Le Spezia

Last night the air was fresher, and we slept better, affording ourselves a lie in until eight thirty. Really, we overslept, because the cockerel let us down, and didn't crow.

Our descent off the mountain was long and winding. At times we could glimpse the blue waters below, and realised just how high up we were.

Stopping at a lay-by to take a photograph, we couldn't believe that someone had come all the way up here to dump their rubbish.

We were on route to the Cinque Terre, (five villages), but as we travelled some hazardous roads, causing an increase in our heart rate, and that was before we looked down, we decided to just pull into the car park, that we thought we may stay overnight in, but some signage said otherwise.

From our parking area, sheer terraces rose to an incredible height.

A man pulled in next to us, and proceeded to unload a fridge, which he then put onto flat bed carriage, on a single track rack and pinion rail, with his wife straddling the fridge with her legs, whilst he operated the Honda 250cc engine, that powered them up the slope, to one of the tiny properties on the mountainside. Seeing John watching, the lady gave a cheery wave. Amazing, we'd never seen anything like it before.

Our parking area was situated right above one of the five towns, Riomaggiore. We ended up spending nearly four hours there, just looking at the views, walking across the viaduct, and chatting to an elderly German road cyclist, who was impressed with Marge, (aren't they all?). Quite a few people were walking the Cinque Terra, but the footpath by us was closed, so they had to walk alongside the road through the mountain tunnel adjacent to us, which some were not so keen about.

After hours of indulging ourselves in not driving, and basically people watching, we set off back down to Le Spezia.

It is a large port town, so naturally, there was a cruise ship moored up, this one belonged to Royal Carribean International, and was huge. We both agreed, it wouldn't have been for us van people!

Tonight's aire is behind the ambulance station, near a Marina and close to the dock area.

Upon our arrival, we were booked in by a very friendly and helpful paramedic lady, who spoke all western European languages. She wrote down information regarding buses to the railway station and back, and gave us leaflets on the tour boats to Cinque Terre. The aire is busy, and there are a couple of English vans down on the perimeter, Marge of course is amongst her usual fellow travellers!

Upon our arrival, the lady opposite seemed fascinated by us, quick turn the tea towel around to the clean side, in case she comes over! After dinner, a mobile gelato van came into the site, driven by Lino. We know that was his name, because he announced it over his microphone in nearly every European language as he drove around. The whole show was bizarre, only in Italy we thought. We did wonder how Lino accessed the site though, as after eight o' clock in the evening, there is supposed to be no access. Perhaps he works on the ambulances when he's not selling ice cream. Opposite, the lady who is now no longer interested in us, dispatched her husband to purchase two ice creams. She has now slipped into something more comfortable, some sort of one piece with shorts a little to short to cover her large buttocks! Every day we seem to see some sort of clothing malfunction!

We are planning to stay at this aire or a couple of nights. Tomorrow we hope we take the train to the Cinque Terre, saving Marge any more trauma. For now, it is time to enjoy a bottle of Chianti, bought for just 2.19 euros at the coop yesterday. It was the cheapest we'd ever seen Chianti, so were not expecting it to be excellent, but we'll tell you this, it's not half bad!

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.

Vinci

Last night, we slept much better, but still woke up early, as we do every morning. Over breakfast we discussed our loose plan for the day. We say loose, because the plan has a habit of changing due to circumstances. Which is just what happened today. We had originally decided to visit Florence, being so close by, it seemed wrong not to take the opportunity. We had read on the internet that some people had, had their vans broken into there, but we sourced a recommended 'secure' car park on the internet, and set off. As always we mistimed our arrival, It was 12 noon, just the time the Italians break for lunch, and it seemed like every car, scooter and motorbike had taken to the roads. But Marge, now fairly fearless, having learnt a few tricks on Italian driving, got amongst the people of Florence. Upon arriving at the recommended car park, which sounded perfect, as it would have only been a fifteen minute cycle ride into the city, we both had the same gut feeling, as did the German couple who arrived just after us. The van would not be safe here.

So we changed our plans, and thought about moving onto Lucca. But after some research on the internet, we decided to also give it a miss, as van security there was also a major problem.

So after our false starts, we headed straight to tonight's aire, at the small town of Vinci. Yes, as in the one and only, Leonardo da Vinci, inventor, painter, sculpture, master of drawing. He was born in Anchiano, a nearby village. As it had been so hot today, we decided to do the sensible thing, and walk up to the town later in the afternoon.

It was a fifteen minute walk to the town, uphill as always. The town was quiet, the day visitors now gone, leaving just a few local people, and the camper people from the aire to mill around, which was great, as we were able to take a lot of photographs without some random person appearing in it. Except for Angela, who always seems to have the same man wandering into the shot.

The views from the town, of the breathtaking Tuscan countryside were amazing from every angle. As we walked around taking in the sights and exhibits, the heady smell of jasmine, growing up the walls of the houses and restaurants, filled the air.

We took a look inside the church, where Leonardo was baptised, the original font used, still in there today. The modern lectern and alter of carved olive wood were stunning.

Tomorrow, we will head back to the town to visit the four Leonardo museums. This evening we obtained a map from the Tourism office, so we are already to go. It will be nice to be able to set off straight after breakfast, without having to drive somewhere, find somewhere to park Marge, and then tired from the heat and the travelling, set off on foot to explore.

Four weeks tomorrow, we return to England. We can't believe how quickly this last week has passed by. To date we have now travelled just over 2,600 miles.

But for now, we will enjoy the bells from Vinci's church, which we can see from our aire, and the late evensong of the birds.