Sanremo and Saint-Laurent-du-Var

Tuesday 29th July.

We are parked up this evening in a Sosta on the outskirts of Sanremo. To be fair it is actually a massive gravel car park, there are about twenty motorhomes here but it could probably accommodate ten times that number. Water is available if you care to negotiate a steep bank and the narrow lanes bisecting the baseball ground (?) from the athletic ground and the football pitch. All this luxury for €15 per 24 hours but it's quiet enough and the sea is only a stones throw away so although it is still hot there is a refreshing breeze. We arrived here yesterday after a short drive from Cervo and like many of our stops recently we only intended stopping the one day but we are still here. We walked into Sanremo today and it's a lovely city with some beautiful old large buildings and some luxurious looking hotels. The beach stretches the width of the town and today it was packed. There are small strips of public, free beaches between those strips owned by hotels or restaurants where they charge €18 per day for an umbrella and a couple of recliners a couple of feet away from your neighbours in all directions. Not really our idea of fun but each to their own eh?

We are parked here next to a South African couple with a 10 metre 1996 UK Flair motorhome, it's actually 11 metres with the racks on the back containing 5 push bikes and a motorcycle. They park the beast up in Spain during the winter and then come over and drive all over Europe for four months during the summer. It seems a little on the large size to me but they seem happy enough with it and the 12mpg it returns. They've been over the Pyrenees and the Alps in it doing eleven point turns on some of the hairpins! I suppose when you become used to driving and living in something that large it becomes hard to downsize. They're a pleasant couple and have given us a few tips on places to stay on the Côte d'Azur, I reckon if they could get the beast in we shouldn't have too much trouble with our van which looks like a baby parked next to theirs.

So, this is definitely our last day in Italy. To be perfectly honest my plan when we landed in Venice was to drive as quickly as we could to France. I'd heard how expensive Italy was and I wanted no part of it. I now have to apologise to Italy, we've had a great time here and it's not as expensive as we thought, unless you buy diesel, of course, which we haven't had to do. We'll be on fumes by the time we get to France but I baulked at paying €1.85 a litre here. Vicenza and Verona were especially lovely and we enjoyed our few days by Lake Iseo. Hopefully we'll come back to Italy in the future and explore more of this country. The people we've met have seemed a little more reserved than, say, Spanish or, especially, Greek folk but everybody has been welcoming and polite.

Tomorrow we set off for St Laurent-Du-Var just the other side of Nice. There are two Camperstop locations there but they only hold a total of twelve vans so we're going to have a couple of back-up locations further inland if we can't get in there.

Wednesday 30th July.

We are parked up this afternoon on an Aire in Saint-Laurent-du-Var. We left Italy and Sanremo this morning and drove the coast road to where we are now, passing Monaco and driving through Nice. This is a tiny Aire with space for just eight motorhomes and we managed to squeeze into the last space. About ten minutes after we arrived another van turned up that we had passed a half hour earlier whilst driving through Nice. A bit of shuffling around and he's found a space for the night too but if anyone else turns up they're going to be unlucky.

There are English folk on this site too!! The first we've met for ages. I've just been chatting to a couple from Leeds who are planning to drive clockwise around the Italian coastline and are thinking of then going on to Greece. When they heard we had just come back from a seven week tour of Greece they bombarded me with questions which I was only too happy to answer.

Not too much to report from where we are now although the view of Monaco from the hills above was spectacular as was the view of the yacht harbour in Beaulieu-sur-Mare:

 

The drive through the centre of Nice was also fun, managed to take a quick pic of the Hotel Le Negresco whilst at some traffic lights.

Absolutely no chance of parking anywhere on the coast today. We've decided to move inland tomorrow toward Provence. It's great driving along the coast and seeing the sights but we are only seeing them from the cab of the van. There's never anywhere to park so we are just driving from spot to spot which is a bit daft really so we think by heading inland it'll all be a bit more relaxing and we'll swop the Côte d'Azur for Provence.

Pat

 

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Cervo

Saturday 26th July.

We are parked up tonight on a Sosta or Camperstop site in Cervo on the Italian Riviera. We arrived yesterday after a short drive from Finale Ligure passing through lots of small resorts, all packed with holiday makers at this time of year. The site we are on now holds over a hundred motorhomes and is almost full. It's almost exclusively Italian folk here, again no Brits at all.

