After our time in Cinque Terre we headed up to San Remo for 3 days in the sun before heading back to a somewhat cooler UK after failing to win at the casino!

Now back in the UK for some family events, planning our next adventures pre and post Xmas, and to spend a week up in Scotland with friends mountain biking and walking.

We covered some 5300 miles during our Italy trip, averaged 37 mpg, stayed in a variety of campsites (12 Euros – 37 Euros), consumed …. litres of red wine, and by the end became accomplished Italian drivers!

We didn’t track our movements with any GPS software but did produce a sketch to give an idea of our travels.

Once we have decided what we are doing next we will post our plans, but in the short term we are going to enjoy some home comforts, hot water, dishwasher, bed …..

I can’t believe that we are in our 8^thand final week of our Italy trip – it has gone so quickly, and the more people we meet and talk to the more places we add on to our ‘must see’ list.  A recommendation from a couple of people has led us to the Cinque Terre area of NW Italy – somewhere that I don’t recall hearing of before but is absolutely brilliant. We are staying in Levanto which is one town up from the 5 villages of the Cinque Terre, and the campsite is just a couple of hundred metres from the sea and the town.

Sunset at Levanto

When we arrived on Sunday  it was sunny and warm and the town was buzzing with weekend visitors. After a night of heavy rain and thunderstorms there were less people but still lots going on, especially as this is an area popular for surfers, mountain bikers and most of all walkers (Janet and Colin you need to come on a trip here!). We think that this accounts for the excessive number of VW camper vans all in one place, and it’s very multinational – from here I can see Dutch, Danish, Swiss, Italian and German vans (and one other Brit!). Had a great conversation yesterday with an older Italian couple in a VW T4 next to us. After some clumsy attempts in English and Italian (neither very successful) we discovered that he and I could both speak reasonable French.  He was very excited when we showed him the map Paul has done of our trip around Italy (to be posted soon) and went to get his wife so he could show her and we then went on to have a whole conversation about where they lived, where they’d been in their van (many of the places we have visited in France),and their trip to England (on a coach, via Paris, stayed at the Ibis hotel in Chelsea). He was very charming and said that in their younger days they went on long trips too, but now they and their van are too old and stay closer to home.

Today (Tuesday) Paul and I have been exploring and walking, The Cinque Terre are five villages (Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore) set along some dramatic coastline and each perched on the edge of a cliff.

Riomaggiore

There are no cars allowed in the villages and so they are both super to look at and nice to wander around. We went on the train from Levanto where we are staying along to the furthest village Riomaggiore, a trip which took about 25 minutes, and then got off there to have a look around, then got back on the train and worked our way back along the coast. Between Manarola and Cornilgia we decided to hike the footpath, which took you 330 metres up, then along a ridge and back down again, taking about 2 hours in total. There are absolutely loads of footpaths in this area, all well marked, but several of them are closed following a major flash flood and landslide which happened almost a year ago. In true Italian style the park authority haven’t barricaded all of the closed paths but simply tell you that some are closed and it’s up to you to make sure you know which ones and thus don’t put yourself and others in danger. Luckily we’d found a helpful lady at the Tourist info office and she’d given us some advice.

Approaching Corneglia from the trail

The trails we followed were in a variable state of repair- lots of subsidence at the edge of a steep drop and some strategically placed vine wires to avoid,  but the views were well worth it and this is an area we will definitely come back to in the future (bringing our mountain bikes as well next time).

We are now well on our way back up through Italy and the last week has been a succession of essentially mini city breaks in Orvieto, Siena, Firenze and Pisa.

Orvieto is an unusual hilltop town which is distinguished by an underground town – some 1200 caves beneath the surface. We arrived mid afternoon and caught the short funicular railway up to the town.

Orvieto

After strolling around for a while and visiting the underground we decided it was time for a drink and went to the first place we found. It looked a bit up market and we were expecting a significant bill especially when tapas seemed to come in a never ending stream! However when we got the bill it only came to 6 euros and we had eaten so much tapas that we didn’t need anything else to eat that evening. There was no campsite in Orvieto however there was a good sosta although it was between two railway lines one of which was the main highs speed line to Rome, so ideal if you were a train spotter, less great for a peaceful night’s sleep.

Siena

We liked Siena and had a good afternoon wandering around, however saw more that we’d planned when although we caught the right number bus we caught it in the wrong direction  and it took us a while to realise that we were heading away from the campsite not towards it.

