ROMA, Italia Camping Tibre We arrived late last night and it was tricky maneuvering the roads to Rome, even with the GPS. It is a lovely campground on the Tibre River, and it has shuttle service to the train station. Today will be our day to do Classical Rome. The first shuttle was 8 AM, and we were onboard, studying our map. The train ticket included a metro pass. So we switched from the train, to the red metro, to the blue metro and exited... with the Coliseum right in front of us. What an impressive sight! Of course, the coliseum [View Full Entry]

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San Gimignano to Siena to Rome We literally crawled out of the narrow roads of San Gimignano and drove onto Siena. The campground we read about was closed, so we were at the mercy of public parking. Public parking has no mercy! $20 euros to park for 1 hour or 24 hours!! Finding a municipal parking that was RV friendly was great. So we started out to the train station, to catch the bus to Siena. Siena is the very heart of Tuscany. The statue of the Roman She-wolf with the children feeding are emblems of Siena. The Duomo (the cathedral) [View Full Entry]

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Pisa to San Gimignano San Gimignano is in Tuscany and the drive is through vineyards and farmlands...quite lovely but narrow winding roads and tricky driving(...how does Bob do it??) with astounding views. Parking is another problem, we kept driving away from the walled city, looking for RV parking. Well... we "created" a safe parking place and walked back. The walled city has many towers, this was a sign pf power and wealth. It's history begins around the 10th century. It developed during the Middle Ages and became an urban center. The plague of 1348 dealt a severe blow to [View Full Entry]

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Cinque Terre to Pisa The trip today from Cinque Terre to Pisa was about 105 kilometers. Finding the campground in Pisa was more than a challenge. The narrow streets and the tunnels...could we clear the top of the Bothan?? Let's not try. We spotted a municipal parking for $20 Euros no services, but with bus service to Pisa. It is a very hot day.. "Millions" of tourists arrive at the "leaning tower" they seem to create a Gelato slurping, photo snapping mire. The tower began to tilt when the soil beneath it shifted. Galileo came here to conduct experiments on falling [View Full Entry]

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Cinque Terre, Italy Off to an early start, we were back on the train headed for Cornigilia to resume our hiking of the "five lands". The weather is much hotter today and were lulled into easy hikes yesterday, well today is a reality check. No tour buses here folks! Since the trails begin at the seaport or the train station, one knows it is going to be an uphill climb and so it is. The inclines and declines are significant, now this is hiking. Corniglia to Vernazza is only about 4 kms, but with the hot sun and the hills/cliffs it [View Full Entry]

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Cinque Terre, Italy Hiking the first three towns Our guide to the trails, follows a definite sequence, so rather than fight it we decided to go along with the program. The walk from the campground to the train station is maybe a kilometer. A Cinque Terre Trail Pass is required for hiking, so we picked up our train tickets and pass and were on our way to Riomaggiore. The train was loaded with hikers and hiking gear of all sorts and sizes. Hiking the first two trails was easy and crowded. Tour groups actually bus in folks so they can say, [View Full Entry]

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Levanto, Cinque Terre, Italy Our day began biking to the Tourist Info. As we learn more about Cinque Terre and its trails, we are fascinated and long forward to tomorrow's hikes. The trails actually begin here in Levanto, however the five main towns we had read about and researched were: 1. Riomaggiore 2. Manarola 3. Corniglia 4. Vernazza, and 5. Monterosso Our information is just the tip of the iceberg. This is a Mecca for hikers. There are trails everywhere with simple walks..... or extremely difficult hikes with inclines that are significant. [View Full Entry]

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NO WE DID NOT GO BACK TO ITALY. WE WOULD LIKE TO . THESE ARE BLOG THAT bOB MISSED PUBLISHING SO ENJOY Arles France to Levanto, Cinque Terre, Italy We drove 638 Kilometers and paid tolls, tolls, and more tolls. For some reason the credit card stop working on the Italian toll booths, and we were due for a ATM stop. Well we made it. but not with much slack. The campground, Acqua Dolce, sweet water, is lovely and on the Mediterranean Sea. The road, winding down to this spot, was a white knuckle drive, but oh the views were incredible! [View Full Entry]

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Avignon to Arles It is AM here in Southern France and they all begin the same ...we get up... we get lost.... on some tiny road... with thoughts of never emerging, but somehow we find our way to a main road with real signs. So we can't read them...no big deal, we actually make up words for the obscure French words we are seeing. When we finally see our destination listed on the many, many round-about and signs... it is reason to rejoice. Our campground is Rosiers Pont du Crau; Pont du Crau is a small village outside the old town [View Full Entry]

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Nimes to Avignon We drove from Nimes to Avignon and found a small campground on the Island de Barthelass between the Village of Avignon and Avignon and the Rhone River. We walked from the campground...the wrong way... and soon discovered we needed to check the map. A lovely lady came along in her car and inquired, I think... about our problem. She insisted we hop in, and drove us to the Palace of the Popes, after picking up her son, Louis; she spoke no English and we spoke no French. However we communicated, and she jumpef out of the car and [View Full Entry]

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