Three Go Adventuring Again

[DBK]

A bit of Googling reveals the location of the amphitheatre, not far from where we are now. Can you spot it in the screen shot below:

Spoiler:

















Slightly right of the centre of the picture. An oval shape.

 

[scousebird]

I didn't spot it

 

[Fenman]

Thought it was a sports field/stadium at first.

 

[Mr Ed]

Re Eric Newby "Round the shores of the Mediterranean (in a van)"is a must.

 

[DBK]

Castelnuovo Magra to San Romano in Garfagnana

We had rain during the night but it faired up just long enough for us to pack up and pay. The elderly lady owner was working out the bill when what I think is her daughter turned up, who had some English, certainly more than my Italian. The cost without electricity was €12 a night but they also charged my another €5 for emptying grey and black waste this morning. My understanding was this should have been included in the daily cost. I paid up anyway and didn't tell them we had done the same yesterday, or they might have asked for another €5!

It's a bit of a rum place, they have a washing machine and a shower but I only found out about this as we left - because they wanted to know if we had used them as that was an extra charge too! And apparently there may even be a washing machine but we didn't need it so I hadn't asked. They could do so much more if they put some effort into tidying up the place and provide information for customers. A map of local walks would be handy too.

The rain began again as we drove into Sarzana, going first to the gas station, where 12 litres cost a shade over €6 and there were no qualms from the operator that we wanted “cooking” gas and not “traction” gas. After gassing up we drove a short distance to the supermarket then after stocking up on victuals I went on another ATM hunt. This time they weren't too hard to find as there were several banks in the same area. However, parking was virtually non-existent but I found somewhere eventually and we walked back to the bank (a Barclays of all things) and extracted some money, all done while it rained heavily, with large puddles everywhere.

Our target for today was the free aire in San Romano in Garfagnana which as the crow flies (and they have hooded ones here) wasn't very far but the route was a decidedly hilly one and the satnav took us on a real back road to Fosdinovo, which was the nearest village to Eric Newby’s house, not that we saw much of it as we were driving in cloud by then. What we did see was pretty, with a hint of a town wall glimpsed through the mist.

You may have noticed I haven't mentioned the amphitheatre of Luni, near Sarzana, yet. It was in today's plan but the rain was so heavy and unceasing we decided to abandon the idea. Perhaps some other time?

From Fosdinovo we crossed over into the Garfagnana Valley and wriggled up the road to San Romano, narrowly missing a huge tanker at one point, which came belting round a corner towards us and had both of us braking sharply.

The free aire is beside a football pitch but it seems quiet so far. The view from the aire towards San Romano, which we will explore tomorrow.

And a close up.

And the blue dot on this map shows where we are, north west of Florence.

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[DBK]

A Walking Day

We woke to see the hills around us covered in cloud (must remember to close the blinds at night) but it wasn't raining so this morning looked like a good day for a walk.

Next to the aire there is the entrance to an adventure park, it seems in good repair but it has been deserted since we arrived. Either they have gone out of business or it only opens at weekends or during peak season, hopefully for them, the latter.

A notice inside the entrance points to a 30 minute walk to the Fortress of Verrucole, which turned out to be a well marked and fairly easy GR path, with familiar red and white markings showing the way.

The path ends at the village of Verrucole, which is dominated by the little fortress and its rebuilt tower. The village, for fans of TripAdvisor, is home to the best restaurant in the area, the Ostaria le Verrucole, but we were too early for lunch although this being a public holiday we were later to see them quite busy.

The path up to the fortress is quite steep and we feared by the time we got to the top it might be shut on a public holiday, but we received a very friendly welcome from a fluent English speaking lady who was dressed in period costume in an appropriately thatched shelter.

The fortress had a replica catapult, but it had been deactivated so we couldn't play with it and see how far a dog could be hurled (see later for explanation).

There was also a herb or physic garden. All the plants were labelled. Unfortunately, all the labels were neatly stacked in an alcove! Note the ones with the skulls.

And, on the left in the picture below, a bar, called the “Warrior Rat” for reasons which were not explained. I've not been to a castle with its own bar before and can commend the idea to English Heritage, after all if they can sanction the carving of a Disney figure on Tintagle what's stopping them building more bars?

After exploring the fortress, which didn't take very long, we retired to the bar, which was tended by another fluently English speaking young lady in medieval costume and shared a bottle of a 7% cider which they were promoting, and which was very pleasant. I forgot to photograph the bottle (it was 7% in my defence) but it appeared from what I could decipher from the label as if honey had been involved in its brewing. It was a potent little brew which had me musing over whether the costumed ladies were wearing "whimples" not that I had any idea what a whimple looked like but something in my memory suggested medieval ladies wore them.

