30 6 14 Drive down to the coast to camp

The B&B where we stayed in the vineyards

Excellent !

The small town of San Giacomo near to the B & B

Another small town in the forest on the way down to the coast

The beach where we spent a few hours after we set up the tent

About a half hours walk from the campground

This chap was fishing with his net at the entrance to the bay

We saw this building walking home

All of the extras are painted on 

Its a flat plastered finish but the paint job makes it really flash 

29 6 2014 over the Swiss Alps back into Italy

The view from the campground looked a bit like Arthurs Pass

The day started out a bit wet

Views going up the Swiss side of the Alps

There seemed to be farms almost to the top

These cows were up near the top of the pass well over 2000m

Some mountain wild flowers

Photo at the top very near the boarder with Italy

There was an old hospice there that use to be run by the church

There are cafes etc there now

Over the boarder cafes etc on the Italian side.

Down the road with some impressive structures

One of the villages we past on the way

Down into the valley many old building

We stopped and took a photo of this monastery 

Maree liked the way these grapes were hung horizontally 

Down to the foothills

Yep we came through there some where

Pisa - San Gimignano - Florence - Ostia

We have had a very relaxing time in Pisa. Our B&B was somewhat rustic but comfortable and clean, and close to the beach and marina. It was nice to have a quiet couple of days. We visited the Leaning Tower, Baptistry and Cathedral at Pisa. We purchased a ticket to the top of the tower, some 273 steps, with the tower on a 5 degree lean and learnt some history of the tower, which is a cylinder with spiral steps going up and around the inner wall to the bells at the top.  The Baptistry at Pisa has someone sing every half hour to show off the acoustics of the building, well worth timing your visit to hear this. The doors are closed, and no one is able to enter while a soloist does a short piece. 

The weather is very hot at the moment and we are getting it; that you have a siesta in the afternoon and then everyone is out late dining or just strolling along the streets in the evening. We have enjoyed a quiet drink at the bars along the main sea front area, mostly locals out and about with a scattering of tourists. Very relaxing.

We headed to San Ginignamo the following day, which is only a short distance from Pisa to drive to this medieval walled town in Tuscany. The views from the wall are vast across the valleys, however a bit hazy today. Within the town walls there are galleries, cafés, shops and of course the towers and churches. Many people live within the town walls in the very old but charming buildings. After spending a couple of hours there and a bite of lunch we headed to a place outside of Florence that turned out to be a bit of a waste of time, not open to the public as advertised,  and I think hadn't been for some time by lack of signage and access. I should have researched that better. 

We arrived in Florence to a B&B again, and a temperture of 35 degrees, hopefully it's a bit cooler tomorrow for the sightseeing. 

Sightseeing in Florence was a return visit for me and a first for Jim. After taking train into the city and finding a tourist map we were set for the day. I decided not to see David, even though I was determined this morning as we traveled in to make an effort and join the queue, but it was too hot, and the queues were too long. However we did queue for the climb to the top of the Dome, and Jim also climbed the steps up the tower. We strolled along the Ponte Vecchio, and had an exorbitantly expensive drink at a bar, but we decided it was worth it as it had spray mist over the bar to allow us to cool down, very hot again.  We though about Abby & Todd getting engaged in Florence and that was exciting, (hey Abby, are you reading this!)

The following day we took the toll road for part of the drive, and then the scenic route via a couple of lakes to our destination of Ostia, near the airport from Rome, where we started this trip some 54 days ago. 

A funny old day really after all those days on tour and our final night in Ostia; flying to the UK on Monday for the next phase of the adventure. Europe has been a memorable experience, the more you see the more you realize that there is so much more that we would like to see...

We have travelled off the main beaten track at times, enjoyed some amazing sights and winging it with accommadation, but always finding a place to stay, albeit one night not until 10pm, thinking we may have to sleep in the car. We have enjoyed tenting with the great weather and have always been warm and comfortable. We have managed to overcome the language barriers and eaten food that we had no clue as to what we were ordering. A real box of chocolates. The GPS and the iPad have been invaluable, goodness knows how one travelled without technology! Jim has mastered the right hand side of the road, only going down one way streets twice in 10,000km, and has been honked at less than half a dozen times, not bad! We have however done a few unplanned scenic loops, missing the odd turn off. Any regrets, absolutely not. Anything we would do differently, probably not!

London here we come...

Italy

Back again to Italy via the Swiss Alps. We have found an amazing place to stay by chance on a vineyard called Cascina La Maddalena with rather nice accommodation.  The owners have been operating since 1997 and produce 30,000 bottles per year, all reds. The property looks over the San Genona valley, in the Provence of Liguria - meaning foot of the mountain. 

