Italy 111 - Mantova - The Rubics cube of an entrance , I wish it could be Christmas every day

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As we tried to outrun the weather we consulted the maps and decided to head to Mantova in the hope that perhaps we might find some of that elusive sunshine. This has been the oddest holiday so far with some of the worse weather we have even seen. If it didnt rain in the morning then it rained in the afternoon. If we escaped the rain in the day it poured down at night. We have had little luck with the weather this year.

We had been to Mantova before and planned just a small amount of sightseeing and to take a meal on the square in what would hopefully be evening sunshine. Beforehand we had picked our site Sparafucile a sort of cross between a municipal site and a camping club of Mantova site. We had been before so knew what it would be like. Our drive was fairly non descript and we pulled up at the site entrance, Now this is where you have to start think of the frustration you feel when you fail to make a Rubics cube work. Think about those quiz and challenge games on the tv where you need a certain amount of luck, a little bit of skill, some general knowledge and the ability to think laterally.

We drove in. We could see our destination in front of us. There were already a number of motorhomes parked up. In front of us was another van already trying to break the code to get in. The lady of the van - it seems as if it always the lady who does the asking about a site, the paying for a site and gets over the language barriers. Husband had parked up his van and she was at the machine. The machine stands next to the original shed/office that the security guard used to sit in. Now everything is automated. This is where the fun starts. She - I never asked her name- was looking at the machine and looking bemused. She tried notes in the hole. They spewed back out. She tried coins - they were spat back. She looked as if she was going to kick the machine. Instead she tried the help button which spewed out fast Italian instructions. Standing behind her I was watching closely not understanding a word but hoping whe was fathom what to do. In the end she got in the van, husband reversed the beast and they gave up.

Now it was my turn. No instructions or at least none I could understand. I tried notes and coins with the same results. Glenn came out and tried. Nothing . We were being denied access. Then our saviour appeared. A lovely Italian lady with a little french and good at hand gestures accompanied by the widest of smiles. She pointed to the van. She pointed to another barrier which we had missed because it was hidden by the other van. She gestured - drive to the barrier. She smiled , pointed to a button and the penny dropped. We were at the wrong barrier. We were trying to get a ticket out of the payment machine. All we needed to do was drive to the barrier press the button and hey presto out popped the ticket. We could park up and tomorrow we would go to the paying machine put our ticket back in,pay our 15 euros for overnight stop and the barrier would let us out.

Parked up we were next to an old couple both wearing dressing gowns in the middle of the afternoon. They had been in the showers. These were opened using the same barrier ticket. This year we got electricity too.

Then there is the floor . The ground was covered in white . It looked furry , it looked like snow . You could almost imagine building a snowman or having a snow fight. The white furry stuff fell from the trees like snow and covered everything it touched . The soles of our shoes were an inch thicker after walking in it as were Suzys boots. The kids loved the stuff which got in everywhere through doors and windows. We never did find out what it was. It was here last time we arrived and it looked like flowers in the trees whose petals were falling to the ground. The stuff on the floor looked like cotton wall.

We walked into Mantova , sat in the evening sunshine and ate a pretty average meal in the square in the shadow of the medieval buildings. We watched some young ladies advertising something . Dressed in pretty medieval garb they looked the part until we saw pink trainers spoiling the effect under the clothing. We saw an old man in dirty trousers and shirt. His age difficult to tell. He walked the cobbled square bending over now and again. Picking up cigarette ends as he walked, he put them to his lips lit them and smoked the dregs of what someone else had thrown away. We felt saddened. We wondered how and why he had ended up this way. We tried to find him to give him a few euros but by the time we had finished our meal he had disappeared to wherever he came from.

Mantova is a wonderful city and we see it at its best from a distance as we walk back to our campstop of the night. The castle is majestic but how I wish the city would dredge the moat and clean it up. The river is on the doorstep. It would not take much to divert some water to provide a more welcoming feature around the castello. The walls are losing their mortar, the bricks are being chipped away. The city sadly will lose a beautiful feature if they dont start to look after it.

As we went to bed we found ourselves singing. I don't think it will take much for you to work out what that song was . "I wish it could be Christmas every day .................................." Wizzard

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Comments

[jackieandchris2011]

Weather
I think the weather has been pretty bad everywhere this year - we went to Spain last week for 8 days or so and had rain and unsettled weather all week - unheard of in May!!