What we did deliberately miss was the tour of the tower (try saying that after a few glasses) because although it was “in several languages” it lasted an hour and we had Charlie with us whose attention span is measured in seconds. He had also disgraced us somewhat already at the very moment of our entrance to the castle. If you look at the photograph of the reception hut above, on the right hand side of the white tablecloth, below the brown box some distinctly muddy marks. Done by a dog I fear as his master was talking to the lady and who wanted to see what was going on. Fortunately for Charlie we didn't see any stocks for dogs on our exploration. A close up of Charlie's "mark" can be seen below. I'm still not sure how he got three paws up there.

Decending by the steep path back to the village we noticed a curious thing, clearly a ladder for climbing around corners, or perhaps to get round a tree trunk which is in the way? Akin to the famous gun for shooting around corners.

And to show you the route we took, there was a convenient notice at the start point, which I hadn't see until we got back! We started at the bottom right of the map, at the entrance to the adventure park, and finished at the fortress in the top left.

Later in the day, when the rain which started after lunch ended, we explored San Romano. As expected it was fully of narrow streets, but curiously no shops or bars except a few around the edges and very few people. So rare were the local folk I took a picture of one of the few I saw.

The tall bell tower in the picture is a separate building to the church, with a small piazza between the two.

The centre of the village, mounted as it is on a hill, is approached by a number of steep paths.

And as doors go, this is interesting, not the door itself, but the inscription above it: SANCTUM ET TERRIBILE which isn't quite as fearsome as it seemed on first reading when images of sadistic nuns came to my mind (I have no idea why) because it is part of Psalm 111 Sanctum et terribile nomen ejus which translates as “holy and reverend is his Name”. How “terrible” in Latin became what we understand by the word these days is a mystery to me.

 

[DBK]

Finally, having exhausted the compact pleasures of San Romano in Garfagnana we repaired to the “Rewind Bar and Pizzeria” (6 out of 8 on TripAdvisor) for a (German) beer.

A good day despite the weather. Tuscany is growing on me and if a place looks good in the rain it suggests it might have something going for it. Tomorrow, we will edge a little further south.

 

[vwalan]

i,m sure you should have been a travel book writer, and great pics .
you know i,m also into off the beaten tracks travel and your certainly doing a good job of encouraging others . have a good one .

 

[DBK]

Not a lot to report today, we left San Romano with the low clouds almost bumping our heads and drove down the valley of the River Serchio. The rain was more or less constant all morning and fell as a steady drizzle.

On the way we stumbled across a big supermarket, an Esselunga by name which didn't look like a supermarket from the outside but on the inside it was by far the most impressive one we have found. The fruit and veg section was enormous but the wine section was very upmarket with a resident sommelier! As you might expect prices were also upmarket with shelf after shelf of €10+ wines but with diligent searching we did find some at under €4 - deep intake of breath at this point - twice our normal budget. But we did buy a €6 bottle of Prosecco (reduced to €4) to celebrate another day survived on the roads of Italy, which we are enjoying at the moment and it is excellent, so if in Italy and you see an Esselunga or "Essex unmanageable" as my spell checker wants to correct it to, have a rummage around inside for their wines.

And to show how sad I can be, waxing lyrical as they say, here is a shot of the fruit section!

What the shop wasn't good for were towels. We have previously travelled with big fluffy bath towels but they take a long time to dry after washing so on this trip we have brought with us a couple of micro-fibre towels. These weren't cheap, £24 each from a company called Pack Towl (sic) and one of their selling points is they contain a special silver something odour control. Which begs the question, why do you need odour control on a towel? If it's smelly just wash it.

Well these towels need the sort of odour control best obtained with a blow lamp. Despite regular washing they STINK!

The problem I fear is the microfibres trap minute bits of skin and this is what you can smell, or rather you can smell the farting bacteria feeding on your discarded epidermous. The answer we decided on was to ditch the space age towels and buy some big fluffy bath towels. Of the sort we had left behind. Unfortunately, Senor Esselunga only sells very twee little towels you would be hard pressed to dry your hands on.

So toweless, we pushed on and headed towards Lucca initially but turned off before we reached it and went cross country on minor roads to end up roughly mid-day between Pisa and Florence at the campsite ACSI #3027 at Montopoli.