Florence was next and we stayed there for 2 nights at a campsite about 500 metres from the town and right next to the Piazza Michelangelo.

Florence

It was very busy and although we thought Florence was very pretty we found that we’d probably had our fill of big cities for now and were quite keen to leave for somewhere more peaceful.

Onwards to Pisa, and again a really well-placed campsite within easy walking distance of the infamous tower. The campsite was lovely and peaceful, and we spent an afternoon wandering around Pisa.

Pisa

The area where the tower is situated was of course filled with coach parties, all having their photos taken in a pose where it looks as though you are holding the tower up, but as soon as you walked a few metres they all disappeared and it was a normal Italian town, complete with an extensive antiques and crafts market. There is also a historic centre with alleyways and squares and through all this runs a wide river.

Pisa

On the side of a church is some graffiti done by the American artist Haring in 1989 and now preserved. Although we hadn’t recognised his name we did recognise his work when we saw it.

Haring’s  graffiti

Next stop is the Cinque Terre area on the north west coast where we are going to spend a few days walking and chilling out before our trip back home – can’t believe we have been away for 7 weeks and only 1 more left……. Luckily the good weather continues  and it remains at about 24 degrees on average, so still in shorts and t-shirts.

In the end we decided to stay in Sorrento an additional night and catch the train from Sorrento to Pompei (1/2 hr, 2.1 euro each way). The ruins are impressive and the area large. What struck me most was how fundamentally not a lot has changed in 2000 odd years e.g. flats still rented, bread still made etc.

and there’s more … (Pompei)

Guess we have just got a bit more efficient at it. After about 2 hours we were ruined out and it was interesting as we left to notice the enthusiasm of those entering the site versus the ruined out look of those leaving.

The following day we headed for Rome. The campsite we are staying at is just inside the ring road and about 3km from the Vatican City.

On your marks …

The drive was relatively straight forward and the driving standards in Rome are the best we have encountered in Italy or maybe we are just getting used to the driving (we will certainly need to get the horn serviced when we return home!).

One thing we have missed since being away is an Indian so we figured in a city like Rome we should be able to find something. A quick internet search revealed the Monti area as the most likely location. This proved to be correct with 3 Indian restaurants in close proximity plus a few lively bars. We went for a drink first in the lively La Licita bar that also severed “free” tapas with your 5 Euro beer. We spent a bit of time pondering how to order drinks to maximise the free tapas (two drinks together or individually? Research needs to continue!). We then selected “Mother India” as our restaurant of choice and enjoyed a good curry, complete with rather dubious (risqué) paintings on the wall.

Modern art museum

As you would expect we have done all the standard sites e.g. Coliseum, Forum, Trevi fountain etc, etc. We purchased a Roma Pass (30 Euro each) which gives free entry to  2 sites plus unlimited use of buses, trams and metro for 3 days and fast track entry to sites. Generally the transport system operates well although we did get caught out when we went to the Planetarium which is right at the end of one of the metro lines. We sensed there was a problem as we made our way to the Planetarium with some delays on the metro, however when we came to make our way back the station and part of the line was closed so with our fluent(!) Italian we had to negotiate the replacement bus service. Being a Sunday the transport system operates a reduced service so we were keen to use the camp site shuttle bus as the quickest way back from the centre of town (once we got there!).  We made the last shuttle with seconds to spare along with everyone else and the driver with great gusto and pleasure enjoyed the task of squeezing the 50 plus people on to the mini bus licensed to carry 24 passengers. Sharon ended up perched on the dashboard and me in the footwell of the automatic door.

Communication breakdown

Our final day in Rome we spent just roaming around (no pun intended), and made a point of seeking out Circo Massimo and were rather disappointed to find it resembled a poorly maintained public car park. In the evening we headed across to the Travestere district which is more residential with lots of bars and restaurants and had a really relaxed feel about it, much more chilled than the hustle and bustle of the more touristy areas.

Roma … the height of fashion

Sharon also succumbed to one of her passions and her handbag cupboard at home will now have slightly less space!

One of the pleasing things we have discovered about Italy is the availability of gluten free food in the supermarkets and restaurants, I guess with a diet that is so wheat based there is a need to cater for coeliacs. Whilst this doesn’t directly effect me it makes life far easier for Sharon and yesterday Sharon had her first ever pizza in a restaurant!

We have now reached 150 nights staying in our camper van since we got it which works out nearly 20% of the time!

