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italy is a truly stunning travel destination, but how much can you discover of this enormous country on a budget of just 1.000 euros? we are The Budgeteers, we're friends who love doing fun and crazy travel challenges. our goal is to explore taste and experience as much of italy as possible, until our budget is all spent. so join us on this mad adventure series where in this episode we're traveling to the famous garda lake and hope to discover all its beauty! this adventure series is made possible thanks to these amazing travel brands: Ortlieb, Komoot and TropicFeel. we're on the platform. the last time we were here it was at night, now early morning. The start of the next adventure. should we get in here?
okay, so if you're wondering why we're carrying bicycles on a train? that's because in the previous episode we've started our travel challenge in Milan, where in just one day we bought the cheapest crappy bikes we could find. And had an amazing time exploring the city by bicycle. And got to meet some really fun locals. now we've got 858 euros left and heading by train to the garda lake. we don't know how to do it but we kind of found a really weird way and
hopefully that's good. i don't think it's the best way but it'll do. we barely got here in time we just had a few minutes to book our ticket on the machines here. I'm like we're glad we're on this train, that we're able to sit down. because we're this is now an hour and a half to just enjoy the videos the first views of the Italian countryside. and what else is there to see so we're i'm excited for that. but yeah, you're also excited for coffee i think? -i really wish i had coffee. yeah. yeah, we haven't had breakfast yet. it is that early! do they sell coffee on the train? no, it's not like india so no chipotle and I'm missing chai now.
We'll see you guys in Garda. let's go we should be there in an hour and a half. okay, we've now been an hour and a half on the train. we think our stop is coming up. this it took a lot of effort to get these bikes down. we're both so tired. -yeah. we almost fell asleep. that's why like we forced ourselves because we're both like half asleep it's just so comfy but yeah we're about to arrive.
they even have an elevator here! we made it! we did it, we're here in garda. well, this is the Desenzano, a really small town next to the lake of garda, which we're about to explore. i'm so excited but first we're gonna get breakfast. -thank you. Yes, a real italian breakfast and hopefully cheap because we're doing this on a budget. yeah let's see what we can find, we have no idea really. Now as luck would have it, there's a really telling cafe just across the train station with croissants and most importantly real italian coffee.
Perfect! you could tell this place is where all the locals get their daily coffee fix which is perfect for us because we are craving a good breakfast. life in italy. But now with breakfast sorted our plan was to use our bikes and discover all the beautiful sights around this lake, which are said to be stunning. But first things first, we still have to find a place to sleep or worst case camp and luckily an italian friend sent us an address. all right, so we've arrived at a friend of Thys's family's home. yeah, we know him from Bowen in Australia, where we actually started
The Budgeteers. yeah, where Paddy and i met doing farm work and he also worked on the farm. so his family's from here. -yeah and this is their home. -yeah and their hope is they're letting us crash here. let's do it. let's see if we actually arrived at the right address. All right, let's try i'm curious we've never met these people before. it's gonna be a little bit awkward maybe? But also hopefully nice to meet them and then it's also really nice that they welcome in total strangers that's always nice.
great news, nobody's answering the door. at this point we thought we lost our camp spot. but luckily we could still call Renato in Australia. So you're gonna guide me in? -what a lifesaver thankfully Renato, calling all the way from Australia, guided us through the gate, through the garden and showed us where we could camp. thanks again Renato for fixing us up with a beautiful garden. thank you yeah okay yeah, bye thank you. thanks man .we have a place to stay although it's starting to rain. should we put up our tent and then figure out what to do? the weather's not perfect but that might change, who knows? yeah, but surely enough more and
more raindrops started falling down when we were setting up our cool little tents. this cute garden is perfect for camping but we were not expecting this kind of weather here in italy, in september! but we hoped for the best and wanted to explore the town before the weather really turns bad. all right so we set up tent we met with the with Renato's siter Silvia. and we're gonna head to an Osteria, i think it's called? yeah, where they serve local food for a good price. it's a good recommendation of her. Always ask the locals where the cheap and good food is. -totally. Where did they go? all right, let's find this osteria.
