Italy from top to toe

Lenny HB said:
We thought the same.

Has the crater been reopened?
It was closed to the public two or three years ago after a child and their mother died. There was only a safety rope to keep you away from the bubbling sulpher, the child ran under the rope & mother went after them.

When we went (not in the van) there was a campsite in the crater.
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Yes, you are right Lenny, the solfatara and campsite was still closed as of a couple of months ago, but you can get a look at the solfatara from the road that runs around to the North of the solfatara, so we will see if we can get a peek at it.
 
The whole 5 towns area was crawling with tourists when we were there a month ago.
 
Moved further down France today and now parked up on the aire at Louhans next to the river Seille.
So far the weather is holding up with a clear blue sky and 28c.
We had a wander around the old part of Louhans this afternoon but did not find it very inspiring.
Programmed the satnav this morning for Louhans, but it decided that it wanted us to head North for a 6 hour drive for some reason.
As we were already on the move, I thought that I would try "Waze" as I downloaded it some time back but had not used it.
Yvette programmed in "Louhans" and after a "U" turn we were off South. After a few miles Waze told us there was an obstruction in the road 350 metres ahead and blow me, after 350 metres there was a lump of wood in the middle of our carriageway, Wow impressive.
Unfortunately, a little later Waze then let itself down by taking us off the road we expected to be on and on a crazy tour of very narrow roads through small villages, so it was a fire up of Google maps for the rest of the journey to Louhans.

Louhans church reflecting on the still waters of the river tonight.

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Passed through the town of Mervans this morning and saw this church with a corkscrew spire.

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Hope you have a great trip!
To the long list of places to visit we would add The royal palace at Caserta just north of Naples, (incredible scale and opulence, famous for many film sets), Assisi (stunning setting for town & monastery - good campsite in the valley below that runs a minibus up to the town), and Villa Adriano (Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli close to Rome)

We would also second earlier suggestions for Herculanium and San Gimignano (ice cream is excellent and campsite just outside town is very good and walkable to centre)

Will watch your posts to pick up further tips as Italy is a place we love to visit!
 
Forgot to add, if you're going to San Gimignano and visit the 'worlds no1' ice cream shop. If you feel a little adventurous, try out the Vin Santo flavour. The first dessert wine ice cream we've ever tasted. You can always ask them for a taster first.

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We are in
daveclare said:
Forgot to add, if you're going to San Gimignano and visit the 'worlds no1' ice cream shop. If you feel a little adventurous, try out the Vin Santo flavour. The first dessert wine ice cream we've ever tasted. You can always ask them for a taster first.
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We are leaving Verona for Mantua today, might then head for San Gimignano it sounds good. Think the campsite doesn’t take bookings but could be worth the risk. Would it work as a base for Siena, Lucca and Pisa?
 
Of the three Lucca is our favourite. You need at least two days there IMHO. I'd try to stay there first and get an amazing view from one of the towers. Get the early to beat the crowds. There's a chef school there, which has a restaurant (you need to book) which does Mrs daveclare's favourite pasta, gorgonzola and pear. I think it's on the Via Vittorio Emanuele II.

Siena is nice, but avoid the expensive bars in the square to visit one of the establishments in the winding streets that surround it. There's an amazing small food deli that does a bread type muffin filled with prosciutto and local cheese. I think it's on the Via di Citta. There's always a queue outside it.

Others may have a different view than ours but we're all different :giggle:
 
Italy is a fantastic country for touring, my wife and I have done it by car, motorcycle and campervan. If you get chance, it is well worth catching a ferry to Sardinia. As I recall, it was very reasonably priced, you can travel from Civitavecchia or Naples.
Pompeii is a must, we also visited a site in Paestum, we stayed on a local olive grove within walking distance of the entrance.
We found that the further South we headed the more deprived.
A point to be aware of, we had an incident on the road near Naples, two men in an Alfa Romeo (similar colour/model to police vehicles) attempted to pull us over into a layby. They tried three times but I had read that there are NO plain clothes Police patrol cars, I refused to stop and they lost interest and left us alone.
We were in a VW T6 camper, with UK plates and GB sticker.
This incident would not deter me from re visiting the beautiful country.
 
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Wanders from Glos said:
There is a fairly basic camp site within easy walk of the town, it has showers and EHU. You pay on the exit and use your entry ticket to gain access to the toilets and showers which are clean and have hot water.

https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/marker.php?id=12564
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We were there a couple of days ago. Did get quite busy so worth getting there in good time. If you just want a night, we spotted a nice car park that allows overnights by the river. There were several MoHo’s, spoke to one who payed about €5 during the day. I don’t think it was on any of the Apps.
Parcheggio Anconetta

Lovely town, and if you are into old motorsport there is a small quaint museum dedicated to Tazio Nuvolari. And a really nice bike ride from the site heading out into the countryside goes for miles.
 
