Our adventures in the village of Ostra and in the beautiful region of Le Marche began on a terrace overlooking Lake Garda. The waiter Luciano surprised us with his question: “Why do you always come back to Lazise? Italy has so many beautiful places.”
To tell you the truth, as long as the kids came along on holidays, Lake Garda was a great place to go. There is always plenty to do on the campsite. There was a shuttle that brought the boys to a disco and also returned them safely at night. Moreover, there is a wide offer of theme parks and water parks that they could go to without our supervision.
Not just for the boys, but also for us there was an abundance of activities to enjoy. Think of a wide selection of restaurants and terraces and of course the amazing city of Verona just 20km away. Verona, known for its Opera, but also for its ‘Saldi’, to which we were eager customers. We have always felt at home in the area, and we will always do so. Our Italian ‘roots’ really lie over there. But still… The question from Luciano, whose loyal customers we had been for over five years, made us think. We decided that for our next summer holidays, this time without the kids, we would travel further into Italy. Where to begin?
Back in the Netherlands, it was a time where we first started seeing the British TV shows such as ‘Escape To The Continent’, about people who left their home in England to rebuild an old country house in Italy, together with what often turned out to be a disloyal business partner. These were highly entertaining episodes with plenty of drama, but also with breathtaking images from an area in Italy that was completely unknown to us: Le Marche!
As always we did our pre-work, and our attention was instantaneously grabbed by the beautiful beaches of San Benedetto del Tronto, flanked by ‘over 1,000 palm trees’. “Sounds great”, we thought. “Let’s see it before we believe it”. The second spot we found online seemed equally magical. One week in our own cottage surrounded by vineyards, for the same price we paid for two days in a caravan at Lake Garda. It seemed too good to be true.
Making full use of the few words of Italian we picked up during our Dante language course, we managed to book some time at both locations. The response was extremely inviting and friendly.
While driving down from The Netherlands, it was slightly awkward to not take the exit at Affi towards our familiar place at Lake Garda. What followed instead was a long road through plain landscape lasting until the area just past Rimini. Driving out of one of the many tunnels, our eyes had to adjust for a second, and not just because of the sudden light. The landscape of hills that unfolded was nothing short of astonishing.
It turned into a marvelous holiday. Believe me when I tell you we truly counted over 1,000 palm trees along the boulevard of San Benedetto. However, it was our stay at the vigna in Sant’Amico owned by Francesca Marotti Campi that ensured we were ‘per sempre’ in love with this beautiful region in Italy.