Even on a rainy day the small town of Desenzano is beautiful and it wasn't long before we found an osteria where we could hide out from the rain and enjoy italy's delicious food. we're splurging ourselves with a nice italian pappardalle. we've come to italy to spend some money guys. so and we're going to spend it on really good cuisine here at the la fresca in Desenzano. this place was recommended to us and it lives up to the hype. two pastas, two glasses of wine and of course we had to try a real italian tiramisu for dessert.
i've had a lot of tiramisu too that's really good. i'm so glad you made us spend money. But all together it cost us 35 euros, which is a fair price because it was so good. but on a Budgeteers challenge this is a very expensive lunch compared to our previous series. That money would last us for days in places like Guatemala Indonesia or Sri Lanka so we realized Italy was gonna be a really tough budget challenge. the prices are a bit like touristy here and i made a little mistake there of spending more. but yeah, unfortunately we can't just keep eating out like tourists every day or our budget
would be gone in a few days in a place like this. luckily the views around town are truly charming. a historic town center a marina next to a beautiful and enormous lake and stunning mountain views in the distance.but unfortunately also a lot of wind. imagine this with clear skies! an even better way to see the lake is to take a ferry across it, which we were still hoping to do today. the lake even goes all the way into the Italian alps. but as we kept up to date with the time schedules online,
sadly all the ferries remained cancelled for the entire day due to bad weather. since the Garda lake is so close to the mountains the weather can change in an instant, which it did. it's not really been great weather here in Garda, as you can tell. so we're taking cover in this garage of Renato and we've been being drenched on the way back. i just want to point out that i don't have a rain jacket and we're camping tonight, and this is the situation. this is one of those less glamorous nights. yes, always glamour we're always keeping it glamour;) we're hiding out in this little garden shed and waiting for the rain to stop.
but it looks like the next few days is not gonna be great weather-so that's good. so we might have to change the few plans we do have to hopefully chase some sunshine. -yeah so we'll figure it out but right now we'll just sit. we'll just sit in the garden shed. we'll be here. like some funny places you end up staying in: like a garden shed. yeah, why not we've done worse: mexico. yeah but luckily after an hour or two sheltering in the garden shed Sylvia got back from work and we were allowed inside their family apartment which had an amazing view. it's still raining as you can tell. our tents are down there in the garden, i'm now up here at the Renato's parents apartment.
lovely view here and there's even a rainbow. Look at that. it's a double rainbow! yeah it's a full double. i know! double rainbows, double tens. we're gonna sleep there, it's gonna be an interesting night. hopefully dry. this night was actually going to be the perfect opportunity to properly test out the camping gear NatureHike kindly gave us to try out this trip. test it out, right. That's what dreams are made of! i'm actually looking forward to sleeping in these tents. camping again. i didn't get a pillow but the mat seems really nice. -yeah
and we've got a sleeping bag and a sleeping bag liner as well. -look at this little setup. we're gonna sleep like a baby. with our tents set up to withstand a potential storm, we were in a rush to explore the town in search for some cheap food before it got dark! and nothing lifts up our spirits more in these cold wet and miserable times than delicious food. oh look at these! these are our paninis: cheap, good, well it says on the internet. we'll see but i'm excited they look really good. we need to eat something because it's actually really cold. the wind here is freezing. -yeah it's super cold.
we're wearing all the clothes we have. -literally. that's the kind of night this is. sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you are not. But there's always good food here in italy so something to like look forward to. bon appetit. how is it? -freaking amazing. i might order another one. i know it's not good for the budget but it's so good. yeah, it's really good. we rode for five kilometers to get here and uh it's worth it. he's so dramatic, we drove for 2.4 kilometers. too long! it's weird because usually i'm the hungry one but today Thys's like: please let's get a second sandwich. and i was like: Thys, the budget! he's like: but i'm hungry! i mean i was worried about the budget but also we don't have the bathroom tonight.