Yesterday we walked down to the beach which is coarse sand and it was full with folk cheek by jowl under their umbrellas. The beach is quite narrow but there are rocky outcrops all the way along for a mile or so and plenty of people were basking on the smooth rock with no shade at all. It was a first for Phil yesterday, she had an Italian haircut! She's wanted her hair cutting for a few weeks now and we passed a salon, called in and they said they could fit her in an hour and a half. So we wandered around for a bit, called back, the hairdresser went to work and everybody in the salon agreed that she did a great job. Or so Phil tells me anyway, I sat in the bar opposite drinking Peroni which was no great hardship. Anyway her hair looks lovely and she is pleased with it.

For some strange reason, probably to do with a lack of foresight, we always seem to be walking around sightseeing during the middle of the day and early afternoon during the hottest part of the day. Today we used a bit of common sense and waited till late afternoon before we set off to visit the old town of Cervo. This was just as well as the visit entailed climbing steep cobbled pathways and steps to get to the top of the town but it was well worth it. This wasn't a restored village just for tourists. People still live in the maze of alleyways with balconys overhead almost touching each other and tiny courtyards. A couple of houses have been turned into art galleries displaying work by local artists, there was one boutique, a jewellery shop,a restaurant and a couple of bars. The C16th ramparts and towers are pretty much intact but the main attraction is the Baroque church of St John the Baptist which overlooks the sea and the next door Oratorio of St Catherine. We sat in the piazza outside sipping a drink as a jazz band sound checked for an evening concert in the shadow of the church, occasionally halting proceedings as the church bells tolled at a volume far exceeding their PA.

The Church of St John the Baptist.

Cervo.

Cervo seen from below.

Tomorrow we set off for another Campervan site fifteen miles or so further along the coast heading ever closer to France. Our plans, which seem to change every couple of days, will see us heading into France on Monday and then following the Côte d'Azur to Marseilles before turning sharp right and heading inland to Provence. I don't suppose there will be too many holiday makers in the south of France in August eh?

Pat.

 

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Finale Ligure

Wednesday 23rd July.

We are parked up this evening next to the sea at a Camperstop in the pretty town of Finale Ligure. The sea is on one side of us and towering limestone cliffs to the other with a ruined castle atop. It's a great location with a five minute walk into the town. We left the campsite from hell this morning with folk looking at us as though we'd got a favorable response from the parole board while they still had to complete their sentence and drove the 32 miles along the Italian Riviera coast road. It was a beautiful day and as we drove through the half a dozen resorts to get here every available patch of beach was occupied as was every available parking space. There were also plenty of cars and scooters parked up in unavailable parking spaces. After driving around Greece for six weeks seeing hardly any traffic we're not used to the number of cars and scooters weaving their way around here. I'm not too worried about the motorcycles and scooters, they're nippy and maneuverable and the guys and girls on them seem to know what they're doing but the car drivers are another kettle of fish altogether and it's pretty scary at times. Overtaking on blind bends with double white lines seems to be a favourite pastime as does pulling out from side roads with only a cursory glance, if you're lucky, at any traffic which may be approaching. As each day goes by my avoidance tactics improve (I think, or hope).

So I think we will stay here another day, if we're up early enough we can scoot to the beach and throw up our €9 beach umbrella which is just large enough to shelter three quarters of one of us at any time.

Thursday 24th July.

Still parked up tonight in Finale Ligure although we didn't make the beach today. It rained last night and was still very overcast this morning and not really beach weather. We walked in to town this afternoon and wandered around the weekly market for a while before stopping in an osteria for lunch. Home made pasta and a glass of wine each, delicious and not expensive. This evening we strolled down for an aperitif and found a bar with a free buffet so we piled our plates a couple of times and now we don't have to cook an evening meal. Tomorrow we set off for Cervo, about 40 miles further along the coast.

Finale Ligure.

Pat

 

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Agriturismo and the Campsite from Hell

Monday 21st July.

We are parked up tonight in a farmyard in the hamlet of Tre Venti in Lombardy. It is part of the Agriturismo scheme in Italy whereby small farms and, vineyards offer B&B or motorhome parking. The arrangement here, as far as we can tell, is that we can stay for free with electricity and water if we have a meal but the elderly lady we saw when we arrived just pointed at a parking place, the tap and the power supply and didn't say anything about a meal. I can't see a restaurant and I can't smell any food cooking. This is just as well as we bought some fresh ravioli in the bakers today.

