Rome, Florence and the Tour de France

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A day and a half in Rome provided us with enough time to zoom through the main sights – the colosseum, Spanish steps, Trevi fountain, and the Vatican from the outside. At no time did we go hungry or thirsty having plenty of opportunity to sample the local delicacies – coffee, wine, pasta, pizza and gelato.

We picked up our hire car in Rome and headed to our next destination, Florence. Arriving in Florence we checked in to a local campsite, given our lack of tent, we opted for the ‘glamping’ option and stayed in one of the ready made tents, it even had a wooden floor and required no pegs – our kind of camping. We spent the night exploring Florence, which really took us aback. It is a beautiful romantic city with stunning architecture, winding streets and perfect views. We also sampled the local dish of Steak Florentine, which received the thumbs up, Tom did note that it was not quite as good as the Steak a la Bob Merrett but it was up there.

Saying a temporary farewell to Italy we headed over the border to try to catch the 13^th stage of the Tour de France which happened to fall on Bastille day. We (well Tom) drove for hours along the coast of Italy, to eventually reach Nice. Arriving in Nice to find no accommodation available, we decided to get back on the road and head for Aix en Provence which according to Lonely Planet sounded like a quaint French town. By this time it was 11pm and we had to give into the urge to sleep so opted to spend the night sleeping in the car at a motorway service station; it seems to be the thing to do as there were plenty other cars pulled up too. After a night of broken sleep we headed to Aix en Provence and found ourselves in food paradise as the local market was just opening. We got a little bit excited stocking up on supplies; bread, olives, cheese, ham and dips. On the road again, with no real clue as to what road the Tour de France would be on, we headed in the general direction of where we thought it would be. We got lucky and managed to stumble across Tour de France officials, using our best French (cest le route de le Tour de France, or something like that) we fathomed out that the tour would be passing a road 8km further on at around 2pm. We set up camp on the side of the road beside the locals and waited with our picnic. After a three hour wait it was all over in a few seconds, it was great to watch and we were literally inches away from the cyclists, Tom saw Cadel, I of course had no idea who was who but cheered none the less.

We decided to head to Avignon for the night however failed to read the warning in the Lonely Planet that the town festival was on and it was absolutely mobbed with no sign of accommodation anywhere. After sleeping in the car the night before, the prospect of another night sleeping by the road was not an option so we decided to head to Lyon, our next destination and see if we could find accommodation on the way. An hour or so on the road and the Hotel Formula 1 came to the rescue, a bargain at 40 Euros we were so happy to not have to spend another night sleeping in the car. Onto Lyon...

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Photos

Apparently a Scottish Pub
In the middle of Florence and Lucy drags us in for an Ale...