Silvia and her parents are also gone so there's nobody home. and the door's locked so we have no toilet. that's why i didn't want to eat a second sandwich. but here we are, living on the edge! Eating a sandwich is like living on the edge xD oh man. So that was our first day in garda: cold, wet and expensive. with all our plans gone down the drain. and a potential rainstorm and no toilet for the night. but the garda region is a truly beautiful place and it's because of these strange situations that we love traveling. and the only thing we can do is hope for some clear skies tomorrow.
good morning guys. all right. so i look like hell. anyone who wakes up looking beautiful it's a lie. it's not true. nobody wakes up looking beautiful. but i think i hear a Thys over there. Thys wake up! so i'm gonna go wake up Thys. we have to go book our train tickets for tonight and we need to start our day because we have a lot to do today. we can see the clear blue sky ,that's a good sign for today. that is a really good sign for today. that's what i wanted to see. isn't it ironic that this is the best sleep we've gotten so far? yeah i think we slept twice as long as we did on like previous nights,
which indicates how little we slept in the past nights. this was great, slept like a baby. great, we gotta start our day. this is what i have to work with. this is what i have to deal with! today we were lucky with the surprisingly sunny day. so we quickly got our train tickets and had
breakfast, where we prepared ourselves for a big day out riding our bicycles around the lake. but at the last minute Thys received an invitation from an old friend that we knew we couldn't pass up on. okay we've now made it here to a place of another italian friend i know, Chef. there he is it might have been six years since i saw him. and Paddy - he knows Paddy as well. i actually didn't know he lives here I only find out like yesterday. oh look at this
yeah i'm just thinking six years. as you can tell these two go way back so when Chef heard that we were in the area, he insisted that he cook for us. and we're not ones to refuse such kind Italian hospitality, as it is exactly why we came to italy. to experience the real italy! and what beats having a real italian like Chef cook you a pasta. a carbonara which he makes in his very own special way. special sauce- it's a secret. so carbonara recipes you will find over twenty thousand recipes. so
everyone has their own. yeah -yeah it makes the pasta a bit creamier. just eggs and cheese. This is a kind of cream and after when the water is the pasta is ready you just put like a little bit of the water inside here mix the cream. it makes the pasta creamy without any actual cream. you know in italy always oh i can do the pasta better it's this way in this way. F$*7k off- just eat pasta. is just a never-ending discussion. why discuss about food when you just need to eat and enjoy this. exactly, so we were really gonna enjoy this meal. thanks for cooking for us!
after devouring that delicious carbonara and catching up on memories Chef needed to go back to work. so it was time for us to hit the road again. okay now that we're fed we're full of energy of that really delicious carbonara. we are gonna cycle around the garda lake, all the way to Sirmione. and because one of our sponsors for this series is Komoot we're gonna use their app to get around. they're actually a really cool cycling app, which lets you make your own and plan your own cycling routes. we'll get going with this and we'll see you in Sirmione.
