tunnels bridges garlic and Pisa

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Today was a day of tunnels and tolls. Lots of both. And bridges. After a very very hot night and a very very nice breakfast we went to see if Jason was still where we'd left him (after seeing the Italian cops towing cars galore last night I was a bit scared we'd have to begin a hunt to find him.) Fortunately he was still there so off we set. Through the most complicated motorway entrance so far. I'm not sure why we needed to do five hairpin bends and four different roads to get through a toll we could see from where we stared but I'm sure there was a reason somewhere.....For at least two hundred of the three twenty km we travelled today we were either in a tunnel or on a bridge. The tunnels all smell of garlic. This may be a plot by the Italian tourist agency to make you hungry or it may not but it did. Our intent was to go to Pisa, take a picture of the tower and clear off. No one we know had rated Pisa and were all pretty damming of it as a place so we started to think we might not be giving it a fair chance and decided to play it by ear and maybe even stay there the night. So......We parked up ( easy, cheap, one nil Pisa) close to the tower ( two nil Pisa) got slightly intimidated by the clearly not Italian hat selling man watching us (two one Pisa) walked in the blazing heat (too hot but I can't blame Pisa) saw the tower (three one) got accosted by a scary touting woman in white (three two) got glared at and tutted at by her as we had no cash for her once she'd made us take her picture (three all) got scared by her again as she attached onto someone else (3,4) bought a magnet and got scowled at by the vendor for not having the exact change (3,5) and went back to the van. ( which wasn't stolen, we'd half expected to find mini Dexter dog sitting alone on the pavement, no Jason in sight) So Pisa, despite us wanting to give you a chance, thanks for the picture but I don't think we'll be back. We headed back out of Pisa, got fuel (this took ages, another example of Italian over complication!!!!) And got to camping Italia. Got shouted at by a man who looked like my dad( he may not have shouted but who can tell in Italian!!) Parked up and went straight to the lovely lovely pool. Aside from being genuinely horrified at an (albeit attractive) man in his budgie smugglers this was heaven. Cheap pizza for tea at the campsite and a cool down under a tree and all was well.

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