Day 2 – San Gimignano to Firenze

Leisurely start and the sun is shining, the views from the campsite are stunning.

San Gimignano was this morning’s destination.

We managed to remove the motor homes from the campsite without incident and caught the bus into town. We shall never know how the bus driver didn’t knock anyone over as he made his way round narrow streets not designed for vehicles.

San Gimignano is a medieval city of towers. At its peak, in the 14th/15th century, there were over 70 towers which were built as fortresses and signs of wealth and power.

The town is beautiful and it’s amazing to think it’s survived intact.

Kim and Jacky splashed out 5€ to go up into the Sylvestus Tower which has been converted into a very stylish, modern apartment. At no point we’re the rooms larger than 9ft square. It’s amazing what you can achieve over 11 floors.

The view from the terrace at the top was rather lovely.

Today’s attractions included a display of firefighting equipment, including a very ‘Dad’s Army’ Landrover lookalike (Fiat!)

We also found a novel use of an old pallet

After lunch, Jane and David headed for Siena while we aimed for Florence……. and we arrived safely with only one minor detour. Quite a success, we think!

The campsite is tired (as are we), but the sun shone and we explored the area. Not much to say about that, a 10 minute walk had us on a main road with not a bar or restaurant in sight. On top of that, Ken and Jacky’s van is stuck on their pitch. It’s been raining a lot here and the site is very soft and muddy. It looks like a tractor may be needed to pull them out on Sunday which would be fun. We’re feeling a little smug, we got stuck on a pitch but managed to get out (without damaging anything). We’re now parked between two electricity pylons but you can’t have everything in life.

Our day ended with a proper camping meal, cooked on minuscule gas stoves and eaten at a picnic table

Night night, we’re catching a bus into Florence in the morning.

The Italian Job 2018 – day 1

Where to start, we have had a whole adventure in one day!

The day started brilliantly. We left home at 04:45, arrived at Heathrow just after 6 and flew into sunshine at Pisa.

Despite the taxi driver getting lost and needing to use Kim’s phone for directions, we were introduced to our new homes and left the factory about 3. Plenty of time for shopping at the supermarket and getting to our campsite by 5pm!

A leisurely evening in Sam Gimignano was within reach and then the adventure started (or it all went horribly wrong, depending on your view of life!)

We took a wrong turn, leaving the supermarket, the satnav recalculated and within 20 minutes this is what we saw…..

By the time we had turned the van around,here is a sample of the damage we had done. It was just awful.

A very helpful Italian detangled us from the mess, JustGo advised on leaving a note for them to deal with insurance claims and the local pharmacy lent pen and paper for writing a note. Kim used a mixture of mime and pidgin English to acquire said pen and paper, it was very stressful.

Our lovely, supportive friends had abandoned us and headed towards the Sosta at San Gimignano so we played catch up. It would be lovely to have a photo of the beautiful Tuscan hills we drove round but the reality was that we were lost, despite the satnav! Phone calls from Jane and Jacky followed, they were lost too. 5 minutes later we passed them, going in the opposite direction, there has to be a cheesy comedy film in there somewhere…..

Anyway, we all ended up at the planned Sosta, and it was revolting. Showers were shut, electricity was off and waste bins overflowing – could our day get any worse?

Thank goodness for Facebook, 5 minutes later we were all booked into Camping Boscetto Di Piemma with showers, a restaurant and trees.

Good food and wine and the stresses of the day are starting to fade, cheers….. hic