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We‘re just outside Deiva Marina close to the Cinque Terre area. Did a great bike ride from Framura to Levanto on a converted railway line 6km each way. It’s got lots of tunnels and fantastic scenery and not very busy. Was great weather too, nothing like the forecast!
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Left the aire at Louhans this morning but did not get too far before the traffic ground to a halt with flashing blue lights at the roundabout ahead.
Accident ?, no ........... protesters had taken over the roundabout halting all the traffic. Haven't got a clue what they were protesting against, but after twenty minutes the gendarmes called time and moved them on.

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Drove down to the aire at Belley with the intention of staying there the night, but the aire is a fair way from the town centre and it was too damn hot, so we had lunch there and then headed off to Lac du Mont-Cenis where we are parked up for the night.

Had fun and games on the journey to Lac du Mont-Cenis with Google Maps re-routing us due to holdups on the route.
Narrow road, I mean narrow road, and along with every Pierre and his brother going both ways to avoid the hold-ups resulted in two clashes of wing mirrors and one Mexican standoff when the French git coming the other way at a narrowing in the road decided his small red arrow trumped the big white arrow we had giving us priority over oncoming traffic. I have not got a clue what the French twat was yelling, but I guess it was not wishing us a safe journey. :ROFLMAO:

The view of the snow-capped mountains on the last few miles to Lac du Mont-Cenis were stunning as are the views of the lake with the mountains as a backdrop. We saw two pole cats run across the road as we were coming along to the park up on the edge of the lake.

Looks like we are in for a stormy night as the thunder, lightning, and rain have just started. :eek:

Spotted on the drive today, can't remember where.

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Mooove along now.

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Cooking with a view. (y)

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Lookda like you are having fun.
Two on Tour said:
Left the aire at Louhans this morning but did not get too far before the traffic ground to a halt with flashing blue lights at the roundabout ahead.
Accident ?, no ........... protesters had taken over the roundabout halting all the traffic. Haven't got a clue what they were protesting against, but after twenty minutes the gendarmes called time and moved them on.

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Drove down to the aire at Belley with the intention of staying there the night, but the aire is a fair way from the town centre and it was too damn hot, so we had lunch there and then headed off to Lac du Mont-Cenis where we are parked up for the night.

Had fun and games on the journey to Lac du Mont-Cenis with Google Maps re-routing us due to holdups on the route.
Narrow road, I mean narrow road, and along with every Pierre and his brother going both ways to avoid the hold-ups resulted in two clashes of wing mirrors and one Mexican standoff when the French git coming the other way at a narrowing in the road decided his small red arrow trumped the big white arrow we had giving us priority over oncoming traffic. I have not got a clue what the French twat was yelling, but I guess it was not wishing us a safe journey. :ROFLMAO:

The view of the snow-capped mountains on the last few miles to Lac du Mont-Cenis were stunning as are the views of the lake with the mountains as a backdrop. We saw two pole cats run across the road as we were coming along to the park up on the edge of the lake.

Looks like we are in for a stormy night as the thunder, lightning, and rain have just started. :eek:

Spotted on the drive today, can't remember where.

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Mooove along now.

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Cooking with a view. (y)

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Looks like you are having fun. We’ve moved south to Tuscany near Lucca, where the forecast seems better for a few days. Still hot and sunny at 19:45

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Well, last night's storm did not amount to much and fizzled out after 3/4 of an hour, and we woke this morning to clear blue sky's, but it was not long before the clouds started to roll in.
We walked down to the shoreline of the lake this morning and were saddened by the amount of discarded broken bottles.
The water level looks to be well down going by the lines left in the banks.

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Yvette as usual hunting for interesting rocks and stones.

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Yvette went out for a walk this afternoon while I investigated why the solar water heating was on half power.
A bit of time with the multi meter confirmed that one of the two heating elements has failed. ☹️
Yvette returned having come across what was thought to be several Polecats sunning themselves on rocks, but she was not convinced they were Polecats as they had shorter noses, were lighter in colour, and more chunky than what we recognised as Polecats having had a ferret some years back.
A few minutes on her tablet and a match was found for Alpine Marmots. I was not aware the Marmot were in Europe and thought that they were North American. Unfortunately Yvette only had her phone with her so could not get a decent photo of them, so here's a photo of them off the internet.

