Montevecchia di Brianza (LC)

Situated on a hill top in Brianza, Montevecchia is a historical town in the rural area between Milano and Lecco. The town center is a few homes, resturants and bars as well as a church with a nice garden. Many paths take you around the local countryside from vineyards to wooded areas. Nearby, the park Valle del Curone is a wonderful WWF nature reserve with lots of trails, traditional agriculture and small farms. Montevecchia and the park make a great day trip away from Milano or Lecco, or you can stay overnight in one of the bed & breakfasts. 

Camping Magic Lake - Lake of Como

The Como lake area is one of our favorite places for day trips. I decided to take my scooter for a full circuit, since we usually just go to the Lecco side or Triangolo Lariano, and I'd never really been on the Como side. I also wanted to take a bit longer of a break, so I decided to stop in Dongo on the north end of the lake for a night of camping at Camping Magic Lake.
Camping Magic Lake is a smaller site right on the lake. Being off-season, I had no trouble finding a pitch, but they recommend a 2-3 week heads up during peak season, June-August. Even being the end of September, there were plenty of people.
The campground is fairly small, well organized and clean. There is a nice little bar on site, and it's only a couple minutes walk to the nearest grocery store. The pitches are kind of small, but level and well organized and maintained. The staff are friendly and speak English. Stepping through the back gate, you get a wonderful view of the Lecco/Bergamo mountains.
Overall, I really liked this place, and hope to do some weekend camping there with my daughter next year.

Camping Magic Lake: https://goo.gl/maps/14zWYGbxmM32

Alcohol stove review

In my recent quest for a new camp stove, I came across this cool little Andoer alcohol stove that runs on alcohol for about €15 from Amazon. There were a number of other brands with similar features for about the same price.
Running on methyl alcohol from the hardware or grocery store, this stove is great for simple cooking on the road. This one came with a simmering ring and a cap that you use to turn off the stove and store the alcohol for your next meal, and it has a pot support, too (though I had to use a piece of steel screen to keep my cup off the burner).
Since I was mainly using my wood-jet stove this time out, the alcohol stove got morning coffee duty (who wants to search for wood and get a fire started before coffee?), for which it was more than up to the job. A cup of water boiled quickly, and I had my first cup of cowboy coffee less than 5 minutes after firing it up! I let the stove filled with 99% alcohol burn, and the flame lasted over 30 minutes. The strength/heat of the flame depends on what you're burning, and it seems to be less hot than a gas stove, so I wouldn't plan on complicated meals, but for ramen noodles, coffee, simple pastas, it should be fine. As well, it is easier to find 90% alcohol (also much cheaper), but burn and cooking times will be different.
This is a great ultralight and cheap stove (you can even make one out of soda cans), and I think it'll serve me well as a backup stove or second burner in combination with my wood-jet stove. It even fits inside my collapsed wood-jet stove, so it doesn't take up any extra space.

Wood jet camping stove review

Looking for a replacement for my old Dragonfly ultralight gas stove, I thought hard about how a single worn gasket could require the replacement of a $125 burner and pump due to product obsoletion. I've got canister stoves, but have sometimes had difficulty finding the expensive canisters, and it's not easy to guage how much cooking time is left. This led me to two types of biofuel stoves: wood and alcohol. I now have both, but this review is of the wood-jet stove.

I bought the Anself Wood-Jet stove from Amazon for a whopping €23, and it's available under many different brand names at slightly different prices, or name brand for about €100. It is made out of good quality steel, and comes with a handy bag to keep everything else clean in your pack.

The stove is quite a bit heavier than my Dragonfly, though similar to the Dragonfly with 1/2 liter of white gas. With this stove, you don't need to carry fuel, though, it burns twigs and pine cones  you find lying around. 

Cooking with the wood-jet stove is not like cooking with gas, it's more like cooking on a campfire, meaning wood type and how you feed the fire makes a big difference. With a small handfull of twigs, I was able to boil 3/4 liter of water in about 8 minutes. The wood pile in the photo lasted me about 3 hours, I made pasta and coffee, then just burned what was left. 

Overall, I like this stove. It's going to take me some time to learn how to use it well, but it can go for a quick boil or a 2 hour simmer with no fuel costs- try making dry beans into soup with a canister stove! It does turn pots black and does need cleaning a bit, but for me that's an easy trade for wood fire cooked dinners.

Highlander Blackthorn 1 tent review

I got this tent to put together a light, compact camping setup for weekend getaways by scooter or bicycle. I ended up buying it from Amazon for around €50, and it seems to be sold under a few different brands.

This tent is, basically, a sleeping bag cover. The arched poles give you some space between your face and the roof, but there is no room to sit up.  I can wriggle around inside to change, though it's not easy. For me, this is not a problem. I want a tent to cover me when I sleep, and I want to be outside for everything but sleeping.

Setting up the tent is easy, the inner is pitched first, then the roof. You could even leave just the inner mesh by itself for bug-free sleeping in the moonlight. The tent is forest green, so combined with the low profile, it is perfect for stealth camping. There is an orange line around the base of the tent so you don't trip over it, and the interior zippers are flourescent, making midnight bladder calls a bit easier.

The ventilation was fine for late September, and should be OK in the summer. I didn't have any rain, but the waterproofing looks ok, though I wouldn't look forward to spending a day in it hiding from the rain.

I was very happy with this tent on this trip. It is very compact and easy to carry, weighing in at 1.5kg complete in it's bag. There is just enough room for my sleeping pad, sleeping bag, me and my smart phone. The only worry I have is the fiberglass poles which don't inspire confidence, but there are replacements available.

Update 2017:

 I've used this tent a few times now and I'm still quite happy with it. It's my go-to tent for scooter camping, it fits under the saddle and covers me at night. I've hit some heavy rain with no problems, it stays quite dry inside. 

I have broken a pole by the foot end. I bought enough 6mm pole sections to replace everything, and if I have more problems I'll swap it all out for aluminum poles as I think the rest of the tent is well worth it.