In the end we stayed at the beach campsite near Nicotera for 3 nights, this gave us time to catch up on our washing plus plan the next couple of weeks particularly in relation to campsites and sostas as now that we have reached the end of September many close.

Always good to find campsite with beach

Plus it was good to spend few days not doing very much (short bike ride along coast 20km or so, swimming in sea and pool, and generally kicking back).

The next part of our trip is focused around the Amalfi Coast, Naples, Pompei and Vesuvius however it was a fair distance north so we decided to go via Maratea and hope to find a campsite or some wild camping. It was only after we made this plan that we read that the coast road to Maratea was similar to the famed Amalfi Coast road only narrower! It was narrow but no worse than some of the mountain roads we had already travelled on and as it was Sunday late morning to early afternoon (everybody out having Sunday lunch) it was fairly quiet so not a problem.

As it turned out all the (2) campsites in Materea were closed – slightly annoying as we had passed loads 20km or so back down the road which we had taken a a good omen! Anyway we had a quick look at the map and identified Marina di Camerota  as a likely looking town further up the road and our sat nav also confirmed campsites in the area –however  we take this information with a large pinch of salt. As it turns out it was a sizable seaside town with a surf beach and 3 open campsites so ideal as a point to break our journey.

The following day we head for Sorrento – we take the motorway, only a short toll section 2 euros. The last part of the journey involved a short section of the coast road. We had already made the decision not to drive the road from Sorrento to Amalfi and back but instead catch a bus, and our impression from what we have seen so far is that the road itself is fine and in fact easier than some of the mountain roads we have been on however it is the sheer volume of traffic, including lots of buses, and the desire for everybody to get past everybody else which is the problem.

Sorrento Marina

We ended up in a campsite 1 km from Sorrento town centre and planned to travel the coast road by bus in the morning only to be thwarted by a 1 day train and bus strike. Plan B – ferry into Naples.

Napoli

Once again set the alarm, only the second time on this trip, so that we had plenty of time to catch the ferry. The weather looks a bit dodgy and we debate need for umbrellas, decided not to bother (mistake!). Walk down to marina (20 mins) where it immediately starts to rain hard, luckily for only 10 minutes or so. Guy selling umbrellas! When rain stops and sun comes out he instantly switched to bottles of cold water, he seems to have a product for all conditions.

The ferry costs 24 euros each return. Advertised as 35 minutes  but in reality nearly 1 hour. From where we are sitting we can see the captain through the open bridge door and in keeping with standard Italian driving protocols he appears to spend most of his time on his mobile phone. I am sure that if the window had been closer he would have had his arm out of that as well.

Napoli side street

The ferry port at Napoli is fairly close to the town centre and we spent 4 hours or so just wandering the streets during which time it grew on us. I think after our chilled time on the beach the hustle and bustle of a major city came as a paradigm shift. Food discovery of the day – chopped egg and ham baked inside of a sort of bread roll. Not sure if this is a Neapolitan dish but it was tasty all the same and I will seek it out again.

The Amalfi Coast Road

The one piece of advice that we had received from a variety of sources prior to departing on our trip was do not drive along the Amalfi Coast road. We are not ones to be easily put off however the advice came from such a wide variety of people we decided to heed it, plus we both wanted to look at the views and we figured parking in Amalfi would be both a nightmare and expensive.

We therefore caught the local bus (7.2 Euros for 24 hour bus pass). We had heard that the bus could be rammed however we appeared to be lucky as we managed to get a seat both ways and on the coast side for the return journey.

We are pleased we decided to take the bus. Whilst the road itself was no worse than anything else we have driven on and indeed the drops better protected, the volume of traffic combined with parked cars would have made the journey tortuous in the van if not exciting. The stretch between Positana and Amalfi appeared to be the worst.

When we returned to Sorrento we went out to lunch as today is Sharon’s birthday and we are now lazing by the van. Tomorrow we plan to head off to Pompei and stay there for a night or two. It looks to be about an hour up the road, in fact we can see Vesuvius from our current pitch across the bay of Napoli.

We were pleased that we were able to make time to get across to Sicily as we particularly wanted the opportunity to visit Mt Etna. In all we spent4 nights on the Island. We had been advised that the driving on Sicily could be more exciting than the mainland!

Why overtake on the straight when you can do so on a blind bend?

However although busy we didn’t notice any significant difference, maybe we are now becoming more atuned!.