finally we get to take out our bikes for a real bike ride from Desenzano around the lake towards that little peninsula in the distance. where there's an old historic town called Sirmione. this town is one of the most beautiful and famous tourist spots of the garda region above its cliff there's even ancient roman ruins so we had to check it out with our bikes and we were looking forward to this. because riding a bicycle really is the best way of seeing the sights. and discovering new things every turn you make and we were just loving it. but we do still need to adjust to our bikes and also stay away
from crazy italian drivers who don't seem to mind cyclists. Let's cycle here later on the path became a lot easier and more beautiful with nice spots to view across the lake this really is why we wanted to cycle italy since we are free to explore wherever and whenever we want it's especially fun with commute by our side because even as inexperienced bikers we can change up our route whenever we feel like an hour beside the lake a little bit more off-road from gravel roads to suburban alleyways you can choose your style and just enjoy without any worries
a lot of other cyclists as well and a lot of other cyclists cycling garden seems to be a thing. and before we knew it we were on the last stretch towards Sirmione, when Lina's bike started acting up. okay so lena's cycling now but she's got a problem with your gears like they aren't changing properly and uh snapping you're gonna have to get it looked at in venice but it's not good that doesn't sound good but we arrived without further issues hey we made it to cinema and we've heard it's a very beautiful town and we're not allowed to take the bikes in so we're going to go see if we can drop them off at the ferry station yeah it's very beautiful
yeah it's right beside the lake at two points the lake looks beautiful from here yeah very touristy though so we'll have to be careful with the budget um let's see let's go check it out to enter the historic city of cermione there is only one entrance through an old medieval gate but once inside you're greeted by a really impressive castle which dates back almost 800 years all the narrow streets are just crowded with tourists from italy and all over the world but only locals are allowed in with vehicles and yes they will run you over but this town really is textbook picturesque
especially with all these beautiful and colorful flowers on a city's old brick walls and since we're in such an idyllic town we couldn't resist doing the most touristy thing here which is tasting the unique italian ice cream called gelato you know what they say like one in italy oh no when you know when i went in gelato look at the selection first gelato in italy how's it taste that's real nothing is it good and pistachio ooh creamy green pistachio yeah really good it's big like how much did it get it's huge i took the smallest one it's four
euros but it's huge we took the smallest size i got chocolate and passion fruits the last week i've been telling thais that we haven't eaten gelato in italy yet he's like yeah we'll eat we'll we arrived here and i was like ty's if we do anything here we have to eat gelato so we both got gelato it's four euros but for four euros you get quite a lot see i'm happy with my gelato afterwards we wanted to check out a secret beach which until recently was only known by the locals who called it jamaica beach for a very specific reason chef suggested this week
because this was known to the locals as the place where everyone came to smoke in chile and now it has become a fight touristy but it still remains the name jamaica beach let's check it out as you can tell this place is clearly not a secret anymore there's people everywhere and it's not a real beach either it's all massive rock but that's really not a problem because honestly this is one of the most beautiful chill spots i've ever been to look you're in the middle of a giant lake overlooking the italian alps all around you whilst you're chilling underneath a sunny italian sky it's just perfect this place is truly unique and it did make us wish we could stay longer
for a couple of days just to soak in all this beauty but since tomorrow the weather might turn bad again we made the difficult choice and decided to press on and leave tonight so as it got darker we needed to make our way back and catch the last ferry so that's about it our time here in ghana has run out but it's been really beautiful we've seen some touristy sites we managed to like not spend almost any money here in uh pretty good here in garda we wish we had more time here but we want to see a lot of italy we want to make it all the way south here so stay tuned for like more episodes and next up is the
probably the most touristy place in italy i think today was like a snapshot for what's about to come yeah um our next destination where we're going to in a second when we get off this boat is venice and uh we're going to try and budget your venice and we still have to find accommodation so it's going to be tricky we have a train to catch we need to get off this boat and go catch that train we're gonna rush we're gonna go right now we gotta go our train leaves in 40 minutes and the boat does like 20 minutes about it so gotta hurry we're ready to pulse let's go basically jump off yeah it's not that far i can make it with your long legs for sure
no but we're so late we're like if we catch the train it's gonna be barely so we need every second we need to be the first ones off this we don't have our backs yet go let's go ah let's go lina arena spinning class or what it sure feels like the last song like one last push one like squish you only have two minutes left come on almost
we're here cool line yes we made it that was so stressful i'm tired it's good we're good let's get on this train and then we can just like chill for an hour and a half yeah we still have to find accommodation but we'll see let's get on this train yeah bike racks up there yeah it's leaving it is this train right what
i was joking i was literally joking what where is he going did we just miss our train i'm sick i'm so confused wait a minute so it seems like we missed our train in an insanely stupid way but to see where we might end up tonight, continue to watch the next episode in Venice. and don't forget to like this video, thanks!