This has become our routine, finding a campsite at the weekend so we can do all our laundry and give the 'van a good clean, weather permitting, which from the forecast it should be with the sun arriving on Sunday and staying for at least the following week. A bit of sun might help the smelly towels too, UV does wonders for killing bugs.

The campsite is pretty quiet but it has a bar restaurant which serves some fairly upmarket food. A set meal for two with steak and a bottle of Chianti headlined the menu at €80. Less rarified, a first course of antipasta was a "mere" €12. But the the dishes we saw being served looked good.

Tomorrow, there is the local market at Montopoli, which we will visit, bringing Charlie with us. If you read of any downturn in Anglo/Italian relations tomorrow, you will know who to blame. Let's hope the market stalls don't use too many white sheets.

Security, hasn't been something which has previously bothered me but for some reason Italy has made me think we need an alarm system so we are now booked in for a Growler in September. Meanwhile, while we go shopping for upmarket wines we set our own growler on guard. Here photographed through the window after we had handed over control to him. "You have the con Charlie".

 

[DBK]

Exploring Montopoli in Val d’Arno

Our plan to visit the weekly open air market in the local village, Montopoli in Val d’Arno this morning, was postponed to the afternoon as it rained constantly all morning. It isn't cold and there is virtually no wind so it isn't unpleasant here, but the weather certainly isn't what we expected of Italy in June! And of course by the time we got to the village the market had long departed.


Montopoli is worth a wander round as it has several old buildings dating from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century including a tall bell tower in the centre and a watch tower on the edge. We also came across a very odd, probably medieval bridge. You couldn't go over it, which was probably as well, but as an example of the economic use of stone and bricks it was a masterpiece. However, is it a bridge at all, or just an arch? More investigation required I think.

The usual narrow streets of course

and views over the Tuscany countryside. The tall sticky-up thing is the bell tower.

Now all finally in sun - but after the morning's rain it was very muggy and I wouldn't be surprised if we get thunderstorms soon.

There must have been at least two watch towers as we found the stump of one at another corner of the village, but this one was complete. The yellow rectangle is around a drawing done in coloured grit but after the rain we couldn't work out what it was.

And for the MHF Special Interest Group for Doors:

And some impressive door furniture, like this large knocker.

And, but no, I'll avoid the obvious caption. Two knockers!

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[DBK]

I should have Googled my "bridge" earlier. It is an arch and some bits of wall either side and is more or less all that remains of an old castle.

 

[Fenman]

Whenever I see knockers like that I can't help but think of the Christmas Carol film with Albert Finney and the moment when his one like that changed into the face of Jacob Marley.

 

[kcy]

You're

Not a lot to report today, we left San Romano with the low clouds almost bumping our heads and drove down the valley of the River Serchio. The rain was more or less constant all morning and fell as a steady drizzle.

On the way we stumbled across a big supermarket, an Esselunga by name which didn't look like a supermarket from the outside but on the inside it was by far the most impressive one we have found. The fruit and veg section was enormous but the wine section was very upmarket with a resident sommelier! As you might expect prices were also upmarket with shelf after shelf of €10+ wines but with diligent searching we did find some at under €4 - deep intake of breath at this point - twice our normal budget. But we did buy a €6 bottle of Prosecco (reduced to €4) to celebrate another day survived on the roads of Italy, which we are enjoying at the moment and it is excellent, so if in Italy and you see an Esselunga or "Essex unmanageable" as my spell checker wants to correct it to, have a rummage around inside for their wines.

And to show how sad I can be, waxing lyrical as they say, here is a shot of the fruit section!

View attachment 109281

What the shop wasn't good for were towels. We have previously travelled with big fluffy bath towels but they take a long time to dry after washing so on this trip we have brought with us a couple of micro-fibre towels. These weren't cheap, £24 each from a company called Pack Towl (sic) and one of their selling points is they contain a special silver something odour control. Which begs the question, why do you need odour control on a towel? If it's smelly just wash it.

Well these towels need the sort of odour control best obtained with a blow lamp. Despite regular washing they STINK!

The problem I fear is the microfibres

View attachment 109282

Most of your messages such as this one have all the icons, funny, like, informative,useful and thanks for taking the trouble. I suppose it keeps you out of trouble

 

[DBK]

Into Proper Tuscany

After finding a supermarket to stock up at for the next few days we headed South East into deepest Chianti country. We were skirting round the south of Florence and the landscape really began to look like the Tuscany I expected, pencil slim cypress trees everywhere and hill top villages.

