able to join the surf lessons and we are enjoying our time with the family a lot!!

Stephen is joining soon again and we are looking forward to our new way of traveling. Combing working with travel. We did it already but not like we will now. Again, a new chapter. Lillian is still on the hunt for a job but as soon as she finds one, we will make plans for the winter. There are several options so let’s see where it will take us.

Hope everybody enjoyed the summer like we did. Being able to live and travel again without any restrictions is a great feeling.

Lots of love and hugs from us!