A Tuscan Pootle

The coastline along Tuscany was almost bad enough for us to turn around and head back to France. The roads are dreadful, it’s very busy and it was just unpleasant. Luckily we headed inland and all improved massively. We stumbled on a small hilltop village called Murlo; home to a particularly gorge restaurant called Il Libridinosa that serves local organic food. Two meals and two bottles of wine later we slept in the car park and I visited the Etruscan museum there the next morning.

We were excited to hear of a nearby site that boasted a sword in a stone but, sadly, it had nothing to do with King Arthur. At the Abbey of San Galgano the 12th century saint himself had thrust his weapon into the rock as a sign of peace and redemption. The abbey is now a deconsecrated ruin but still stunning. The small hermitage, home of the aforementioned sword, is still used as a chapel and we got a rapturous telling off by the ancient woman gatekeeper for taking Hugo inside. He had been allowed at the ruin but not the chapel - the fact that it was swarming with cats didn’t seem to count.

From there to Montalcino. Unfortunately Graham was still recovering from too much wine the night before to sample any of the local wines but I rallied and tried a hint of the grape. I must say we’re getting a bit of a taste for Italian wine - we’ve not been great fans before but I think we just hadn’t had the right ones - and at £3 a bottle who could say no?

We’ve decided to hang around this area and visit small hilltop villages, eating pasta and drinking wine (well, me at least). Mr Fluffy always said he didn’t like Italian food but he seems to be having a great time shovelling copious quantities of pasta and gelato into his personage.

Luni Mare

Luni Mare was not so bad. We read a few poor reviews from visitors but as we are interested in archaeology we decided to go anyway. It’s a Roman ruin in Liguria not far from La Spezia and has a free car park so we decide to stay the night there. While it was a little, shall we say ‘unloved’, it was still pretty interesting. The museum holds some lovely marble statues and other roman artefacts but the actual Temple of Luna is rather a disappointment. The amphitheatre is a short walk from the main site and was pretty impressive.

Snap snap - amphitheatre action

It was good to see a group of archaeology students digging trenches and shovelling dirt in good old Time Team fashion. Below are some pics of the site.

You’d think it would be difficult to take a bad picture of a temple of the moon - but no.

Out On a Limb

At last, we’ve now reached a part of Italy which does not have twiddly roads - for now anyway. We spent a night in Sabbioneta, a World Heritage site, which is famous for its renaissance architecture (and persistent mosquitos), drove on into the mountains to Carpintere, and today to LuniMare, an open air Roman ruin and museum. Below are some pics of Sabbioneta - they had kindly put on an antique market for our visit.

The road today was exceptionally circuitous but we had a bit of amusement along the way. At one of the many roadworks we encountered we were stopped by a lovely chap in a high viz jacket. As dozens of cars backed up behind us and clock ticked over, everyone was wondering what was going on. There was the slight hint of a chain saw in the background and, after a stationary 25 minutes, we heard a giant crack as a very large tree fell across the road. All hands grabbed chainsaws and started sawing off limbs, a mini digger appeared and lifted them onto a truck. There was not a hard hat in sight. We later saw an ambulance heading in their direction and wondered if anyone had lost a limb or got a whack in the head.

After a few minutes casually blowing the debris from the road, the smiling worker waved us on with his lovely green paddle. 

Rocks and Romans

Who knew northern Italy had the most fabulous examples of prehistoric rock art? Not us anyway. I stumbled across some information about Vallecamuna online and, as it was relatively close we drove across to the area. As well as roman amphitheatres and the most beautiful statue of Minerva we have seen (in Cividate Cammuna) their are several locations full of rock art. The main one we visited was Naquane in Capo di Ponte. There is a museum in town which has some carved stelae from the Cemmo site and others. We stayed At a 10 euro a night site with its very own labyrinth to amuse children and foreigners like us. Below are some photos from both the roman and rock carving sites.

Loving the Lagos

Today we start our tour of the lakes.

After an unsuccessful attempt at parking at Orta San Guilio on Lago D’Orta we are now at a very comfortable camping place above Lago Maggiore in Ogebbio. The place itself is great with our own electricity and water and a view over the lake for 20 euros a night. The access to it was another story. It was so narrow I decided to run ahead to see if we were at the right place. After almost giving myself a resapiratory arrest from running up the almost vertical road I found the site at the top (YES TOP) of a very steep and narrow hill.

After I returned, breathless, to the van, Mr Fluffy drove Dickie gingerly up the road to the site (only mildly damaging one of the wing mirrors on a concrete post). We’re currently recovering from the trip with a nice glass of Spanish Rioja. We are determined to stay outside in this gorgeous weather even though there are bugs everywhere. They seem to have a penchant for the fluffy one’s wine - mine not so much.

View over the lake from Dickie

Some Fluffy stats for you:

Mileage this trip - just over 1500 miles
MPG - 31 mpg according to the van’s trip computer (pretty good with our 3 litre engine pulling 3.5 tons over the Alps).
Tele - still getting British tele on ASTRA 2 so I can watch Strictly - YAY!! This may become more difficult as we head further south - BOO!

Hugo Has a Blog Too

Our dog Hugo keeps his own blog. If you want to check out what he’s up to click Hugo’s Blog

Horny Torino

The Alps, while stunning from a distance, are hideous to drive over. The words ‘windy’, precipitous, and terrifying come to mind. Thankfully, Mr Fluffy, the driver, does not share my fear of heights and speed and seemed to relish the Top Gear-esque drive across to Italy.

Chianocco 

After a day recovering at a site in Chianocco we’ve made it through Torino on our way to the lakes. Torino was a revelation. A plethora of prostitutes greeted us along the streets of what seemed to be the main town and we drove through some major road works where they were repairing a bridge. I can’t help thinking this may have been a reaction to the terrible Genoa bridge incident as the concrete in the bridge looked ready to crumble. It was reassuring to hear the inevitable horns being tooted endlessly through the traffic jam.