We set off this morning intending to stay the night in the city of Pavia but we didn't feel comfortable staying overnight in the car park so popped in to town for a look around, had a pizza for lunch and set off for an Agriturismo farm about half an hour further south. We arrived and the road narrowed with a sign asking us to walk the final 200metres. We parked up just as we saw a flash of lightning, heard a clap of thunder and then the heavens opened. So we sat in the van for ten minutes and eventually I found an umbrella and descended the 200 metres in shorts and flip flops. Found a house at the bottom of the lane with nobody about and then a guy turned up in a car. He was from Morroco, spoke no English but walked back up the hill with me, showed me an electric point hanging off a tree but sorrowfully admitted he had no aqua for us. We thanked him and got the books and phones out again looking for a Sosta or campsite where we would have better facilities. The problem with the Agrturismo scheme, I think, is that it is not very well developed and hardly marketed at all. The first place we called at, according to the online guide, had all the facilities we wanted but that proved not to be the case. Few of them actually give an address other than the nearest town or hamlet and none give GPS co-ordinates so it's a right palava finding them. It's a shame and I'm sure the individual farms or vineyards would have a lot more custom if the organisers or marketers of the scheme got their act together.

This is real vineyard country here in Lombardy and some of the big mansions overlooking the fields rival the Chateaux we have seen in France. At the same time a lot of the vineyards seem to be on a small scale and the area as a whole is not as opulent as, say, parts of Burgundy. Nevertheless it was a pleasant drive between the rain showers and I'm sure it would look even more beautiful with the sun shining. I say a pleasant drive, apart from the 5 kilometres when the Sat Nav took us down a pot holed dirt track about a foot wider than the van with overhanging trees on one side and vineyards sloping away down the hill on the other. We had a few nervous moments to say the least.

Tuesday 22nd July.

We are parked up tonight in the campsite from hell in Aranzano, just outside Genova. We are packed in like sardines for €30 a night, €0.50 for a shower and €7.80 for the washing machine. Phil told the woman on reception we just wanted to do a wash, not rent the machine for a week! Our pitch is next to a busy road with a railway line next to it but we had to take it as we really needed to do some washing. We would have driven further along the coast to look for something better but we had driven for over seven hours today over the Appenine Mountains and after then driving through Genova in rush hour we were completely banjaxed. So here we are, beaten but unbowed. The washing is done although we can't hang it out to dry on our pitch, it has to be hung out at the "designated washing drying area". If Basil Fawlty had a camping site rather than a hotel I imagine this is what it would be like.

Although the drive today was exhausting we saw some wonderful scenery again. The road between Voghera and Bobbio was exceptional, rising to over 1100 metres and we stopped at the peak for lunch, under a massive statue of St Columba from Ireland (???) enjoying the clean mountain air. So, the plan for tomorrow is to follow the Italian coast, bound for France, and hopefully find somewhere free to park up about halfway. We could drive to France in a day but after today's marathon I'd rather just drive for a few hours and then do the same the next day, I've got enough diesel to get to France (I swore I wouldn't be paying €1.95 a litre here in Italy). It hasn't been too easy finding places to stop in Italy at no or low cost but we know when we get to France it's motorhome friendly and we can drive along without stressing about where we will stop each day. I've even found a place to stop in St Tropez! I reckon I'll look good there on the beach in my speedos.

No pics today due to problems transferring from phone camera to iPad, sorry.

Pat

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Verona

Thursday 17th July.

We are parked up tonight in an Italian Sosta in Verona just a ten minute walk to the city centre. We arrived in Verona about mid-day to discover our first parking choice was a building site, as was our second. As we drove about punching co-ordinates into the Sat Navs we could see signs for motorhome parking (Sosta) but then after a couple of junctions/roundabouts the signs would disappear. After driving around Greece with hardly any traffic I'm finding it hard work in the towns in Italy, trying to follow two arguing Sat Navs, follow road signs and take the necessary evading tactics required due to the majority of Italian drivers apparently being on a death wish. And don't even ask about the scooters. We headed for a massive car park which was almost full but managed to just squeeze in to a spot. We locked everything up and went off to explore the town and as we walked out of the car park there, again, were the Sosta signs. I couldn't be bothered to move the van again so we continued on into town, stopped for a spot of lunch and then explored the Castel Vecchio, a C14th red brick fortified castle on the banks of the river Adige. The castle itself is impressive with it's accessible fortifications and a bridge over the river but the bonus is the city museum, housed within, which has a large collection of Renaissance paintings and medieval sculptures including a Rubens and other famous fourteenth and fifteenth century artists. The paintings were not behind barriers or ropes and you could get right up close to them to admire their beauty and the detail. There were also many of the original castle frescos which had survived, the colours still vibrant. It was one of the best museums we have visited although after a couple of hours it was a case of "If I see one more Maddona and Child or Crucifixion......"

