When the going gets tough…

                                         ...the tough head for the Po valley!

Joking apart and talking about the tough, it is good to hear that Chris has not let some drunken, low life, scum rob him of his experience of a life time. Nothing stops the worry or the pain of what happens to those we love but knowing that they are doing what they really want to eases the burden.

cart tracks on a roman road

Back to the Po valley? Our plan for travelling Italy given it’s shape and geography was simple. We go down one side and back up the other. This means a lot of coast and coastal campsites. However, for the same reason we would not consider camping at Felixstowe in November the Italians campsites don’t get much use even if we don’t consider it that cold. The further North we go and the later in the year it gets the less coastal sites we find open. With the coast closed for winter we crossed the Apennines mountains (snow on the tops already) into the Po river valley and visited some of the Italian cities we missed on the way down.

... and a sense of humour

This has been the hardest week of our trip so far. With bad news from Chris coming on top of Jane falling ill with severe stomach pains, 3 cold wet days (24 hours of solid rain) and few camping options it has been tough going. The sites that are open tend to be in towns and cities and are expensive and mean. In Italy when you get electricity included in the cost it is not unusual to be given a 6 or sometimes 3 Amps (0.5KW) supply. Just to put it into perspective the computer uses 1.5amps and a standard electric kettle 2.5KW. As ever flexibility, inventiveness and a sense of humour is essential. We have become expert at juggling our resources.

Sat Nav Suzie continues to be the most useful and frustrating tool that has ever been invented. She had her heart set on a route across the mountains but the sight of snow was just too much and for the first time we paid the17 Euros and took the toll motorway. Suzie has not spoken to us since. OK the motorway was boring but we have already run out of brown trousers and cycle clips from her previous series of ‘best route’ recommendations.

The journey…

Duomo - Modena

We travelled from the hills of southern Tuscany to the coast at Forni not far from Piombino. Wilds seas on a wind swept coast but an excellent view of the steel works and a forest reserve for wild boar… where given the chance they shoot them. We didn’t realise that Italian were so hunting mad and many animals had been virtually wiped out in some areas.

North to Pisa. Apart from the obvious tourist sites this town is a major University town and always lively and full of people eating drinking and wandering around. Students – the same the world over : ) Pisa was a 3 Amp site and just when we though it could not get any worse it started raining.

Time for a treat - cake anyone?

Lucca would cheer things up. We were really looking forward to walking the walls – even in the rain. However, Lucca had a 3 day Disney Halloween party, which sounded like a fate worse than death but we never got to find out as everything was booked or 100 Euros per night. That week it only cost 67 Euros for seven nights!

Still raining we gave up on Lucca this trip and went to the coast. Two closed sites later we finally found a car park site (Massa) and with it still raining went to bed to the deafening sound of heavy rain on our roof. Did we mention that it was raining?

Modena... oozing style under a blue sky

The following day it was make or break… and still raining with Suzie in the glove compartment we headed across the mountains to the cities of the Po valley. The Po at this time of the year (all that rain) is a raging silver/grey torrent that drains the Italian Alps into the Adriatic near Venice. This is one of the most fertile areas for both agriculture, civilization and culture. We loved our stayed in Verona (50 KM north) on the way down and took this unexpected opportunity to visit some of Italy’s most enigmatic little cities. We concentrated on two that we knew something about… Modena – home of the supercar Ferrari and Pagani (Zonda) and of the late great Luciano Pavarotti and of course Balsamic Vinegar, followed by Parma… ham!

Scarves... doing an Italian :)

After the struggles of the last couple of days Modena was fantastic. We camped at and were looked after by the Camper Club Mutina. The sun was shining and everything was perfect, they provided a taxi service into the town centre for 4 Euros return and we even got a 10% discount for being English! (We think that was the correct translation) Modena is a small relaxed, real place with culture and style oozing out of every inch of it’s ancient cobbled streets, piazzas and buildings. The street café and bar scene here was so Italian and in November shared with very few visitors. Feeling a bit out of it and in an attempt to blend in we replaced our shorts with trousers and bought scarves and did an Italian for a couple of fun days.

Parma -  main piazza

We were expecting our scarves and new found Italian vibe to continue to help us blend and relax into our next stop - Parma. Wrong… Parma was bigger than Modena and manic. It was full of busy people, sites, sounds scarves and classy independent boutique style shops. This place like most Italian cities has lots of shoes shops… in fact Parma must have one shoe shop for ever person on planet Earth! Jane’s continued illness was the only thing that stopped us turning Minnie into one giant shoe box. After being smoozed by Modena, Parma grabs you by your scarf and while you are stunned by it’s romantic beauty proceeds to shake every last tourist Euro out of your pocket before spitting you out. If you think you would love all things Italian a visit to Modena and Parma in autumn is a perfect way to find out.

Genova - by the sea

It would have been fun to play in the Po valley for another week but after booking our ferry home [2^nd Dec] we are forced to head back to the coast and plan a route through Monaco into the French Riva – as you do : ). This way we avoid the Alps. We did a deal with Suzie as her continued silence was beginning to grate. We followed her route from Parma to Tortona  if she did the short motorway stretch back across the mountains. Some of the roads here as so narrow (one lane) pot holed, up and down with numerous switchbacks that they would stress you in a mini, let alone our Minnie.

Genoese Galley - the most feared of vessels :)

Back on the coast we were lucky enough to get a 2 day stop in Genova. 

Water front area Genova

At around 1 million people this city is big so it was a train trip in and wow what a surprise! This place has it all, major industry, interesting sites, an awe-inspiring Duomo (cathedral), culture and amazing food. Couple this with a living history look and feel and you could spend a couple of weeks here before you stop getting lost. Genova calls itself ‘a special city -  a city of surprises’ and we wouldn’t disagree as it didn’t disappoint on any level. It is still Italy’s largest port but at the peak of its power 15^th / 16^th century it was a major city state and main maritime power in the Mediterranean with the Genoese Galleys the most feared of vessels. This sort of explains the numerous opulent palaces and churches of that period, when the rich get very rich there is no better way to flaunt it than with a new palace.

Once we leave Italy the Internet will be patchy so this may be the last entry for a while…

So just in case we look forward to seeing you all when we get home in December.

Love Den and Jane X