We headed into town for dinner and having no idea where to go found a hotel that didn't serve food, but a lovely couple said they were heading to a town five minutes away called Ovada, for pizza, follow them. We did, and ended up in a great restaurant with very nice food. We were lucky that they spoke for us and got us a table in a place we would never have found by ourselves; very tasty pizza and red wine night. 

We travelled down the coast expecting to find a lovely Mediteranian beach to soak up the sun for a few hours, how wrong were we. A very highly populated and rugged coastline, no parking and not an inch of beach space to spare even if we could have stopped. The views were great from the top and the day was cloudless and hot. 

We ended up in a city campsite in a town called Sestei Levante, in the province of Genoa, and walked to the beach which was about a kilometre away.  The narrow streets we walked through before the beach had many historical buildings, arty shops and foody places.  Again very crowded and a thin strip of beach with buildings dominating the bay. The adjacent beach which was more open, was covered with beach goers in hire chairs, and umbrellas and it wasn't even a weekend!

It certainly reinforces my appreciation of the beaches in New Zealand, our water temperture is cooler, but we have beautiful beaches that are easily accessible by everyone with wide open spaces, and parking!

Our destination the next day was Cinque Terre and the town of Vernazza. This is one of the five more known cliff side historic villages along the coast. The drive into each village is winding and narrow, it seems most visitors take the train from Levanto, or there is a walking track connecting each coastal village if you have the time. We drove and were happy to pay for parking, luckily finding a spot. However the walking track along the coast would certainly be something to plan for as a holiday destination. 

The village had a castle and old high rise buildings of different colours, a sea wall and several small craft moored in the bay, outside restaurants with colored umbrellas making it a very picturesque spot. Swimming was possible and we took a quick dip to cool off as again the temperture was 30+. There were heaps of tourists, but a relaxing spot!  We took the opportunity to go into the castle to get a full view of the coastline from the tower. To finish off we had gellato before our walk up to the car park. 

I would have loved to visit each village rather than view the others from the road, but you needed more time than we allowed. Great day however. 

Using the GPS to locate a campsite, we finally arrived at a busy site called Camping Gianna, which was terraced camping amongst an old olive grove.  It was home to lots of permanent caravans with built on decks and verandas. The camp had a pool and restaurant which was welcome. We watched the Argentina - Swiss game, 1-0 into extra time. 

Before we headed away in the morning we walked to the closest accessible piece of beach and managed to get a spot because we were early. Half of the small area was taken up by a cafe with rental chairs, roped off. Again the weather gods are in our favour.

We only had a small distance to travel today to Pisa, and are staying here for two nights about two blocks from the marina and beach in a B&B, again limited access to some areas of the coast. Jim has been doing all the driving and we need a rest from the busy roads here. 

Some of you may scoff, but it's quite a busy job planning your route, finding out what to visit, making choices and finding accommadation, not that we are complaining.

Switzerland

Arriving in Switzerland to a beautiful day that then turned to rain and sunshine again. The city of Geneva borders a lake, and that same lake is also the Italian border. It was busy with sailing boats, tourist boats and the like. There is a huge water fountain, the Jet D'Eau that works all day, every day of the year squirting water some 100 feet into the air.

We had a stroll around the water front area of the city and then headed to our accommodation which was a mobile home, but what we would call a cabin, in a motor camp in a place called Camping du Bois-Noir.  Rain clouds put us off the tent, and it rained quite heavily through the night. We watched the soccer, Brazil v Chile. 

A bit of a sleep in as the rain was a bit of a deterant, but finally packed up and headed towards the alps.

We took the St Bernard route over the Alps. It was a dreary day but the views were still spectacular. The road is open to cars during the summer months, but in winter you must put you car aboard a train and travel via a rather long tunnel. There were also many tunnels on our route up to the train station. It would be an impressive sight covered in snow. In the lower valleys there were many villages, and some quite high up the slopes. The border into Italy was near the top of the pass, which also had a large hotel that used to be a hospice back in the early 1900's. There was also a man made lake at the top next to the hotel and border crossing; which are very uneventful.

I was also surprised to see grapes and apricots being grown so close to the alps on the Swiss side. 

In the last few days we have gone from temperatures of 30 plus to a low of 5 degrees. We were pleased with the drive today as we were unsure of the route and were prepared to turn back, however everything worked out fine. 

28 6 14 Drive into Switzerland 

Tenting still going well

We did have some rain and noisy neighbours 

A few photos from Geneva

The fountain is famous 

So is Maree !

27 6 14 A drive through the French Mountains 

Lunch stop at Chichilianne

This is Mount Aiguille

Then along Lake Bourget