Always follow the sun with Off - Camping Italy

Guest contribution to Camping Italy by Team ´Wortreise` - Josephine and Jannis with dog Joy alias Schnuffi

Away from everyday life, towards great happiness. To go where the wind carries you and the sun laughs. Be free, feel free; free of thoughts. Vacation from the mundaneness and all the worries, which let us dry up inside far too often. Experiencing nature, feeling one with it - this was possible for us, and we are still grateful for the four beautiful days with the camper from Off. It was four days full of emotions that are probably best described with the words happiness and freedom.

Camping vacation: The happiness of having the freedom to follow the sun, not being so dependent on the weather as with a firmly booked trip to a fixed destination. The happiness of having the freedom to change plans at any time and to travel to other campsites and regions or to adjust the length of the stay flexibly and spontaneously.

For camping, of course, you have to be the type of adult who loves just that, with or without kids; I think qualities like a love of spontaneity and good organizational skills at the same time are very helpful for this type of travel. Because when you're travelling like this, you have daily tasks like organizing suitable pitches or campsites for the night, keeping an eye on meal planning, making sure there's enough water on board and planning activities. The arrival date can be varied spontaneously at any time, not to be compared with an all-inclusive vacation where you don't have to worry about such things.

But Jannis and I - we are just such people who are looking for adventure and do not like to just lie by the sea and let the sun shine on our belly even on vacation. Whereby we have also accommodated this part in our Italy trip but more about that later. In retrospect, we would have planned a few more days due to the long distance (we almost drove 2000km in just four days) to be able to stay longer at some destinations. So we spent two of the four days virtually almost only on the road in the camper, but fortunately that can be really very, very easy to ´endure` even on our trip. After going through the offers, we decided on the model ´California Ocean` of amedium budget from 105€ per day and were very happy with it.

You feel like going on an Italy road trip, but don't know exactly where to go or which campsites are the best? Then check out Off Guide. We plan your road trip according to your individual wishes and down to the smallest detail.

It was super relaxed thanks to automatic transmission and cruise control and could be accelerated smoothly like butter. In addition, the camper has an amazing music system, so we had a great pleasure with the audio book and music aka #Carpool karaoke singing thanks to CarPlay function, which we used for navigation at the same time.

In the ´California Ocean` up to four adults can find a place to sleep, two above in the electric pop-up roof and two below on the folding bed. As mentioned above, it is an automatic car with a multi-function steering wheel, air conditioning as well as auxiliary heating, cruise control and ACC, navigation system, multimedia with DAB+ reception, all-season tires, front/rear parking pilot, rearview camera, and a second and third battery that allow for relaxed camping. Our camper was also equipped with a 2-burner gas stove, many cooking and eating utensils, a coffee maker, a sink with water tank (30l) and a compressor cooler (approx. 42 l), an awning with folding legs (+ attachment), a camping table and two camping chairs, an outdoor shower, an all-round privacy screen (especially great at night to darken the camper), several cabinets to store clothes and supplies, a rotating front seat and a folding indoor table as well as an outdoor socket and extension cord and several 230V sockets and 12V USB ports.

Other equipment such as a SUP board, barbecue, bike trailer, etc. can be easily booked. We had opted for the dog hair cleaning for 85€ and the all-round insurance, the ´carefree package` and were very happy about it, because our little Schnuffi really is quite hairy and we prefer to play it safe with rented cars.

So much for our review and experience with the Off camper; let's get to the more exciting part, camping in Italy.

We were on the road from campsite to campsite in Italy from Friday to Tuesday evening, 4 nights. After a friendly introduction to the car and all its functions, we were greeted with some snacks, food and drinks from partners. So we had a good start as far as provisions were concerned, because we really wanted to go shopping only the next day. Then we finally started our trip - full of anticipation - to the first of the four campsites in Italy that we planned to visit. Our plans to go to Styria in Austria had changed spontaneously after a look at various weather apps and finding out that it should be raining for the next few days - and we really longed for a few rays of sunshine which we'll fortunately get to enjoy.