In addition to Etna we had picked up on a couple of things in the Lonely Planet guide which we wanted to do.

So on the Monday (27^th) we headed to Taormina which is a popular hillside town on Sicily’s West Coast. We had driven through on the lower coast road on the Sunday and it was chaos with cars parked all over the place but we put this down to it being a Sunday. We did consider riding our bikes in from the campsite however the combination of a 30 km round trip, a sizeable hill, a couple of busy roads and the 35 degree heat persuaded us to drive. Well Monday was as busy as Sunday, all the relatively cheap parking had 1.9 m height restrictions (the minimum we can live with is 2 m and even that can cause some anxious moments). In the end we ended up in the bus and mini bus parking and got stung 30 Euros for 5 hours. The town itself is well marked on the tourist trial and whilst very quaint was rammed –my abiding memory – 30 euros for parking!!!

On the Tuesday we had decided to head for Mount Etna we decided to head off early to maximise our time so set the alarm for the first time in 6 weeks! When we set off we weren’t sure whether to go it alone or go with a guide, when we got there it became clear that to get the maximum out of it a guide would be best and we used some money a friend had kindly given us “to do something special” while we were away for a 5 hour guided tour.

Mt Etna

The tour itself was excellent. We got the cable car from 1910 m to 2500 m and then a 4 X 4 to 2800 m and from here we climbed a further 200m over volcanic ash and lava. The tour was organised by Gruppo Guide Alpine who are the official guides for Etna and as such were allowed in areas that are normally restricted.

Running down that hill!

Unusually in my experience of climbing hills the coming down was more fun than going up, we walked, ran and slid the whole way down over the ash covered slopes by the end we where filthy covered in volcanic dust and with boots filled with volcanic stones.

Smuggling Etna out of Sicily

Apart from the fun of the trip the thing that struck me most was the sheer size of the mountain area and the absolute barrenness of it.

On the Wednesday we decided to head down to Catania which is the main town / city in the shadow of Etna.

Mobile fruit & veg

Fish market in Catania

We both felt that Catania was a real town. Although it does have some tourists sites the things we had come to see were the fish and food markets and we were glad we made the trip although driving in the city centre with our sat nav up to its usual tricks, e.g. trying to take us down streets full of market stalls, and the sheer volume of traffic was fun to say the least.

After visiting Catania our plan was to cut across the island to the north coast to stay at a campsite on the beach that a German couple had recommended to us, however we arrived in the  midst of a forest fire! As we got close to the area we could see clouds of smoke and closer still you could see olive trees burning. On the road to the site there were a number of fire trucks, plus locals standing around talking anxiously into mobile phones and hosing down the fronts of their gardens and properties presumably in an attempt to prevent the fire taking hold should it get that far. I was all for staying in the campsite on the basis that it was close to the sea and the smoke would keep the mosquitoes away! However I bowed to Sharon’s better judgement and as we drove further up the road and we could see water bombing planes going backwards and forwards I conceded that maybe Sharon was right.

Plans had to change!

This did present us with a bit of a problem though as we couldn’t find any campsites further up the coast. In the end we spotted someone in a camper van wild camping in a marina on the coast below the road which we were on so we headed on down to find not one but 4 camper vans dotted around a large unpaved area of waste ground. So we pulled up alongside the marina so that we had a good view and spent the night there. Not quite peaceful – dog in distance barking all night,  local driver doing doughnuts on waste ground at midnight and cockerels crowing in the children’s farm which we discovered the next morning was just next to us on the beach.

Wild camping with a view

We are now back on the mainland on a beachside campsite for a couple of days while we plan our route north up the west coast of Italy (and do some washing!).

Sila NationalPark

Awoke this morning (Friday 21^stSeptember) to the sound of loud cowbells from across the lake. We are staying next to Lago Arvo in the Sila National Park which is amazingly beautiful and very quiet (apart from the cowbells!). We are now struggling to find campsites that are still open and this one although open is deserted – we are the only people staying here which we guessed when we checked in and were given a pass to display in our van – pass number 1A !

The only campers with the exception of our new best friend

Still, that means the pick of all the pitches and yet again we have a lovely view out over the lake. We have had quite an active day today with a bike ride around the lake that was about 30km long and surprisingly hilly, as the road follows the hills rather than the lake shore, and then later this afternoon a walk.  We also discovered that the horses and goats also wear bells, hence the volume of noise.

Even the cows get to go on the beach in Italy – complete with bells!

