Montemarcello

There were quite a few vans on the aire last night. The couple next to us were German, but they displayed a Spanish registration plate.

Next to the Germans, a young Spanish couple, in a short wheel based, Ford Tourneo van, which had been converted into a compact campervan, which we were impressed with. So that was that, German and Spanish night! At eleven o' clock, we thought their noisy talk should be reduced. We understand, that in Spain, they don't go out of an evening to eat, until ten, ten thirty. But this was Italy, some of the vans had families with young children in them, and we could see the wine and chatter going on a while yet. So at eleven fifteen, John asked if they could quieten down a bit. The German man was very apologetic, but the young Spanish girl, a little opinionated. But just after twelve, they returned to their own vans. At seven o' clock this morning, the Germans beat a hasty retreat, not wanting to face the music from the other van owners. We sound like right miserable English, don't we?

As we walked up to the town this morning, we passed a hen, we named Hetty, busily pecking at the ground, and a white goose.

The goose became very animated when it saw John trying to take its photograph, and lunged through the opening of the gate, to take a peck at his mobile phone. The town was quiet.

Sat on an outside light in a porch area, we saw a pair of swallows, sheltering in the shade, from the already warm morning sun. Outside a shop that specialised in truffles, there was a very large bottle of wine on display, obviously for advertising purposes, which we stopped to look at. Seizing an opportunity, the owner of the shop rushed out, tearing open a packet of truffle flavoured crisps at lighting speed, for us to sample. Taking no for an answer, he proceeded to try and show us more and more truffle products. To escape from him, John said 'we were just poor English, but don't worry, there were some rich Americans heading his way from the top of the road'.

Shortly after leaving Vinci, we stopped at a coop for yet more supplies, and also to sort out Marge's squeaky clutch pedal. We couldn't believe that Marge II had developed this problem, as the same thing had happened last year to Marge I, when we were in Spain. A spray of trusty WD40, and Marge was lubricated back into action.

Tonight's stop is high on the hill at Montemarcello. After a slow drive up, mostly in second gear, we arrived. There was some confusion as to where we should park. Luckily some provincial police officers turned into the parking area, obviously a message had gone out that the Hampton's had arrived! They confirmed where we were allowed to park overnight, and now Marge is squeezed into rather a tight spot. But we have a view towards the hills, whose tops keep disappearing in and out of the cloud.

In a garden quite close to us, we spotted a cockerel. Oh dear, looks like this will be our early morning call, instead of the usual clanging of church bells. Not long after we arrived, a Dutch couple in their seventies turned up. It was half past four, and out came their camp chairs and table, and a bottle of white wine. At a quarter past six they were well into a second bottle. The Dutch lady was wearing a boob tube. (Shouldn't there be an upper age limit for wearing one of these?). As her voice raised from the alcohol, the boob tube began to slip!

A half mile walk from here, takes you down to the cove, but we just walked out as far as the viewpoint, where an Italian man lent us his binoculars to use, to see along the coast, albeit a little hazy.

The cove is only accessible by foot or boat. The sea here is the vibrant blue of the Mediterranean.

A few metres away from us is a restaurant called Locanda della Nonna, (Grandmothers Inn).

Tonight as Johns treat we enjoyed two fantastic pizzas and a very good bottle of local wine. It was nice to take a breath, sit down on the terrace, relax listen to the jazz music, playing inside the restaurant. You think we're on holiday, well if we're not driving, we're cycling or walking. or shopping for food, or handwashing our clothes, or cooking, or washing up, or blogging, so you see it 's all pretty full on!

Tomorrow, we will have to decide how long we stay in Italy before travelling back into France. We understand the heavy rains that England has recently suffered are now passing into France, and will probably last about a week. We are wondering now if we were a little hasty in deciding to start turning back.