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The views across the lake are not as good as yesterday's as the mist has rolled in this evening.

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We will be finishing our journey across the Alps tomorrow, dropping into Italy and making for Turin.
 
Wanders from Glos said:
Lookda like you are having fun.

Looks like you are having fun. We’ve moved south to Tuscany near Lucca, where the forecast seems better for a few days. Still hot and sunny at 19:45
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We’re off to Lucca on Friday. A little undecided where. Would have liked a real campsite, at a reasonable cost close, but haven’t found one yet. Weather good here too, as was mentioned we braved Cinque Terre today. We did one of the walks which was great though a bit hot for us. Visited 3 of the towns which are spectacular when viewed from a distance but they were so crowded. We’re still glad we went though.
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There are a few wild camping spots just outside Lucca if you're into that type of thing.
 
Two on Tour said:
Park4Night lists a couple of campsites on the edge of Lucca with showers and loo, but your out of luck for a swimming pool. :giggle:
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We are in a site about 2k outside Lucca. One of these agricampeggios. It has all the facilities including a pool. I think it’s going to be expensive, around €40 a night but like TheMachMan we wanted a few days on a proper site to relax and get some washing done, as well as doing the tourist thing. They did welcome us with a glass of rather pleasant white wine though.

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The pictures flatter it tbh. Mind you a site outside Florence wants €62 a night. No thanks.

We didn’t book, just phoned ahead 20 minutes before arriving, I don’t really like doing that much, but everywhere is still very busy. Will probably stay three or four days and relax. Visiting all the towns has been wonderful but we need a holiday now!
 
Wanders from Glos said:
We are in a site about 2k outside Lucca. One of these agricampeggios. It has all the facilities including a pool. I think it’s going to be expensive, around €40 a night but like TheMachMan we wanted a few days on a proper site to relax and get some washing done, as well as doing the tourist thing. They did welcome us with a glass of rather pleasant white wine though.

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The pictures flatter it tbh. Mind you a site outside Florence wants €62 a night. No thanks.

We didn’t book, just phoned ahead 20 minutes before arriving, I don’t really like doing that much, but everywhere is still very busy. Will probably stay three or four days and relax. Visiting all the towns has been wonderful but we need a holiday now!
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Our thoughts too! We did see that place but €40 is too much for us. We’re paying €19 on an ACSI campsite so my wallet is already having spasms! There is an Agricamp place next door to you but you feel obligated to buy their €12 a head breakfast and can only stay a day. We’ve seen a camper park so will probably get that as we can train to Pisa aswell.
 
Two on Tour said:
Alpine Marmots. I was not aware the Marmot were in Europe
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Seen them when walking in the Alps in Bavaria, that was about 25 years ago.

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TheMachMan said:
Our thoughts too! We did see that place but €40 is too much for us. We’re paying €19 on an ACSI campsite so my wallet is already having spasms! There is an Agricamp place next door to you but you feel obligated to buy their €12 a head breakfast and can only stay a day. We’ve seen a camper park so will probably get that as we can train to Pisa aswell.
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Yes I have palpitations of the wallet too, it’s in my nature. But I remind myself I am fortunate to have the money, the swimming pool was lovely and we don’t want to leave the kids with too much inheritance. 😂

We will probably cycle to both Lucca and Pisa so a bit clawed back there, although Italian trains are very reasonable.

This is our first trip to Northern Italy, having done the south by car (not for the faint hearted) and we didn’t want palpitations of the wallet to impact seeing the tourist sights. Next year it will be back to France and Spain when we will use aires and ACSI. In late September we are going to do Kent, Sussex and Norfolk for three weeks and I suspect that will be so expensive I’ll contemplate ducking across the Channel.
 
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We left Lac du Mont-Cenis this morning and drove the long and windy road down into Italy. I don't know if I would travel this route again as the brakes were crying out for mercy even though I was using engine braking and only dabbing the brakes to try and keep them from getting too hot and boiling the brake fluid.
Trying to avoid the Autostrade we ended up going through Turin which was not my first introduction to Italian city driving, but I see that little has changed since my last time 13 years ago.
We are going to visit Turin tomorrow, but having read many reviews on parking or night stops in Turin ending up in being broken into we have opted to spend the night in a small town called Chieri about 15 miles from Turin and will travel back into Turin in the morning to a site with secure parking. :pray:

The old part of Chieri was worth a look around and of course, we had to test the gelato. :giggle:

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While walking down one of the side streets we were hit by an amazing fragrance which turn out to be from the blossom of trees lining the street which looked something like beech trees. Please let me know if you know what trees these are.

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