First stop on the way home

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Geo: 45.7369, 7.31452

Sadly we had to leave our friends and start making our way home from Tuscany heading North on the motorway. Unfortunately there just aren't the picnic places in Italy like they have in France. Eventually we had to pull into a service station and spread our ground sheet on a grassy area in order to eat our picnic lunch. Later that afternoon we turned off into the town of Aosta which is nestled beneath the snow capped mountains near Mont Blanc. We were unaware that our sat nav was trying to send us directly through the middle of the pedestrianized area. Eventually when we were lost a cyclist told us we were not supposed to be there and he kindly cycled in front and got us out. We had to phone the hotel to find the correct way to get there, which was down some very narrow streets and eventually into a secure car park. A quick beer in the hotel bar before we changed was in order after the ordeal.
The hotel itself was nothing to write home about but was functional, modern and had all the necessities in the bathroom and had a decent buffet breakfast the next morning as well as being very close to the old pedestrianized area.
This we walked into later in the evening. The restaurant we fancied was empty so we decided to have a drink in the bar around the corner. This bar served complimentary snacks with the wine and we could tell that a large group of young lads on the next table were taking advantage of these and possibly having them instead of paying for dinner as they kept on asking for more!
By the time we strolled back to our preferred restaurant it was heaving and we were lucky to get a table. The Ristorante Moderno is a very popular and lively place. The food was all good basic stuff and cheap. We had a second bottle of wine at the end as it was just good to sit and watch the Italian world go by in this busy place.

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Comments

[pjc]

Sometimes, even the best Statnav that I've seen, will let you down. Overall, I thik we were all pretty darn well served though.