Well I am having a day of languishing in the van. The skies are decidedly grey and every now and then a big bucketload of rain comes down and soaks everything. Nick is off helping a fellow traveller in his campervan with some DIY, he's been gone for hours and has taken the soldering kit with him so who knows when he'll be back...
Last night there was the most terrific thunderstorm, our power went out and the rain was torrential. You really feel the elements when you're in a campervan, the lightning was so vivid and the thunder was so loud, we were snuggled up all nice and warm and it was really very exciting. Today all our tables and chairs and our awning are soaked through and covered with leaves. The air is still very damp.
We have been here for a few days now, staying at a site called 'Happy Camping', which is apparentely named after a porn film, so I was told yesterday. We are on the north ringroad outside the city, and can get into the centre on a train for one euro which is a bargain. Yesterday we went to the Vatican Museum and got very achy legs - it is massive. We saw the Sistene chapel of course, the second time for me but the first for Nick... and all of the collections from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. We both found that stuff a lot more exciting than all of the religious imagery. There is some interesting modern stuff there as well though, Dali and Francis Bacon. We were so tired and hungry when we finished as we hadn't taken a packed lunch that we decided to go for some wine and a pizza. Bit naughty when on a tight budget but there you go.
We came to Rome from Umbria and Lake Trasimeno, which is the most beautiful Lake we have found on our travels. It even beat Garda. Out site was two metres from the waters edge and it was incredibly peaceful. Just below our camper there was a nest of 'Nutria' in the rocks, they are Italian otter type creatures and are very cute, with fat bodies and round heads. We watched them come out every evening and swim off for fishies. We did a lot of cycling and walking around the lake and into the surrounding hills. It was just lovely. We also saw little bats, owls, herons and egrets plus all sorts of gulls, it was a twitchers paradise! We had good weather there, sunbathing weather even which was glorious. We've travelled further south and it's got worse! But apparentely its snowing in the UK so I really can't complain. It's still Tshirt weather, you don't need a jumper until the evening. We also met some great fellow travellers from the UK - John & Rosie from Cornwall who are beef farmers and Sean and Iona who are also longterm travellers like us.
We were thinking of going to Croatia after Italy but after some research we have discovered that there are hardly any campsites open after October, so we will probably head up Italy again and into France. Paris before Christmas would be nice, then back to the UK from Christmas and January.
So its a day off today then we are going into Rome again tomorrow. We still have so much to see in the city: the Colosseum, the Old Jewish Quarter, The Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, Villa Borghese..... I think we will stay in this campsite for about another week.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Bogulicious
Buongiorno again, I am still in Italy, woo!
At the moment I am languishing in luxury sat in the camper as we now have internet in our van! This is such an incredible luxury, I really really appreciate having it. We had to pay for it of course, and we only have it for one month so I am making the most it.
So, to carry on with the travels… we left Deiva Marina on the north coast of Italy and drove east to another coastal town called Viareggio. At this stage the coast had just started turning south into the boot part of Italy, so you can imagine where we were. We chose Viareggio because it is close to both Pisa and Lucca; both cities are only a short bus ride away, so we stayed there for about a week. As well as being by the seaside our campsite was on the doorstep of a beautiful cycle path through nature woods, which apparentely contained such exotic delights as wild boars, snakes and tortoises. I was very disappointed not to see any.
Pisa's grand Piazza is indeed worth visiting. The tower is darn expensive for what it is but you have to go up it, it's the law. You also have to take goofy photos of yourself 'propping up' the tower or you are seized by the local authorities and thrown off the top.
Lucca is a very beautiful, small Mediaeval city with many stunning old Churches. As a city it is more impressive than Pisa. You see so many Churches though, you get a bit numb by the end of it. It also is surrounded by an impressive set of walls that you really wouldn't want to fall off of.
After that week we drove inland, into central Tuscany and Florence. We found a camperstop right in the centre of the city which was cheap, fairly quiet and ideal for visiting the sights. And visit the sights we certainly did. We walked and walked around the endless beautiful streets and payed a visit to the Uffizi Gallery which was wonderful. They have works of art there like Botticelli's Venus rising out of the sea on her floating shell, as well as Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vince and Giotto. They also have lots of old Roman sculptures which are awesome.
