France/Italy roadtrip – Ferrara | alison richards

I left my previous stop, San Marino, about 10am. I'd pulled into the service station to get fuel before leaving the republic, as it was considerably cheaper. A lot of petrol stations I visited had attendants who would fill your tanks for you. The one I had in San Marino took one look at my GB plates and right-hand drive car and proceeded to talk to me about soccer... which I know absolutely nothing about! It was nice of him to try though!

I left San Marino and drove about 2 hours away to a city called Ferrara. I can't really remember why this was on my map, but in hindsight I wish I'd gone to Bologna and spent some time there as well, as it was on the way. Nevermind, I got to Ferrara and the first thing I did was go to a bakery and get a zucchini foccacia because I was absolutely starving! Then I set about wandering around.

Ferrara is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and contains numerous palaces that were built in Renaissance times. Unlike a lot of old cities, Ferrara had really wide roads and didn't feel closed in, probably because it was designed in the Renaissance too, where wide streets were functional both to carry larger volumes of traffic and to allow for grand parades through the city for religious and aristocratic purposes.

The amazing Palazzo dei Diamanti. Built between 1493 and 1503, it was utterly gorgeous.

The outside of the palazzo was covered in so-called “bugnato”, marble blocks that were cut into diamond shapes. I’ve never seen anything like it!

The doorway to another palazzo. They were everywhere!

I wandered into the botanical gardens for a bit.

This is the Este castle, featuring four bastions and a moat. It was right in the centre of town, acting like a roundabout.

The more residential side of Ferrara, as not everyone can live in a palazzo!

I wandered around Ferrara for about 1.5 hours, before stopping into a supermarket for supplies and heading to the campervan. The next stop was Mantua/Mantova (in Italy), about 1.5 hours away. It was getting late and I'd driven quite a lot today. I also struggled as I got near Mantova, as there were very few campsites nearby and I was starting to panic. Eventually I found one and pulled up, but was told that there wasn't room.... in the end the lady put me in an overflow area that wasn't very nice but it was somewhere to stay for the night. It wasn't a very restful night, however, between the flies and the mosquitos that were in the camper. Eventually I woke up at 3am, killed all the bugs then shut up the windows and had a very hot few hours of sleep.

Campsite: Agriturismo Corte Chiara Di Bergamini Cinzia

Rating: 3/10. The only positives were the bathroom/toilet arrangements which I liked because the rooms were large and so my clothes didn't get wet. The other positive is that I was allowed in for the night. But the campsite was too full for the facilities, the nearby farm animals brought swarms of flies and mozzies, my parking location was ugly, with nothing but rusted farm equipment to look at, and it wasn't cheap enough to overlook these things. Would not return.