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Published: August 19th 2008
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Toscan and Venezia
After a few hectic days in Rome, driving into the Tuscany countryside was such a good break. Taking our new leased car through the central Italian countryside, we ended up in Siena, a small gothic town. The campsite was great; quiet and away from everything, under big oak trees. We tried to slow the pace a bit in Tuscany, and spent most of our time driving between small medieval villages and the Tuscan landscape. The land was yellow and green with acres of sunflower fields between hay bales dotted along the hills. The small towns were also great and we realized we didn’t leave enough time to explore all the castles, cathedrals and cobblestoned streets. One of the days we set out listening to some Italian symphonies, driving around until we found a vineyard to sit next to while we enjoyed our lunch of tomatoes, cheese and bread. How wonderfully cliché but so tasty!
We found cute towns such as Montepulciano, Pienza, San Gimignano, Radi, etc and even (accidentally) drove through the walled villages onto the narrow streets (strictly off limits for cars).
Italy shocked us with the road tolls and price of petrol (and everything).
To get a few hours north, the road toll was 15 euros ($30NZD), so we tried very hard to detour past these tolls. Petrol is exactly double that at home, as is food (even pizza), transportation, etc. The driving in Italy is notorious, but the complete rudeness of the drivers was unexpected for us, as was the lack of cops anywhere. Sure they are patrolling how loudly you talk at the Vatican City or if you walk on a piece of grass in front of the Colosseum, but apparently no traffic police. We found the people to be such a mix, but with certain things in common; loudness, fast driving, constant hand gesticulations, passionate. In the country, the older generation are sweet and helpful, although most can’t speak English but assume you can speak fluent Italian. We just nod and say ‘grazie’ ‘si’ or ‘ciao’ and they think we are on the same wavelength. The city people are on a whole different tempo, fast cars, fast talking, fast living and if you get in their way or in their seat they can push or shout, not at all what Kiwi’s are used to.
From Siena we drove north to Venice
(Venezia), where we stayed at Camping Alba D’Oro just out of town. Bad move; there was five Aussie tour buses pulling up to stay (are they following us?) and that night’s toga party ended with most of the campsite up half the night trying to hide their sheets from the toga’s. We were also very excited to run into the first Kiwi we have seen in the four months of our travels, who was not only from Auckland, but studied with us in the geology deparment, small world! Venice was beautiful, everything you always imagined it would be. Somehow movies and postcards always seem to cut the tourists out of the shot, and this is one place you can’t really imagine without the masses. The 115 or so islands that make up Venice can become very confusing and all end up looking the same after 6 hours walking back and forth. The things to buy in Venice include Murano glass, lace and carnevale masks, while the things to eat are pizza, gelato and marsepan! (all things decadant).
On the way to Venice we thought we would attempt Cinque Terre, but ended up running out of time so did the next
best thing (not really); stopped at Pisa. Pisa, so little to see, so much time…. It’s the kind of place that makes you confused as to why there are no signs directing you to the Tower, I mean is there another reason to stop here? But signs or not, we attempted to park out of town and find our way by guesswork, which ended up paying off. The Tower is found with a collection of other buildings in the central Piazza, full of tourists and sellers. The tower was pretty cool, although getting a photo without everyone’s hands sticking out was difficult. We stopped at a supermarket just before siesta and bought some tomatoes, rolls and cheese which we prepared on a sidewalk just out of town. A local walked past us sitting on the road stuffing our faces and called out ‘Bon Appetito,’ a good note to leave Italy on.
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Marg
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Pisa
You did better than us - we drove into Pisa, couldn't find a sign and after driving around for ages gave it a miss. Italy is expensive - trust you are finding Austria cheaper.