We walked up hundreds of steps to the top of the Duomo to take in the panoramic view of the city with the Tuscan hills all around in the distance. We also visited the Santa Croce Church, the Ponte Vecchio bridge and many street markets. While we were there I bought a funky red leather jacket that is the only item of clothing I’ve bought since travelling! How unlike me is that. The last thing I bought was in Southampton before I left. That’s the start of August folks, I really am a changed woman.
We had one disaster in Florence though, well two infact now I think. The first was that my bankcard had to be stopped because some utter idiot in an internet shop discovered my pin number by his complete ineptitude as operating a chip and pin machine. When asking me to put in my pin number he hadn’t put the price in first so my pin number appeared as the price and he got to see it. I didn’t trust him at all and phoned my bank who told me to cancel it immediately. Yah boo sucks to him and now I have no card.
The second thing was that our fridge well and truly broke. It is a small fridge, but apparentely camper fridges are very special and therefore expensive because they run off gas, 12v and 240v electricity. So we managed to find an Electrolux repair man just outside of the city and thank God he had the part and managed to fix it within a few hours while we sat around chatting, smoking fags and sipping espresso, but the circuit board bit that broke was €330, RRRaaahhhhhhhhh! The pain was immense but we literally had no choice but to grin and bear it. We do need a fridge. Brand new the thing costs well over a grand which is just staggering.
Currently we are one stop on from Florence (with, touch wood, a working fridge). We are about 80km south of the city, still in Tuscany and just outside of a town called Arezzo. We are 7km away from the town in a very rural village called Ruscello which has many olive groves, vinyards and old, dusty looking Italian men sitting around smoking outside bars. It is so pretty I feel as if I am in the film ‘Stealing Beauty’. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Jeremy Irons suddenly popped up and started spouting poetry at me. I feel so relaxed here I could melt into the sofa.
We cycled into Arezzo yesterday and discovered, to my delight, that it is where they filmed a large portion of the film ‘Life is Beautiful’ which is officially one of my favourite films of all time. The first half, if you have seen it, before it is set in a concentration camp! Arezzo has an old centre with a Cathedral and big open squares and Churches. We went in on a Friday and there was also a large market selling food from all over the place. We bought some Dutch cheese that is like a really strong mature cheddar, mmmm. They had stalls from all over Europe but the British one only sold pottery, for some bizarre and upsetting reason. If they had sold marmite I think I would have ransacked the joint and bought the lot. Marmite, and nice sliced bread, are two things European in general really don’t do. I love their bread, but it is so fresh if you don’t buy it everyday it goes off, and if you buy it daily you have to wolf it all in one day and you end up bloated on bread which really won’t do… Bring on the English bread that’s stuffed full of preservatives, that’s what I say!
Well we are leaving this lovely campsite tomorrow and heading south to Lake Trasimeno for a few days before carrying on towards Rome. A lot of campsites are closed now for the winter so we have to rifle through our guide to find open ones. There are loads around Rome though so that shouldn’t be a problem.
We are having a lazy day today, and are about to go another round of scrabble. Oooh you can’t beat it! Seriously, it is highly enjoyable, and I know we are a couple of old farts but it’s the little things we enjoy these days! I bought a pack of cards yesterday as well and can’t wait for a good old round of rummie. You may laugh, and probably will, but I will grin and bear it.
At the moment I am languishing in luxury sat in the camper as we now have internet in our van! This is such an incredible luxury, I really really appreciate having it. We had to pay for it of course, and we only have it for one month so I am making the most it.
So, to carry on with the travels… we left Deiva Marina on the north coast of Italy and drove east to another coastal town called Viareggio. At this stage the coast had just started turning south into the boot part of Italy, so you can imagine where we were. We chose Viareggio because it is close to both Pisa and Lucca; both cities are only a short bus ride away, so we stayed there for about a week. As well as being by the seaside our campsite was on the doorstep of a beautiful cycle path through nature woods, which apparentely contained such exotic delights as wild boars, snakes and tortoises. I was very disappointed not to see any.
Pisa's grand Piazza is indeed worth visiting. The tower is darn expensive for what it is but you have to go up it, it's the law. You also have to take goofy photos of yourself 'propping up' the tower or you are seized by the local authorities and thrown off the top.
Lucca is a very beautiful, small Mediaeval city with many stunning old Churches. As a city it is more impressive than Pisa. You see so many Churches though, you get a bit numb by the end of it. It also is surrounded by an impressive set of walls that you really wouldn't want to fall off of.