We set off back to the car park but checked out the Sosta first,which was a little further on and then moved the van the five hundred metres to where we are now. There are about thirty motorhomes here with registration plates representing most of Europe but, once again, we are the only Brits. Where are all the English motorhomers? France and Spain I'm guessing. We've certainly been ploughing a lonely furrow over the last few months. Anyway, Verona has much more to offer so we have decided to stay another day so we'll explore more of the city tomorrow and then head off to Lake Garda tomorrow afternoon.

A detail from a C15th Madonna and Child.

A Rubens!

Christ in his sepulcher.

The Castel Vecchio.

 

Friday 18th July.

We decided to stay another night in Verona. We were going to set off this afternoon for lake Garda but we spent so much time sightseeing in Verona today that it was too late really for a drive. Verona really is a lovely city with large and small Piazzas, courtyards and a wealth of beautiful buildings, towers and churches. Today we visited the Arena, an enormous Roman amphitheater which is still in use today for operatic performances. Built in the first century AD much of the outer ring was damaged during an earthquake in 1117 but the inner part is still intact. Climbing up to the top tier you can really get the scale of the place and walking around the concourse with it's massive archways and wide entrances you can only marvel at the building and engineering skills employed two centuries ago.

The Giardino Giusti is a formally laid out Renaissance garden with grottoes, labyrinths and a spectacular view over the city from the Belvedere at the top of the hill. The shops around the Piazza dele Erbe contain the usual international suspects but the top Italian designers are also, obviously, represented; Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada etc plus some smaller shops with some fabulous wares on offer - at fabulous prices of course. We had a tasty meal at a slow food movement restaurant which specialised in horse and donkey dishes. We both had pork based dishes! We also discovered a new aperitif, Aperol Spritz. 2 parts Aperol, 3 parts Prosecco and one part soda water. Plenty of ice and a slice of orange. Mmmm delicious and refreshing.

We've really enjoyed our visit to Verona and it's a city we would come back to again. Here and Vicenza have been the highlights of Italy so far for us and whilst this country can be expensive, by eating and shopping a little off the beaten track it's not too bad. Just don't buy diesel!

The beautiful small Chiesa Di S. Maria Antica.

Verona.

View across the city.

The Arena.

The concourse.

 

Pat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vicenza

Wednesday 16th July.

We are parked up tonight in a car park in Vicenza. According to our Camperstop book we should have all facilities for €8.40 per night. In fact it's €10 per night and we've found the water tucked away in the far corner of the campsite but there is no electricity or toilet dump. I realise that for those of you reading this purely for our fascinating travelogue these details are of no interest to you but I thought I'd keep you up to date anyway.

It was a longish drive today from Venice and we broke the journey first with a Lidl stop and then for a coffee. It's interesting shopping in Lidls in different countries. The bi-weekly special offers are about the same from country to country and so are the basic foodstuffs but local variations can be seen in the ready made foods and chiller cabinets. For yogurts in Greece substitute Mozarrelo in Italy. Ready made Mouzaka in Greece, Ravioli and Tortellini in Italy. Italy has lots of dried and cured ham and sausage which you don't see hardly at all in Greece. So tonight we dined on some Tzatziki I made a few days ago and some ravioli with pesto sauce we bought earlier. The other thing about Lidl is that they do very little branded goods. So, for Southern Comfort read Southern Belle or suchlike. As we are in Campari country I picked up a bottle of "Bitters" which was the right colour and what I thought was a bottle of soda water. Bitters and lemonade anyone? One thing which is common to both countries is the guys who hang about and offer to take your trolley back to the park so they can have the €1 deposit.

The coffee stop on the way here highlited a few cultural differences also. Since arriving in Italy we've been really disappointed with the coffee. The Cappucinos have been rubbish and the espressos, whilst being ok, have comprised of a tablespoon of coffee. We were missing our refreshing Fredo Cappucinos from Greece. They must do them here, I said to Phil when we stopped at about 2pm, so we asked the waitress if we could have two Fredo Cappucinos. It didn't translate too well but eventually we got the message across. Then she served us with two cold, tepid actually, Cappucinos. After a bit of Google action we discovered that Fredo Cappucinos are a Greek invention, unheard of in Italy, also that no one in Italy drinks Cappucino after 10am. As I sit here I can visualize an Italian guy giggling to himself and when his wife asks him what's so funny he replies that he can't get over thinking about the English couple she told him about who ordered the cold coffee in her shop earlier in the day.

