European Van Tour 2026 / Italy Highlights

We had planned to stop for a few days in the Dolomites but unfortunately as we were arriving in the area the weather was poor with lots of rain forecast so we reluctantly decided to skip the mountains and follow the weather further south to bag a few sunny Italian cities.

We passed though Bolzano and made our next overnight stop, on Richard's recommendation, at Mantua. There, we visited Palazzo Ducali and were both underwhelmed. The next morning we visited Palazzo Te and were overwhelmed - it was superb.

Next was Modena, via the train station at Reggio Emilia (another Richard suggestion) and the fantatastic Ferarri museum. Then we took a local train into Bologna having stayed the night at a wonderfully quirky farm site a few miles from the city. We wandered the city and visited the Carlo Scarpa building that Richard had told us about.

From there it was to the outskirts of Florence and another tiny little farm site, with ostriches and other animals running around and providing entertainment in front of the van. Another train took us into Florence and it was majestic as expected, the highlight being the view of the city from high up on Giardino Bardini.

For the last destination in Italy we drove west towards the coast and stayed on a great wee campsite with a welcome little swimming pool, positioned perfectly between Lucca and Pisa. We spend two nights on the site here visiting the two little cities and enjoying both.

The final Italian leg towards Provence in France meant hugging the Mediterranean coast on the motorway though more than 100 tunnels on this amazing piece of civil engineering. This fairly long journey was broken at Ceriale for the final night in Italy - and another lovely swimming pool.