Italy 122 - Este/a day of three car parks/Monselice and its road works/Montagnana and its palio

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It rained rather a lot overnight. That has been a continuous feature of the weather. Rain one day and cool the next interspersed with sunshine. Autumn has moved on a lot with the trees cloaked in their plum and crimson coats. We slept well through it though. Waking only as dawn was breaking on an Italian Monday morning. As we lay there listening to the towns church bells ringing and town waking up, we could hear the sound of cars. Mums bringing their children in to school. The car park soon filled up which for us meant time to move on.

We thought when we get home we will clean Suzy. Shake the dust off her exterior, pull her carpets up and empty all the cupboards in order to take her to get a valuation against a Globecar. Before we left though I needed a quick call in to the Co-op to replenish our stocks of bread and milk. With no fridge it is proving hard to buy food to last us more than a day and a half. Outside the supermarket was a lone beggar. An African lad -probably a migrant who has been foisted on the town. They dont seem to want him and I wonder if he now thinks Europes streets are paved with gold. They cannot work as no-one wants them and they cannot move about freely and head somewhere else. There is no war where they come from so maybe the best option might be to return home.

Ok so what is on the menu today as the late Jimmy Young would say. Firstly the medieval town of Monselice with its walls. Shouldnt be hard for Silly Sat Nag to find the sosta. She tried despite knowing our size to take us down twisty and streets that turned. Down roadworks where the roads were really too narrow for us. She guided us to a dead end close to the railway sation which necessitated a three point turn. Tricky in a 3.5 ton vehicle. We felt fed up with Silly. She will have to go. We felt fed up with Suzy even though she has served us well these last 5 and a half year. On all the twelve trips we have undertaken we have none like this one where everything seems to go wrong for us. We even question our own sanity. Is it us? Have we fallen out of love with motorhoming and the reply comes back with an emphatic NO. We make the decision to ignore Monselice and head for another medieval town of Este. Again walls so lets see what Silly does. She tried to take us left a junction when the sign clearly says Este to the right. We ignore her pleading to "turn around where possible" and continue up into the hills. We had less trouble in Greece than here in Italy. Why does Silly want us to go the opposite way to the way we want to go? Who knows? We are ignoring her.

Eventually we arrive in the much smaller town of Este. It is a little gem. A huge car park - empty too. 1 euro 50 for a mornings parking. We park up and take a look around the extensive walls which are free to walk around. That is because there is not a lot in them. The town however was charming. It was quiet with just enough people to make it interesting. There was a museum, a 12th century clocktower with astronomical clock and arcades to both sides. Sheltering from the rain when it was wet and from the sweltering summer heat they made shopping a pleasure. We stopped for a drink to while away an hour or so and then headed for the cake shop. There was a lovely selection of large cakes on display but for some reason the owner would not cut a single slice . You bought the whole cake or none of it. I bought a small selection of tiny cakes ranging from sponges to cream horns. Lovely to eat with a drink in Suzy before we headed off for the next destination of the day . Car park number three and medieval town number three Montagnano.

I jokingly said as we started out for the next town "Do you know you would have driven less miles if we had gone down to Sicily". Glenn agreed , he had no choice given the extra mileage Silly had put on the clock. "OK" he said "Sicily next year". We had hoped to visit Montagnano a few years ago before we had Suzy but never managed it. So today we were going to add it to the places we had visited. We approached the town and drove alongside the wonderful walls. Much larger and much more impressive than Este. Silly knew the car park and headed in. Within walking distance of the town this was going to be perfect. Of course it was - until we found an empty car park. Now that cannot be right. At one end was parked two Laika motorhomes and two cars. In came a third Laika and a third car. They all seemed together. We emptied Suzys grey water and I went to ask if we could park. The workmen pointed to the signs and said sosta and then they made the gesture of cutting their throats. OK sosta closed . Its palio weekand we are not going to get parked. If we do we risk being towed away.

So another day with three places to visit and only one managed . We enjoyed the one so had to count our blessings. Knowing our luck we shouldnt have even managed Este. According to Lama Siryo Das "Everything passes, nothing remains , understand this and loosen your grip and find serenity". At first we got annoyed at missing the things we had come to see but in the end wll it is all part and parcel of this wonderful thing we do - travelling.

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