After a short stopover at relatives in Chiemgau, where we were greeted with an incredible rainbow, we drove through Austria towards Italy. Because our new destination was probably the most famous, most romantic metropolis in Italy: Venice. However, we only got as far as the middle of Austria that night, where we settled on a free campsite that we had discovered via the app ´Park4Night`, just like the other campsites. There were such niche mountains which we no longer noticed in the darkness. We were all the more overwhelmed the next morning when we opened the zipper of our pop-up roof and saw the natural mountain scenery with our tired eyes.

The exact address of this camping site is on the parking lot of the restaurant ´Auszeit`, where we also got our morning coffee, I don't want to withhold it from you: Obergottesfeld 79, 9751 Sachsenburg, Austria.

After a short shopping trip we drove further south in the direction of Italy. Since it was not supposed to be sunny in Venice on this day, our next stop was the ´Lago di Garda`, the well-known and popular Lake Garda. After a visit to the beach including hair washing (of course only with natural products without microplastics & co.) in the lake with another gigantic rainbow in the harbor of Peschiera del Garda, we also found a free campsite not far away in Lazise. Unfortunately, we found out the next morning that camping in the car was allowed here, but not camping (i.e. with chairs, tables, etc. in front of it); nevertheless, I would like to give you the address because we were very satisfied apart fromt hat. It was very quiet, both at night and in the morning.

Before we finally headed for Venice, we stopped after breakfast in the ´Romeo and Juliet` city of Verona where we spent a few hours strolling through the city, eating ice cream (the price was quite reasonable) and marveling at the impressive architecture, such as the ´Arena di Verona`.

Before heading to our next campsite site near Venice to visit the city the next day, we stopped again for our dinner. Castelfranco Veneto was the name of the pretty little town where, without further ado, we prepared our dinner on the side of the road in our Off camper, ate and then took a nice digestive stroll through the town center, which was enclosed by a magnificent castle. How incredibly convenient it was to be self-sufficient at any time in any conceivable place in a foreign country.

Late at night we arrived at our absolute favorite campsite: Caorle, near Venice (Exact address: Strada Provinciale Portogruaro Brussa, 51,30021 Caorle VE, Venice, Italy). Before we wearily wandered into our fold-out rooftop bed, we had a drink under a starry sky that could hardly have been more magical. With wonderful conversations, we let another eventful day in Italy come to an end.

The next morning we first had a sumptuous breakfast and for the first time started the day quite comfortably without a spark of haste. Today we had no great distance to our destination ahead of us, because Verona was not far from our place.

But first we went to the natural beach ´Brussa` which is only a few metres away, where we really got to feel the so longed for warm sun rays this time. Especially Schnuffi was sweating a lot but got used to it after a while and romped around wildly and happily with her toy carrot, as usual.

So we spent a nice, relaxed day at the beach and really got into the camping pleasure. Closer to the evening when it started to get a bit cooler, we finally headed to Venice. We parked the Off camper outside the city, in the ´suburb` Mestre and made the last kilometres by train across the water (1.50€ per ride / person for 10 minutes travel time, highly recommended!) in the city of Venice and enjoyed the ambience until late at night.

Since our camping vacation was coming to an end and a long trip home was in store for us the next day, we took turns driving up to South Tyrol, Italy that night. More precisely, to Lago di Caldonazzo, where (it sounds creepier than it was) we spent our last night in the camper at what was probably the most interesting of all the campsites, a cemetery parking lot on a mountain top. The view of the landscape, especially the mountains the next morning was breathtaking. (Exact address: 38050 Calceranica al Lago, Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy). Travellers can also reward themselves with a morning swim in the turquoise-blue lake, which is illuminated by the sun and thus glistens quite magically.

Now we started our journey home - and were welcomed in Bavaria - of course! - also greeted with sunshine. I'm telling you: with our Off camper we really ALWAYS followed the sun, until the end, when we had to hand over our new friend again quite wistfully. We hope that this was not our last camping vacation with Off and that we can soon renew our friendship with our sweetheart!