Coastal wandering north

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Tuesday 20th October
Coastal wandering north
After putting the lights out in the mobile home last night and getting it fixed, the electrical system seemed to have coped overnight as the heater kept working and we still have power this morning.We do seem to have buggered up the silly two prong power points in the place though as our European plugs converting from our three prong don’t seem to fit these sockets quite so well.
We have another magnificent sunrise and beautiful day ahead although we are aware in the forecast that this probably won’t last as we head further north as a rain system is due by tomorrow.
We seemed to have spread ourselves far and wide in this little mobile home and it took a while to get everything together and packed into RR for the drive north.We are starting to think how we are going to be able to get down to 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks by the end on November although of course we won’t have the microwave,toaster and food by then.
We caused a bit of a scare at the camp office as we drove RR out.They thought we were going to a runner and not pay our dues but all we needed to do was park RR on the other side of the barrier arm out of the way of other traffic.It all looked a bit serious as one of the ladies came running out signalling us to stop.We all had a laugh about it once we got into the office to pay.
With no fears of the GRA we drove about 10km on it to find the SS1 or Via Aurelia which runs up the western coast from Rome all the way to the French border.Although it is not a designated motorway it started out for us as two lanes both ways with a median barrier meaning that our speed initially was quite good and traffic flowed very smoothly with not a lot of on ramps to it.This also meant that it avoided the small towns and villages but we were keen to get to where it ran close to the coast and enjoy that type of scenery today instead of the inhabitation.
We made the outskirts of Civitavecchia very quickly and Gretchen commented that we would be at our destination before lunch.Thankfully the SS1 skirted around the outside of this city and we maintained our momentum with the road changing between 4 lanes and a median barrier and just a 2 lane road with no barrier.
Gretchen was right and we reached an odd piece of land off the main road that juts out into the sea with a southern access across a causeway to what seems like an island but also had a northern access way which we found when we drove back to the main road later.
We thought we might have lunch here at the town of Orbetello but it wasn’t that interesting looking so we drove further on to the grand sounding seaside port of Porto Santo Stefano.
Here we saw something that hass’t been apparent to us in any of the coastal places we have passed or stopped at and that was some very modern and smart looking holiday apartments on the hillside overlooking the town and sea.They were of course painted in the ever present terracotta colour but they were of a design that was modern and it was a definite eye pleasing change.They looked closed up and like all of the coastal towns with holiday apartments on this western coast would probably remain that way until March or thereabouts next year.Seems like a lot of capital tied up in buildings that only get used for 7 or 8 months of the year.
As far as the township was concerned there wasn’t a lot going for Porto Santo Stefano although we did find ourselves a snack bar for a Panini and Sprite lunch at a table outside in the sun with the workmen who called in during their lunch or whatever they call this middle of the day closedown that happens in Italy.
In the small port were a number of what you would almost call super yachts with a number of different ports registered on their stern and it looks like this place might be a wintering over place for them by their owners who live and work somewhere else in Europe and in one case London.
We had taken our time over lunch and back in RR and on the road we had just 33 kilometres to go to Grosseto to find our overnight accommodation outside of the town.
The Google Maps instructions led us onto the road heading towards the beachside town of Marina di Grosseto although our accommodation was at a local settlement before we go to the seaside.
We followed the signs for the Geo Village Principina all the while passing by farms on a narrow country road across a vast area of flat land that is a coastal plain known as ‘Maremma’ running from the low Tuscan hills about 20km away to the east down to the sea.
After a couple of turns on the road we arrived at the Geo Village Principina and immediately wondered if the place was still open.There must have been about 50 fairly new looking motel style single level apartments arranged in blocks of 5 or 6 linked to each other around a huge block of flat almost undeveloped land.There wasn’t a car or guest to be seen anywhere except for a solitary guy who looked to be pulling out knee high weeds.We spotted what looked like it would the reception office and parked outside wondering what we had signed up for on this one.
Out of nowhere popped a guy who spoke very good English and introduced himself as the Manager and we proceeded to do the check in and he took us across to show us the unit we would have for the night.He asked what time we would be checking out which seemed a bit of an unusual thing to be asked when you have just checked in.It wasn’t as if he was going to be busy with having to deal with a lot of people checking out all at once but we assumed it would probably have some signifigance to us eventually.
After unpacking the few things we needed for the night we took a look outside at the complex complete with 3 connected swimming pools with the filters still running even though the water had turned very green now that the swimming season was over.It looked as though the owners,a group from Florence according to the brochure in the office,had run out of money to complete the complex as although the large area of land in front of the units was flat the attempt to grow grass had failed and all there really was were weeds.
We had the feeling that we would be the only guests and it might be like staying in a ghost town in the west of USA.
The unit has cooking facilities so we drove into Grosseto and did some shopping at a Conad supermercati for dinner and to top up the wine and beer supplies.After all it might be a long evening as the unit doesn’t have a television and nor is there an internet connection although we do still have a few of the movies we brought from home yet to see!!
While we were out it became clear to us that this town is a major base for the Italian air force because as we were returning to the car at the supermercati we thought the town had come under attack as 4 fighter aircraft swooped low over the plain.This all carried on even after we drove back to the Geo Village and it provided us some entertainment for a while until they had done their exercises or had run low on aviation fuel and landed at the airport not that far away.
The unit has a small terrace facing west and it would have been nice to have had our pre dinner drinks and nibbles out there as the sun went down but it became a bit too cool so we had them inside and watched the very beautiful sunset through the large window.
After dinner and not feeling sleepy we did drag out the movie Pearl Harbour forgetting that it was close to 3 hours long and it was nearly 11pm before we called it a night as the sole guests in the ghost village!!

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Comments

[Chris]

I remember Grosseto
We stopped in Grosseto for lunch having flown from NZ non stop. We were bleary eyed and a little lost. But not to worry the locals were so keen to help us out. They started giving us directions with arms waving in all directions and the Italian language flowing like wine. Needless to say we worked out what they were trying to tell us and we were on our way. We remember the occasion well. First introduction to the very friendly locals.