This is apparently supposed to be wolf  and bear country – luckily haven’t seen any, but we have seen several squirrels who in this area are black and white in colour, so very unusual (no photos as they’re too quick for us!). The weather is a bit cooler up here in the mountains so it has only been about 24 degrees today rather than the 30 degrees we were getting by the beach. Evenings are starting to get chillier though as soon as the sun goes down. I am currently plucking up courage to go and take a shower in the shower block – my (as you know rather picky) standards have had to be lowered considerably in some of the campsites but there are limits and I may just have reached it!

Whilst we were out today we discovered that Lorica the local village is also actually a ski resort and has a tiny lift to take you to the top of the, I suspect, quite limited runs. However limited real runs is better than the Snowdome and the lift certainly looks interesting, involving standing up in a single person cage with your skis balanced beside you.

Not the most sophisticated chair lift – but better than hiking!

To get here yesterday we used Paul’s favourite method of route planning – look at the map, pick the twistiest most convoluted route, double check there isn’t a more twisty one, and then set off. Yesterdays was the best (or worst depending on how you look at it) by far with sections where the tarmac ran out, and a few places with signs warning that the crash barrier was missing so to take care. We knew we’d be OK though as we could see the local school bus ahead of us, but I think he’d had more practice on the road as he rapidly disappeared from view even though he was stopping to drop people off. Not sure they get many ‘strangers’ through here as the few people we saw all turned to stare as we drove past. The best bit was when going through a small town, called  Longobucco, where the local bar keeper must have been having a spring clean as he had all his chairs and tables, and his beer fridge, in the middle of the street – another obstacle to be navigated!

As we’ve come down through Italy we’ve tried out lots of the local specialities where we could – honey, olive oil, and of course wine. When buying in the supermarket we try to buy locally produced wine, but noticed that we were the only ones buying bottles – everyone else had large plastic containers in their trolleys. Having got to the stage where we were spending about 3 euros on a very passable bottle of wine we finally bit the bullet and went for one of these plastic containers. Having paid 3.95 euros for 3 litres of local Puglian wine it could have been a disaster, but I’m delighted to say it’s perfectly drinkable – although I suspect it won’t travel well and at home would be cooking wine only!

Tip of the toe

We left Sila National Park on the 22nd to head to our most southerly point on mainland Italy, Melito di Porto Salvo. The drive was a combination of tortuous mountain roads followed by a pleasant coastal drive down the Ionian Coast. We had a vague idea of a couple of campsites in the area from some previous internet research, however the last updates were in 2002 so we were not sure what to expect. As it turned out one was closed so it was Hobson’s choice, on first glance a lot had changed since 2002 and the site had appeared to become a semi permanent home for a number of families for the summer months. The owner found us a space and gave us a ‘special rate’ although on reflection we think he had spotted an opportunity. As it turned out the site was fine and  the area and beach was a real mix, bits of burnt out cars, families enjoying the beach, people fishing, a guy riding a horse down the beach, stray cats in the waste bins and  guys on scooters blasting down the road. It felt very authentic.

Sunset over Sicily from Melito Di Porto Salvo

During the night and first thing in the morning we were disturbed by gunshots ! As we are someway from any recognised hunting areas I suspect someone was shooting rats or that’s what I choose to believe!

We have made the decision to go to Sicily at least for a few days so head off to Villa San Giovani to catch the ferry. I excelled myself in choice of route through the Aspromonte National Park this involved over 1 ½ hours of climbing up through the mountains lock to lock through switchback bends, through the tight streets of little mountain towns with a further 45 minutes along the top and down the other side. In a number of places the crash barriers protecting long drops had been removed and replaced with a 2” high ridge of tarmac which would not stop anything and only serve to notify you of impending doom. By the end of it we were switched backed out.

We arrived at the Villa San Giovanni ferry port with no idea of what we were doing, only to be approached by a number of guys who we assumed to be ticket touts offering tickets to Sicily. In true British style we dismiss these politely and head for the “official” ticket office. After discussing the size of our van / camper the ticket office guy beckons across one on of the ticket touts to have a look and report back (we had parked around the corner). He has a look at the van and decides its “piccolo” and reports back and as a result we get a cheap rate. He escorts us back to the van and we give him a 2 euro tip.  As we get back into the van he sees the cooker and sink and advises actually he thinks we are a camper after all (more expensive rate) and that we should draw all the curtains in the van so that the ticket inspector can’t see! Anyway we are now here in Sicily so I guess we got away with it. Now in another nice spot  currently camped under an olive tree.

