Well, what a quiet night in the mountains & cool too so we slept well! We needed a couple of things so went into Figline, which is a very nice town, via a beautiful road down the opposite side of the mountain through forests & vineyards of Chiante coupled with just beautiful villages on the way...& the roads weren't bad either until we got onto the main road at the bottom...It really is a beautiful area An uneventful journey & into Massa. Our chosen camp site was closed for siesta so we went to another which was pretty big & mainly statics ie caravans with purpose built extensions & awnings & every home comfort you can imagine. It was like a very well maintained shanty town really but it was very clean. We didn't visit the ... read more

We had a leisurely start to the day, used the washing machine & did bits & bobs & after lunch cycled a few km to the nearest town of Trevignano Romano on the banks of the lake. It was lovely as the town stretched along the lakeside & there was a promenade, 2/3 devoted to canvas covered cafes & tables served by the restaurants across the road & 1/3 path which we were able to cycle on. It was full again, mainly of Italians having noisy Sunday lunch. Further on it became a beach side by the lake with people squeezed in everywhere sunbathing, swimming, windsurfing etc. We stopped for a welcome ice cream in the heat. Headed back via a 15thcentury church..which was locked, on a Sunday...it was hardly a centre of vandalism surely? Anyway, ... read more

Our chappie on reception had told us to get into the city when it opened at 9am before the coach tours from Naples & Rome piled in. We went to the gates which are just across the road & there were about 200 people waiting to get in. I asked a cafe owner what was happening – 'problem inside, open at 11'. So back to Billy, then back to the gates where we then queued for 40 minutes in the heat but thankfully in the shade to buy the tickets. After a while you'd have thought the entire population of Japan had arrived – thousands & thousands of them! Again, all armed with selfie sticks, umbrellas, Hello Kitty gear & posing for photos with two fingers up or making a heart shape with their hands - ... read more

Writing this post lunch as tomorrow we leave for Pompeii on the east coast & it's a fair trek of around 200 km. (Ooh, I kid ye not – Frankie Howard, Up Pompeii! for those too young to know what I'm talking about) Sunday as expected was rammed! Cars were piling in from about 7.30am – so we stuck around Billy for the day, dozed, put a new inner tube in Cathy's bike & a few little jobs. We've been to beach & swam plenty of times since though. We had a home made pizza made by Luigi in the restaurant that evening – it was “delicious” Arthur! Yesterday morning we took the bikes to the nearest small town about 6 miles away as Cathy wanted to find a hairdressers – we both need a haircut. ... read more

Having looked at Ostuni on the interweb we discovered that whilst it has a big church (locally called a cathedral) & a few nice buildings in the centre, it's main claim to fame is that most, if not all, the buildings are painted white, hence 'the white city'. We didn't want to take Billy into the centre so we looked from afar & headed to Alberobello. This town's claim to fame is that a lot of buildings in the old town & plenty others around have a conical roof. The Dyson tried to take us up roads that were unsuitable & the town was a maze of small streets; on the basis that we didn't know where the centre was, the car parks were miles away, sign posts were few & we were short on time, ... read more