An Italian beach resort..........in the rain

Wednesday 21st October
An Italian beach resort....in the rain
Places with shutters do keep the light out exceptionally well and our unit in ‘the ghost village’near Grossetto certainly did that.All the same it didn’t take us long to shower and have breakfast and prepare for the road trip further north up the western coast of Italy.We had only brought in our backpacks and food as we have been doing for one night stays so we can’t spread ourselves too far and wide.
We had told the guy when we checked in that we would be ready to leave at 10am and even though we were ready at 9.30am we thought he would be around at that time to take our money and we could be on our way.
Not so!!We had seen a light on in another of the units in the next block and his car was parked close by so we went and knocked on the door.After all there was no one else staying in the large complex so it must be the unit he was in.But there was no answer.
So we thought that perhaps if we start tRR up he would hear the motor and come out for his money.That didn’t work either.So we sat and waited in the car and eventually at 10.15am he appeared after his worker,who spoke no English but in sign language we made ourselves understood,telephoned him to say we wanted to leave.
The sky to the northwest was dark and threatening and the forecast is for rain for the next two days..Still we have been so exceptionally lucky with the weathe and to date since mid April there has only been three days when we have been kept indoors by rain.
To start our drive we took a little detour down to Marina di Grossetto and found a large beachside town almost totally closed down for the approaching winter.The place ,like the complex we had stayed in last night,was likme a ghost town and it was only when we drove back out to the road to take us north that we saw a couple of people on the main street back from the beach.The beach itself was flat and had good sand cover that we imagine would attract the crowds in the summer.
We were driving the SP322 and as far as we could tell that would take us most of the way to our destination near Pisa but on the coast.Our plan was to visit the leaning tower in Pisa if the weather was OK or we would leave it until tomorrow in the hope that the weather might not be too bad.
We were only a short time on the road and the rain arrived and at times it was heavy creating sheets of water on the road.
The rain eased as we approached the turn off to the seaside settlement of Punta Ala and as we had a heap of time up our sleeve we journeyed down to see if this place was different to any of the other beach places we have stopped by.
It was about 5 km down the road to the township and this was even more closed up than the marina near Grossetto we went into first this morning.It is quite unreal to see whole towns basically empty of people and apartment blocks shut up.
It looked a tidy place and the buildings far more modern than other towns on the coast but really just geared for the holiday market.
We returned to the main road again and followed it through Follonica and on northwards as the rain returned again making driving quite difficult with a lot of road spray.
The rain stopped again as we entered Cecina and we pulled into a supermarcarti that had a snack bar attached and had our lunch there.It is interesting to see workers down having there lunch and sipping on glasses of red wine which looks to be a daily habit.Mind you they only have one glass and its back to work.
We got ourselves back on the A1 after lunch and avoided the downtown area of Livorno,a large industrial city with a very busy looking port.We passed a very expansive plant that was producing motor vehicles and then the area where the finished vehicles were parked waiting to be transported.We don’t think we have seen so many cars in one small area as here.
With the rain coming and going we decided we would visit the Leaning Tower tomorrow in the hope that the weather improves.We still had to negotiate our way through Pisa to get down to the beach and our accommodation and this turned out to be no easy feat although we did make it in the end with just the odd backtrack required.
The Arno River empties into the sea at Marina di Pisa and there was a lot of small boat building and yacht moorings on the river near the sea.
Out hotel for the night is the Boboba Residence and it’s a bit like a resort with a huge swimming pool with a water slide.We can imagine that this place would hum in the summer but now it was fairly quiet with onlt a few rooms taken if the car park was anything to go by.
As we checked in we were asked if we intended to use the kitchen facilities in the unit.We had thought we would as it was one of the reasons we had chosen the hotel as well as the discounted price being off season.That is until the guy on reception told us that we would need to pay another €25 to use the cooker etc!!!!He did acknowledge that the €25 was a one off cost and therefore it worked out less on a per night basis if we were staying longer.
No,we told him,we will not be using the cooking facilities.We didn’t like to tell him we had our own travelling kitchen in the form of a microwave and toaster that cost us only a little more than €25 and has paid for itself many times over!!!So again the microwave and toaster were back in action.
We had been cooped up in the car for most of the day and we took a chance as the rain had stopped to stroll along the promenade of the beach(no sand just stones) .The place reminded us of Bluff with old buildings in need of renovation or replacing.Perhaps it was also the grey overcast sky which it always seems to be when we visit Bluff.

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