PS No photos for this update at the moment. We have come down to a local bar to use the WiFi only to find having purchased our drinks that their WiFi is down. Oh well we thought and put it down to experience. However 2 minutes later the owner appeared with his own personal broadband dongle to lend to us – slow but better than nothing.

PPS photos now included!

After arriving on the Adriatic Coast we spent the night. The weather had improved markedly – standing on the beach at night we could see a massive thunder storm way off on the horizon with the sky lighting up every 30 seconds or so with sheet and forked lighting, however we could hear no thunder so it was way off in the distance.

The campsite seem to be a family concern with Papa, who must have been 80 plus but still on duty – he offered to open the barrier and we both nearly jumped out of the van to help him move the heavy barrier as he slowly swung it open.

The following morning we continued our journey south through Puglia. We choose a coastal route and the stretch between Peschici and Vieste was stunning with again lots of climbing and descending along switchback roads cut into the hills along the coast.

Another twisty road

This stretch reminded us of a mini Ocean Road along the Victoria coast in Australia. Our greatest achievement (or rather Sharon’s) was when an Italian driver pulled over to the side of the road to allow us to overtake as we were travelling much faster.

We arrived at a campsite just north of Bari where we planned to stay the night after 2 days of what in retrospect seemed fairly full on if not enjoyable driving. Our current view on driving here is that it’s a game of chicken! Our TomTom (or Dumb Dumb as a friend has previously named such devices) directs us down streets where you would struggle to get a bike let alone a van and gradually sucks us into such situations to add to the fun.

Trulli house

We have decided to slow the pace over the next few days now that we are in the deep south where we figure the weather is best and this morning head across to Alberobello which is a UNESCO heritage site full of Trulli (Hobbit) houses.

Campsite friends (at dinner time anyway!)

We find a campsite just outside of town which is virtually deserted – only one other camper (VW T3) – the lady running the site speaks both Italian and English but decides Sharon’s Italian is better than her English and conducts all future conversations in Italian regardless! After setting up we decide to stroll down to the town only to be passed by the lady that runs the campsite who offers us a lift. We figure this could be interesting but it turns out she is one of the very cautious Italian drivers.

The town itself falls into two distinct halves – the touristy bit where it seems that all of the Trulli houses have been turned into tourist gift shops and the streets are filled with the occupants of local coach tours,  and the bit across the main square where people actually live which is far quieter and to us more interesting.

On Monday we decide to descend into the heel of Italy with our destination being Gallipoli before we start heading across down into Calabria. We end up staying at a Sosta which is a sort of glorified campervan car park with some basic facilities and thus cheaper than a campsite. This particular one was located close to the beach and run by an old guy who had lots of rules e.g. “No extravagant shampoo” and “No dogs or cats to be washed in the shower”.

Matera

The following day we started to make our way across to the toe of Italy via Matera – a UNESCO world heritage site where the houses have evolved out of the original cave dwellings.  It includes an ancient hand dug terracotta lined 5 million litre water reservoir.

We then head down to the coast to take it easy for a couple of days (and do a large load of washing!) and come up with a loose plan for the next week. The beachside campsite we have ended up on is deserted there must be several hundred pitches and we are one of four on the site with a pitch right on the beach.

Life’s a beach

Our big debate is whether we have enough time to get to Sicily. At the moment we feel that we won’t have time to get around the whole island but may have time to get to Mt Etna and ascend the volcano – still debating.

We left Comacchio on the 11^th to head further south first to the principality of San Marino, just to say we had been really it’s a nice enough place perched on a hill surrounded by Italy, lots of shops geared up entirely for tourists and guys in suits (so assume some kind of financial centre), we spent a an hour or so wandering around before making off.

We had planned to finish the day in Urbino which we had heard was a well preserved brick built town, the drive across from San Marino through the hills was well off the beaten track and I think we only saw half dozen cars in the 40 or so kms.

When we arrived we were immediately disappointed as the town appeared quite modern and looked nothing special, however has we headed for the campsite the old town came into view as a completely separate entity from new town.  The campsite was located on a hill directly opposite the hill on which the old town was located approx 4 km away, after sorting a pitch out we cycled down to the old town which turned out to be one of our favourite places so far.

