Bologna

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Italy!!
Day 18 (if you say it quickly it just pops out without blinking an eyelid)
We have arrived in our second country. AND THEY HAVE A QWERTY KEYBOARD!!!!!!

The last night in Salon was again lovely. We discovered this beautiful Morrocan restaurant, I was over the moon about the vegetables so you know it must have been good, We had Morrocan rosé which was like Rosé light. it was more sé than rose, Still it went down well.

Then it was up early to begin our adventure in Italy, We said farewell to Clare (our GPS voice and family in joke) at the border and we were on our own, before we left though we were treated to soem of the most stunning scenery either of us have ever seen. You can understand why the French and Italians and the rest of the world go crazy over the riviera. Hope to put the photos up at the next port of call.

Before I leave france one more observation. The road system is beyond question but there is a really quirky aspect to their toll system which amuses me. When you get your ticket or pay a toll there are about 57 toll booths which means that every car goes to a differnet booth, after we pay there is a kind of Le Mans start scramble by all 57 cars to get to the 3 available lanes. It's very French.

Italy, Bella!!!!

We drove into Santo Stefano Al Mare between San Remo and Imperia. It was beautiful, We smelt the sea for the first time since leaving home, I donà't know if i've said this already but Liz is a genius at choosing accommodation, we stayed at the only motel we will stay in on our trip and it was just terrific. 2 minutes to the beach. the only negative is that motel food like doof doof music and market crap is universally bad. we had decioded to eat in before we arrived and we now wished we had gone to one of the nbice seaside restaurants, we had a lovely walk along the boardwalk and drank some wine before it raine again, Yesterday hit 23°, amazing when you consider it was 0° 10 days ago in Amiens.
Today we drove to Bologna and we are doing this blog from a cafe in the centre. Amazing scenery, we went from mediterranean coastline with heat to mountains and snow and back to dead flat Hay Plains type flatness in 5 hours.

Couple of things to note
1. it appears that like in Bordeaux paying your bus fare in Bologna is optional.
2. You know the part down the front of the bus that says you can't stand here? We had 17 people standing in that space this afternoon. We couldn't read any capacity limits on the number of passengers but if there was one it too would be optional.
3. The motor scooter is ubiquitous here. they appear out of nowhere and suddenly they're beside you riding on the centre line. they're like sucker fish that loiter with intent on sharks.
4. To look at there is absolutley no distinction between a main road through a city and a back street. today i was sure we were going through the back streets of Imperia and it turned out to be the main highway. No joke.
5. The Italian language as she is spoke is a parody of itself. Every stereotyped italian, every over the top italian character you have ever seen is the truth. This is a culture which yearns for sublety.

Over to Liz
Barney hasn't left me much to tell.
The scenery on the drive from France was beyond description. absolutely stunning!!! Through the mountains, through tunnel after tunnel after tunnel.......... The longest one was 2.2km. Also over bridges/viaducts that seemed to have been stuck on to the side of the mountains. From San Remo to Genova the road wound up and through the mountains which seemed to rise straight up from the sea. From La Spezia to Parma the scenery changed from dry Oz type scrub to snowcapped mountains about 5kms from where we were. These are the Appenine Mtns, Barney feels obliged to tell you.
Our hotel here is a little oasis in the middle of high rise flats in a rundown part of town, with a bus to the city centre at the door.
Barney has just attempted to send some photos but it still isn't happening, It may not, as it causes great anguish when every attempt is made!
Love to all

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