A day off today, you know washing and cleaning and sitting by the pool and all that boring stuff. The weather here has been very good, fine, sunny and around 21 degrees, just perfect for walking around. Unfortunately Pam has to work today and put in around 14 hours, the internet connections over here are pathetic and so slow it takes an hour to do a task that usually takes 10 minutes. ... read more

I was so excited to be really heading into Rome, it has held a fascination for me for most of my life, thinking about Roman warriors and the life of the people of ancient Rome has made me want to come here. Well I have to say Rome is all I had dreamt about, the Coliseum and the Roman Forum in particular were just mind blowing, seeing remnants of a past 2000 and more years ago is just, well mind blowing for me. We saw the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps and churches and old ruins by the dozen; I can’t get enough of them. We did not go into the Coliseum as the crowds were just too much to bare, it was enough to see the fine structure. The poor writer that I am ... read more

Leaving our lovely campsite on the shores of the lake it was off to Perugia another old city dating back to around 1200ad. Arriving there we found camping car stop some 4km uphill from the historic, N 43° 09789 E 012° 38449 Deciding against the walk we found a bus, after some time and various hand gestures with a couple from a neighbouring camper van it was off to explore Perugia. We were vary glad about the bus decision as the walk would have been an absolute killer, arriving at our stop at the top of the hill we wandered the streets of Perugia for a while, not overly impressed they did have a bizarre complex of escalators for getting around from the top part of the old city to the lower levels of the ... read more

Deciding to head first for the Chianti region known for its wine growing we had also hoped to pass some of the lovely Tuscan hills the area in so famous for. We found the Chianti area very easily and spent some time driving through there arriving in a little town called Radda, a cute village with some very nice old buildings and streets. Leaving this town the landscape changed dramatically with no lovely hills or vineyards just old scrubby hills and not a lot else, where are the lovely Tuscan hills we had seen in the photos and on TV, well not in this area anyway. Driving a little further towards Lake Trasimeno we thought was the right way but alas not a hill to be seen. As it was getting a little late we headed ... read more

Rising early we decided to head straight to Florence via Pisa, a drive of around 150kms and having had enough of the narrow roads for a while we decided to use the Autostrade to Pisa at least, again very mountainous country and an uneventful drive. Finding parking in Pisa we headed off to the tower for the usual photos, great to see but not overly awe inspiring. Heading off to Florence early as Pam had to work for a while we found our camp ground with little trouble. I must take a moment out now to explain a few things about driving in cities in Italy, ANYTHING GOES, MIGHT IS RIGHT, INDICATORS ARE FOR WIMPS AND SCOOTERS THINK THEY HAVE RIGHT OF WAY. Oh by the way a pedestrian crossing only makes you a target, they ... read more

Leaving Nice was a pleasure as it was not my idea of great but there you have it, we were looking for a camping Store to replace one of the wheel levelers, Mark had forgotten to pick one up several nights ago and now we couldn’t level the camper if needed so we were headed to Nice Caravans some 12kms away from where we were, cruising along the coast road we found the turnoff we needed and headed out. No problems finding the place we got a few supplies for the van and retraced our steps. That was when the trouble really began, being stubborn we refused to use the Autostrade and wanted to cruise the coast road however we found ourselves on the wrong side of the road we needed and could not for the ... read more