Urbino

The town houses a large university and as a consequence there was a really lively atmosphere about the place in addition it appeared to be a place where real people lived and as a consequence had all the normal sorts of shops which are required for day to day living as opposed to shops specifically geared around tourists.

The whole time we have been in Italy we have noticed people in bars drinking what appeared to me to be Ironbru!  Sharon was keen to give it a try and eventually worked out that this was Aperol Spritz so we chose a bar in the main square in Urbino to have a drink, I stuck with a beer whilst Sharon went for the aforementioned  Aperol Spritz which was compared to old style Sudafed Elixir (I am not sure if comparing drinks to various linctuses is a common pharmacist trait!) however after a few sips was reported to be very palatable (more of which later).

The ride back to the campsite in 30 degree heat plus a 2.5 km hill which we had crawled up in third gear in the van was hard work on our 3 speed folding bikes!

We left Urbino on the 12^th heading further south into the Mt Sibillini National Park more twisty roads with entertainment provided by the local drivers particularly the guy in the 911 who undertook some impressive moves.

The campsite we choose is right in the heart of the park some 5 km uphill from the nearest town – given that we were in 2^nd gear for parts of the climb in the van we decided to pass on the idea of riding back into town.  We have now come up with our own classification system for hills similar to the Tour de France except in our case we will be using the gears of a VW Transporter rather than some old Citroen 2CV – in our case any hill that necessitates us being in lower than 3^rd gear to get up will be off limits as far as riding up on a folding bike!

Crowded campsite Mt Sibillini National Park

The campsite itself has 300 pitches but as we are approaching the end of the season there is only us and three others here so we practically have the place to ourselves. As always in mountainous areas the weather is apt to change rapidly, we arrived in bright sunshine and blistering heat which became dull over a period of 4 – 5 hrs to be followed by thunderstorms and torrential rain which is still going after some 15 hrs! (a planning and reading day!).

We did try out the campsite bar last night we were the only two customers and gained a greater understanding as to why Sharon likes said Aperol Spritz which appeared to be large glass of white wine topped up with splash of soda and a generous measure of Aperol, although we are not sure if the generous measures are as a result of clearing stock before the campsite closes at the weekend until next season.

The rain continued unabated for a further night and morning and was still raining when we came to check out. The old lady who ran the campsite appeared with her brolly nearly blowing inside out to exclamations of “mamma mia, mamma mia”. She asked if we were going to the coast to which we replied yes, then “Adriatic?” Again yes, “It’s raining there too!” Or that’s what we think she said from our phrase book Italian!

We head off in the rain via the scenic mountain route or rather it would have been scenic if it wasn’t for the torrential rain and low cloud, the roads were fun however with plenty of hairpin bends as we  climbed up and down the various mountain roads. The poor visibility did have the advantage that we could not see the precipitous drops off the side of road.

Adriatic Coast

We arrived in the Adriatic  near Termoli last night with some improvement in the weather (only heavy showers!).

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We left Punta Sabbioni and Venice on Saturday, thankful that we were going in the opposite direction to the massive traffic jam heading for the coast. It appears that at the weekend the whole of Italy gets into their car and sets off on a family outing, ceasing only for the siesta hours between 12 and 3 when everyone goes to lunch.

We’re heading South now and have stopped for a couple of days relaxation (not that everyday isn’t relaxing!) by the sea near Comacchio, where there are a number of Lido resorts and a few big campsites. Very busy over the weekend but last night (Sunday) at about 6pm 80% of the people packed up and went home, leaving us lucky few here.

We visited the Tourist Office who gave us loads of info about the area and also a map of a bike ride so we went out bike riding yesterday and toured around the large lagoons that are make up the Po Delta.

Self portrait by the lagoon

Comacchio lagoon

Lots of fishing huts of the style that use big nets that dip into the water and then basically scoop out the fish, although the one we saw operating had failed to catch anything!

Weather is fabulous now (after our first worrying week of rain) and about 30 degrees.  The beach has been full of very bronzed Italians who can lie out in the sun all day going browner and browner. I’m sure they’re looking at us and thinking how pale we are in comparison, and wondering why we are wearing so many clothes (shorts and T-shirt) rather than a small pair of Speedos – not a good look in the majority of cases!

Another Monday morning……

The campsite is much bigger than we usually stay at and has entertainment in the evenings – we were disappointed that the ‘HipHop Karaoke evening’ last night was cancelled (probably due to lack of willing volunteers) and replaced by Bingo, but we wait in anticipation to see what delights tonight may bring……..