Join us for part two of camper van life in Italy.
In this episode, we share the ins and outs of staying at a campground,
along with some fun things to do and experience in Bologna, Italy.
[intro music]
Good morning from Bologna, Italy.
We just spent our first full night in this camper van.
And to say the bed was tight would be a bit of an understatement.
The camper vans here, at least the one we have,
isn't nearly as wide since it doesn't have any bump outs.
And my head was up against the wall, and my feet were up against the other wall,
but we made do.
And our first order of business in Bologna
is to go to the Ducati Museum and take a factory tour.
I have really been looking forward to that. It was the one thing
I absolutely wanted to do while we were in Italy.
So we are currently packing up the camper van,
and then we are gonna head out of the campground,
go to the museum, tour around a little bit, and come back.
Now with this campground, it's all automated,
so on our way out, what we do is we scan our QR code,
and that essentially pays for the night.
They charge us for it, and then when we come back,
we'd get another QR code to get in,
and do the whole process all over again.
We quickly learned the Italian word for exit,
as I made a wrong turn and almost ended up at the dump station
on our way out of the campground.
19.50 euro.
Once payment was confirmed,
the gate opened, and we were on our way to Ducati for the museum and factory tour,
which was less than a 10-minute drive.
Since there was no parking at the museum, we were directed to a nearby parking lot,
which had a few spots left for us to park the camper van.
There was even a larger RV parked in the lot,
which we were surprised to see, especially among all of the small vehicles.
It was a short walk to check in for our Ducati tour,
which I booked online for 32 euros per person,
with an option for an English-speaking guide.
Factory tour was amazing, but they did put stickers on all the cameras
so you can't take any photos.
But now, we can take them off before we go into the museum.
While we got an up-close look at the motorcycles being built
and tested during our factory tour,
the museum was a completely different experience.
The museum chronicles the history of Ducati,
from how it started, and some of the major accomplishments throughout the years.
Kait and I enjoyed reading about the 60,000-kilometer around the world tour
on 175 Ts in 1957.
And then taking an up-close look at the famous Ducati 916,
which was described as "the most beautiful bike of the last 50 years"
by Motorcycle News Magazine.
Kind of hard not to fall in love with Ducati after that experience.
This is true. I'm already in love with them.
Okay, we've seen Ducati.
Now, we're gonna head into Bologna and experience the city itself.
Well, before we hop on the bus into town, I'm gonna make some lunch.
One of the reasons we love camper van life, we got everything we need with us.
Now, while this van is small enough for us to drive into the center of the city,
we're actually not allowed to.
So once you get within the center of a lot of the cities in Italy,
it's called a ZTL, or I forget what the translation is, but it's a zone
where you're limited on who can come in and you have to have a permit.
If you don't have a permit when you drive in, every time you drive past
one of the cameras, I was reading the fine is about 120 euros.
So they'll get you going in as well as going out, plus all the cameras you pass,
and you have to pay a fine for each one.
So we don't wanna do that. We'll take the bus into town.
Riding the bus in Bologna was very convenient.
All I had to do was flag down the bus we wanted
and tap our credit card on the machine, which costs us 3 euros for two tickets.
Riding at the front of this bus was quite an experience,
especially going down some of the smaller streets around the center of Bologna.
With the high and the low 50s,
Kait and I bundled up for our walk around the city,
which started at the main square, featuring buildings from the Renaissance period,
and a large fountain with a bronze statue of Neptune at the top.
Not far from the main square was an indoor food market,
featuring some amazing-looking cold cuts and cheeses,
as well as mouthwatering sandwiches.
While it was difficult to resist all the delicious food on display,
I did manage to only order an espresso from this cafe,
and Kait got a cookie with orange preserve and pumpkin seeds.
While I miss my pour-over coffees,
I've quickly adapted to the Italian espresso culture.
Once I was well-caffeinated,
we strolled over to a pasta restaurant that was recommended to us by a friend.
This place has a menu in English,
which made it much easier for us to figure out what we wanted to try.
Once our order was in, Kait went over to the glass door by the kitchen
to watch the various dishes being prepared.
A short while later,
Kait's pasta and my lasagna arrived with a side of mashed garbanzo beans,
roasted onions, and greens.
If you can't tell by the expression on my face, the lasagna was fantastic.
We enjoyed the dishes so much
that we put in another order to try the whole wheat triangle pasta with mushrooms and artichoke.
After our pasta tasting, we went for a stroll around the city,
checking out some of the well-known points of interest,
which included the two towers built in the 12th century,
and a section of the canal system of Bologna.
