Today was expected to be hot, with weather warnings for heat, and recommendations to stay inside, especially in the middle of the day. In true English style, we headed out around 1pm, with a rough plan of trying to get to the Adriatic for a dip, with a visit to a landmark on the way.
Emily picked out Cividale del Friuli, about 45 minutes south, and on the map, I picked Grado as the logical place to try and go for a swim, with just over an hour drive back to our apartment.
As usual, 35°C with no air con was a challenge, but on the plus side, the locals seemed to be taking the advice given, so the roads were quiet, and the town of Cividale was absolutely dead. This was great for parking, wandering around and taking photos of the attractive old buildings. We headed for the town's famous bridge, Ponte Del Diavolo, and spent some time down below it by the river with a cool breeze blowing along.
Next stop was the obvious choice of a gelateria, and we timed it to perfection. The first one we spotted was just reopening after siesta time! After collecting drinks from a small supermarket where we failed to spot the cold drinks cabinet, we headed south again.
Grado is highly geared towards tourists, and we managed to find some free parking not too far from the beach. This bit of Adriatic was nowhere near as appealing as the Croatian parts we visited, and 90% of the beach was allocated to paid sunlounger spots. Despite this we all enjoyed the dip in the free 10%! The water was warmer than required for a proper cool down, but it was still the coolest I've been for days!
We meandered back to the car, and ate our packed tea in the shade, before trying another gelateria - somehow in Italy we have managed to average two gelateria visits per day! Luckily for our budget the prices are good, unfortunate for our waists. Tomorrow we head towards the mountains in Austria, so perhaps we will work some of it off.
Published on Tuesday 7 August 2018
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