So, after a few wrong turns and inadvertently cutting up a couple of Nuns in a Fiat 500 on a roundabout (I'm sure one of them stuck two fingers up at me, well I'm sure she wasn't making the sign of the cross) we ended up in this car park and after a snack set off to explore Vicenza. What a lovely city this is. Famed for the C16th architect Palladio it has a beautiful main square, a central area accessible only to pedestrians and cyclists, many examples of the architect's work and a beautiful Cathedral. Hardly any tourists so it was easy to move about, maybe we'll stay another day.

The main square in Vicenza.

 

I'm determined not to buy diesel here in Italy, it's about €1.75 a litre, so I filled up in Greece. But I am getting a little low on LPG for cooking and hot water so I've been checking the prices as we've driven along. Saw some today for €0.62, not a bad price, slammed on the brakes, swerved onto the forecourt. Closed for lunch! Only in Italy eh?

Pat

 

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Venice Pt2

Monday 14th July.

We set off today to catch the Vaporetto to take us on the thirty minute ride to Venice. Unfortunately somewhere on the way we turned left instead of right and walked for an hour in a big loop nearly ending up where we had started from. How we managed to drive from England to Greece without ending up in Finland I'll never know. However, we found a nice beachside cafe where we stopped for coffee and croissant (we'd forgotten how good croissant are) and then a nice restaurant where we had pizza washed down with prosecco. By this time it was too late to set off for Venice so we came back to the campsite for a little hammock time. We've done a little more research along the lines of "Venice in a day" and intend getting an early start tomorrow.

Last night we went to the hotel next door to watch the World Cup final as they had told us it would be on their TV. What they didn't tell us was the restaurant would be rammed with diners and we felt a little uncomfortable pulling up a couple of chairs and ordering two beers. So we came back to the campsite and asked the lady who owns the place where we could watch the match. "Here" she said and invited us and a few other campers into her dining room to watch the game on a nice 42"HD television. She gave us cake, prosecco and fetched beer when the match went to extra time and we watched the game with her, her husband and a few French and Italian campers. I asked who they were supporting and they all said Germany because they are a European team. I said I was supporting Argentina. Despite this we all got along well and when I thanked our host again today she said that this is a family campsite and we are all family here. Lovely. Of course, there is a big hole in my life now where the World Cup was but at least it means I won't be going to bed at stupid o'clock after watching games that went to extra time and penalties. And the Premier League starts soon!

Wednesday 15th July.

We are still parked up tonight at the AgriCampsite in Cavallino - Treporti but today we made it to Venice! We caught the ferry for the thirty minute cruise and booked our return journey for the last boat at 6.30pm. Not much chance of seeing Venice by night then. We arrived and walked the short distance to St Marks Square. I've never seen so many people in one place since the night Bradford City beat Arsenal at Valley Parade. It was packed. The queue for the Basillica was about 50 metres long and the one for the Campanile a little longer. To be fair most of our recent trips to churches, palaces, temples and various archeological sites have been made out of season so we've pretty much had them to ourselves with no queuing. We knew it would be busy in the middle of July but the sheer number of tourists took us by surprise. We didn't so much walk around as shuffle. Determined to get our culture fix we joined the relatively short queue for the Doge's Palace which was suitably impressive and suitably expensive for admission. A bonus for us was that it provided some respite from the sun. After a few days of overcast weather the sun came back today with a vengeance.

Obviously you can't "do" Venice in a day but last night after extensive research we decided on six places we would visit. We managed two. Partly because we spent so long in the Doge's Palace and partly because moving around was so slow. We went to the Rialto bridge which was just about visible through the throngs of people taking photographs and generally clogging the steps. What we saw was impressive though. We spent the rest of the time wandering about crossing pretty bridges over minor canals and marveling at the number of folk who had paid €80-100 for a Gondola trip. No wonder the Gondoliers were singing. Venice is beautiful and I wish we had more time to explore it but it's not inexpensive. We went for a cheap Menu Turistic for lunch and it still cost us an arm and a leg. I think to get the best out of a sightseeing trip here you need to get to Venice early in the morning with either a city pass or individual tickets bought in advance to jump the queues. And bring plenty of money.

A ceiling detail in the Doge's Palace.

Bridge of Sighs from the Palace.

The Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge.

One way Gondola traffic.

Tomorrow we head for Verona knowing that we haven't really seen all we should have done in Venice but maybe we'll come back one day.

Pat.

 

 

 

 

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