travels in a motorhome: Noises in the night

14th April Santa Margherita Ligure 44.33629 9.19498.

We are parked up tonight between a football stadium and a busy, noisy railway line but we are glad to be here. Our plan this morning was to drive to Genova and stay the day, parking for the night at a Sosta shown in one of our guides. After battling through the traffic we arrived to discover the Sosta no longer exists. No problem, we had a plan B which was to stop just beyond Genoa at Bogliasco at either of the two Sostas there, but they didn't exist either. We are at plan C which apart from the van shaking every time a train goes by was a good choice because we are a twenty minute walk down to a delightful harbour town. We've followed the coast road since we arrived in Italy passing through small resort towns and the drive has been pretty enough but slow going. It took us four hours today to travel seventy miles; most of the roads have a 50kph speed limit and there are lots of traffic lights

16th April Lucca 43.85077 10.48623.

I mentioned above that our stop a couple of days ago was next to a railway line. We thought the trains would stop at some point but they didn't. Freight trains ran all night and woke us up every time one went past. But it wasn't just the trains that disturbed our sleep, we also had to contend with barking dogs, a clucking chicken (yes, at 11.30pm), a donkey an owl and two sets of church bells both ringing the hour and chiming the quarters. Of course a blackbird woke us up in the morning. Probably a place we won't stop at again. Last night we stopped at Levanto 44.17412 9.61785 (next to another railway line I kid you not) it's a sleepy little coastal town that looks like it could be busy in the summer months. We walked up to the medieval castle which the guide books said was extremely well preserved and well worth a visit. Unfortunately the castle is now a private house, well private castle to be accurate, with tall trees obscuring three sides and a high wall on the remaining side so not much to see at all really.

Today for the first time since leaving England we took a toll motorway because I was fed up of spending half the day up and down hills negotiating hairpin bends. I never thought I would type such a sentence as that but the reality is that whilst driving over mountains affords some of the best scenery it is tiring and after a couple of days I felt like a change and some easy driving. We chose Lucca as a stopping point for two reasons. Firstly, because if you look at it on the map it is shown as being completely surrounded by greenery and looked intriguing and secondly and rather more mundanely, we needed a campsite with a washing machine. I won't mention how much they charge here but the guy on reception really should be wearing a mask and a striped jumper. As it is he has the air of a man who learnt his customer service skills at a funeral director's. I suppose telling us the overnight rates in hushed tones whilst wringing his hands and contorting his face to an expression of such sorrow made a change from the usual smirk. Anyway, Lucca is surrounded by greenery because it still has it's original ramparts and gates and entrance archways and fields all around. Founded by the Etruscans and becoming a Roman colony in 180 BC the city has a long and intriguing history. Once in the town it's a maze of narrow streets and courtyards and mostly pedestrianised. The cathedral of St Michele dominates the main piazza and although many of the streets are full of designer shops and expensive restaurants the smaller piazzas were charming and if it wasn't for the telephone cables strung above and the glass fronts to the shops the place would look the same as it was built centuries ago. Tall buildings with louvred shutters, ancient archways and massive old wooden doors. The birthplace of Giacomo Pucini is suitably adorned with statues of the composer and there are plenty of colleges with music drifting out of the windows as we wandered past. It's certainly a place we would visit again if we passed this way.

The Cathedral at Lucca.