Italian Memorial Weekend

The beautiful sandy beach near Venice was the perfect spot to spend Memorial Day week end and even looked a little like one of our beaches at home in some ways. We moved to the well known Union Lido campsite for our last few days in Venice since it is four star with all the amenities including beach and
two water parks.

There were crowds gathering for a big regatta in Venice and we thought we would just bypass the weekend city crowds and celebrate in typical beach and pool style. There was more than enough to do right here at our campsite for the weekend. It is funny, but they even have a loud speaker that would announce things daily in several languages.

I suppose I should say German style Memorial Day week end instead of Italian. It is true we were in Italy, but the campground was filled with German families. Since there were so many school children and home schooling is not popular in Germany, my guess is that it was also a holiday of some sort in Germany just
like the Netherlands school holiday that we ran into in Barcelona. Or maybe they were just doing a long week end since it is only a few hours drive away. There were other nationalities (again we were the only Americans) but the Germans were definitely the dominant country as Venice appears to be a favorite get away.

The campsite was so huge that we pretty much used our bikes to get to places like the pools, beach, shopping or internet cafe. They had a train and also a trolley, but we never figured out where to catch them and we love riding our bikes. Again, I would not want to be here in high season as the place is a little overwhelming even in the off season, but it turned out to be a great place for a family to play after city touring.

It has the only water park pools with sand in Europe and according to one of my books, sets the standard for four star campgrounds. Mozart even had to put on a little bracelet to wear at all times as it is a place a child could easily get turned around and lost in. Usually one has to go into reception and register when you arrive at a campsite, but here they have many uniformed people that come to you and help ease that process. They have every kind of store and we were grateful for all the wonderful produce.

We tried out both pools as the adults in the family were not as thrilled with the imported sand pool as Mozart. The tubing area at the second place was not as fast paced as the one near Florence, so less exciting for DaVinci, but it was just my speed and one could do it without a tube. We all had fun with that as Mozart loves to play with her dad, but she also really wants me to go in with her too, so this way the whole family got to play together which is her favorite.

When you travel as a family it is really important to have days to rest and play after touring. We love the adventures of touring, but we also enjoy the rest times just as much and they help keep us balanced and prevent burn out. One just needs the down time to absorb all that you are seeing. We ended up adding an extra day here which is also part of the beauty of living this spontaneous life.

As I looked around, I thought about how typical a scene this all was for Memorial Day week end, yet nobody here was even aware that there was such a holiday. We are part of the group, yet in our own little world. We seem to manage to find our own special ways to celebrate our holidays along with theirs. Every day is really like a holiday or perfect Saturday with this lifestyle and it is a wonderful way to live.

It feels like it would be very hard to go back to a typical life again, after tasting all this freedom. There are challenges to life on the road, but the rewards more than make up for it. Who wouldn’t want to be on a permanent vacation, losing track of what day or time it is, enjoying all the beauty and joy in life?