With the temperature dropping quickly,
Kait and I decided to head back to the camper van.
So earlier, I had to move the van.
See that sign up there? That means two-hour parking from,
what is it, nine in the morning till six at night. Well,
I missed the sign and we were parked in the two-hour zone, because
that was the only place there was parking when we arrived to do our tour at Ducati.
When we got back, it was about three, four hours later,
having lunch, and we see the police pull up and start issuing tickets. So I got out,
started talking to one of the officers, and they're like, "Oh, no, no, no.
You're in two-hour parking. Go over there."
So I moved, and we're good for the whole day.
Now, the rest of this parking lot is free parking for as long as you want;
there are no restrictions.
So I think we could park here overnight. It looks like a camper already is,
but we're not really sure.
Plus, we don't know what the battery capacity is for the house portion of the RV,
so we don't know if we can run our heater all night,
because it's supposed to get down to almost zero degrees Celsius tonight,
which would be nice to have heat.
So we're gonna go back to the campground to plug in, grab a real shower, and just relax.
So far, I'm finding it very easy to drive around Italy.
The roundabouts just take a little bit of practice, but they're easy.
As long as you go with the flow and you kind of
do what everyone else is doing, you're fine.
People really don't honk, they're not all that aggressive.
It's easy. They let you in, let you out. So
I haven't found it problem whatsoever.
It's tea time, but we don't really have plans to cook in here.
I mean, we're gonna make hot water for teas and coffees,
and we have some food that we can put together without cooking in the fridge.
Like we made some sandwiches for lunch today.
But we're really thinking of this camper van as our moving hotel.
So it's allowing us to explore Italy and be able to take our home,
or "the comforts of home" with us.
Now, we are using the toilet in here.
It is a cassette toilet, which we're very familiar with,
but in terms of showers and all of that stuff,
we are using the campground facilities. It just makes it easier.
Plus there's less for us to clean up before we drop this camper off.
Well, it is almost 2:00 PM
We've been having a bit of a lazy morning.
Last night, after we got set up at camp,
we decided to just chill. I got some work done, I have to edit more videos.
So the plan is we're gonna pack up
and drive to Modena. There is another campground over there
that is also automated. We're gonna scope that out
and maybe spend the rest of our trip in Modena.
There are lots of tasty things to eat and try in that region.
Plus we are in the Motor Valley, so maybe we will check out Ferrari,
Lamborghini, who knows?
There's so many options for things to do.
Let's talk a little bit about this campground.
This campground is basically just a large gravel lot
with lines that they have set out.
Each spot does have electricity.
So the way they do it here is they have a single pedestal
where you can plug four different campers into it at the same time.
And then they spread those out throughout the campground.
So you have to make sure you have a long enough cord to reach it if you're
further away from the pedestal.
Now, in terms of the bathhouse, it was pretty standard.
You know, toilet sink, that sort of thing.
The showers themselves were okay.
You had to push a button and you couldn't change the cold or hot,
and the water would run for about 15, 20 seconds
before you had to push it again or just hold the button in.
The interesting thing about the bathroom too, was you had to turn on a water heater.
Now, I did that last night, and it took about four hours
for it to go from 16 degrees Celsius to 37 degrees,
and that was only good enough for a warm shower.
Now, all things considered, for 20 euros a night, you're getting electric, water,
a place to park, a bathhouse, and a dump station.
That's a pretty good deal
compared to what we pay in the United States for a campground.
The other nice thing is when you come in and you scan your QR code,
you have 24 hours. So that 20 euros gets you 24 hours at the campground,
rather than other campgrounds where you come in at any time during the day,
and you have to check out the next morning.
I like the way this system works at this campground,
and hoping to find more automated campgrounds along the way.
Now, the next campground in Modena is also 20 euros a night.
So I'm curious to see what those facilities are gonna look like.
Before we depart this campground, I am going to dump our cassette toilet.
And it's locked, so have to figure out which key it is.
It's been a while. Let's see if I remember how to do this.
There you go.
At this campground, the grey water goes into the ground,
and we don't have any grey water to dump yet.
The toilet gets dumped in this device right here.
So basically, you would drive over that and just open your valve.
With cassette toilets becoming more popular in the US,
I wonder if any campgrounds in the States have this type of facility.
With the ease of checking in and out of this automated campground in Bologna,
I hope this concept will become more popular in the States as well.
Well, that's it for this episode of camper van life in Italy.
Stay tuned for our next episode where we make our way to Modena
for more tasty bites, historic sites, and more roundabouts.
Don't forget to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it,
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linked in the description below, and we'll see you next time. Bye.