After that week we drove inland, into central Tuscany and Florence. We found a camperstop right in the centre of the city which was cheap, fairly quiet and ideal for visiting the sights. And visit the sights we certainly did. We walked and walked around the endless beautiful streets and payed a visit to the Uffizi Gallery which was wonderful. They have works of art there like Botticelli's Venus rising out of the sea on her floating shell, as well as Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vince and Giotto. They also have lots of old Roman sculptures which are awesome.
We walked up hundreds of steps to the top of the Duomo to take in the panoramic view of the city with the Tuscan hills all around in the distance. We also visited the Santa Croce Church, the Ponte Vecchio bridge and many street markets. While we were there I bought a funky red leather jacket that is the only item of clothing I’ve bought since travelling! How unlike me is that. The last thing I bought was in Southampton before I left. That’s the start of August folks, I really am a changed woman.
We had one disaster in Florence though, well two infact now I think. The first was that my bankcard had to be stopped because some utter idiot in an internet shop discovered my pin number by his complete ineptitude as operating a chip and pin machine. When asking me to put in my pin number he hadn’t put the price in first so my pin number appeared as the price and he got to see it. I didn’t trust him at all and phoned my bank who told me to cancel it immediately. Yah boo sucks to him and now I have no card.
The second thing was that our fridge well and truly broke. It is a small fridge, but apparentely camper fridges are very special and therefore expensive because they run off gas, 12v and 240v electricity. So we managed to find an Electrolux repair man just outside of the city and thank God he had the part and managed to fix it within a few hours while we sat around chatting, smoking fags and sipping espresso, but the circuit board bit that broke was €330, RRRaaahhhhhhhhh! The pain was immense but we literally had no choice but to grin and bear it. We do need a fridge. Brand new the thing costs well over a grand which is just staggering.
Currently we are one stop on from Florence (with, touch wood, a working fridge). We are about 80km south of the city, still in Tuscany and just outside of a town called Arezzo. We are 7km away from the town in a very rural village called Ruscello which has many olive groves, vinyards and old, dusty looking Italian men sitting around smoking outside bars. It is so pretty I feel as if I am in the film ‘Stealing Beauty’. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Jeremy Irons suddenly popped up and started spouting poetry at me. I feel so relaxed here I could melt into the sofa.
We cycled into Arezzo yesterday and discovered, to my delight, that it is where they filmed a large portion of the film ‘Life is Beautiful’ which is officially one of my favourite films of all time. The first half, if you have seen it, before it is set in a concentration camp! Arezzo has an old centre with a Cathedral and big open squares and Churches. We went in on a Friday and there was also a large market selling food from all over the place. We bought some Dutch cheese that is like a really strong mature cheddar, mmmm. They had stalls from all over Europe but the British one only sold pottery, for some bizarre and upsetting reason. If they had sold marmite I think I would have ransacked the joint and bought the lot. Marmite, and nice sliced bread, are two things European in general really don’t do. I love their bread, but it is so fresh if you don’t buy it everyday it goes off, and if you buy it daily you have to wolf it all in one day and you end up bloated on bread which really won’t do… Bring on the English bread that’s stuffed full of preservatives, that’s what I say!
Well we are leaving this lovely campsite tomorrow and heading south to Lake Trasimeno for a few days before carrying on towards Rome. A lot of campsites are closed now for the winter so we have to rifle through our guide to find open ones. There are loads around Rome though so that shouldn’t be a problem.
We are having a lazy day today, and are about to go another round of scrabble. Oooh you can’t beat it! Seriously, it is highly enjoyable, and I know we are a couple of old farts but it’s the little things we enjoy these days! I bought a pack of cards yesterday as well and can’t wait for a good old round of rummie. You may laugh, and probably will, but I will grin and bear it.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
OUR TRAVEL VIDEO DIARY!
www.youtube.com/nickwaite
The above link is to Nick's youtube channel which contains all of our travel videos. I warn you - the cheese level is pure, ripe gorgonzola. You have been warned! Anyway, hope you enjoy them.
The above link is to Nick's youtube channel which contains all of our travel videos. I warn you - the cheese level is pure, ripe gorgonzola. You have been warned! Anyway, hope you enjoy them.
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