We aimed for just such a village, Volpaia, which lies in the Monti de Chianti and they do make a big thing of the name here, everywhere seems to find a way of working “Chianti” into everything, well almost everything. I don't remember seeing a “Chianti laundrette” though there may well be one somewhere. Not that it has done them any harm, this is very clearly a prosperous area with well maintained houses and busy restaurants in every village, plus the manicured wine estates. Very like some parts of France I thought! This is Volpaia on the map (the blue dot to the right of the lollipop is where we are now at the campsite) :

There is a CamperContact aire at Volpaia (#4458) and though it has no facilities we had planned to stay overnight here if it looked suitable. Unfortunately, though it might look idyllic in the shot below what you can't see is beyond the hedge is a busy and popular restaurant and all the cars of the customers are in the same car park. I expect it could be a little noisy in the evening with the coming and going of clientele not just for the nearest restaurant but also the other in the village because the aire is the village carpark.

We had lunch there anyway, and we were only disturbed by the arrival of some American tourists, one of whom made a big fuss over Charlie, which cheered him up no end.

Then we went for our usual exploration of narrow village streets, of which Valpaia has a good collection.

Chianti Classico in production here!

And some more doors for the collection.

We have ended the day at another campsite, which is located in an oak forest with opportunities for walking, which we will try tomorrow. ACSI #3006 and very swish too, it has three swimming pools!

 

[andrewjw]

It looks like you are having a great time!

Another surprisingly good campsite in the Tuscany area is..

http://www.campingorlandoinchianti.it/

Excellent walking and wine tasting very close by...

And should you be going anywhere near Lago di Trasimeno then...

http://www.campingkursaal.it/index.php

...on the shore of the lake has the best campsite restuarant we have ever experienced...anywhere...ever. Nearby train to Perugia also.

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[DBK]

It looks like you are having a great time!

Another surprisingly good campsite in the Tuscany area is..

http://www.campingorlandoinchianti.it/

Excellent walking and wine tasting very close by...

And should you be going anywhere near Lago di Trasimeno then...

http://www.campingkursaal.it/index.php

...on the shore of the lake has the best campsite restuarant we have ever experienced...anywhere...ever. Nearby train to Perugia also.

It's Campinging Orlando where we are now. A busy site - in the middle of nowhere!

But many thanks for the lakeside recommendation, we will probably be going that way. We are going to go a little south of Siena next, to the Val d'Orcia which is supposed to have the most classic Tuscany countryside there is. After that we will begin to head north and east and towards Slovenia and a bit beyond.

 

[vwalan]

you will have to keep your eyes open for the spaghetti trees you could be moving into their area soon . ha ha .

 

[DBK]

you will have to keep your eyes open for the spaghetti trees you could be moving into their area soon . ha ha .

We've had spaghetti since we arrived, I cooked it as it is the only thing I can't manage to burn. But we have imported it from the UK!

 

[vwalan]

probably cheaper as well. hee hee . let us know .

 

[DBK]

probably cheaper as well. hee hee . let us know .

We shopped in Lidls this morning, very limited stock, no lemons for our Earl Grey tea But they did have some 1.5 litre bricks at about the same cost in euros - 1.5. I've bought a pink and red purely in the interests of research. The Chianti around here in bottles isn't cheap, nothing under €6 from what I've seen so far.

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[vwalan]

spanish bricks 58 cents a litre cant beat them . beer 48p a litre . again . i dont buy beer in uk. ha ha .

 

[DBK]

Another Walk - A Hot One

At the camp reception there is a folder showing walks from the campsite. We chose the shortest, appropriately called Senterio #1 and they kindly printed off a colour copy of the map for free! This made a change from the mindset of our first Italian campsite, with its mean coin-operated showers.

The walk, despite being at the junior end of the spectrum of routes on offer, was at 6.7km not a short one either. With effort it could be made longer as we were to discover.

The route was mostly a loop but with a panhandle bit which went to the remains of a castle after which you retraced your steps back to the loopy bit. The first part of the walk to the castle was mostly on a track, with many muddy sections where we could see recent hoof prints of wild boar. The honey like scent from the broom was very strong.

The castle really was falling down and it's decrepitude was still an ongoing project. Signs warned us to keep away from the walls - by 1.5m if I read them correctly. We opted for a greater measure of caution.

And a plant I can identify, Vipers Bugloss. (with a bit of castle in the background)

After the castle we walked back to the main trail and soon after I made a wrong turning! In my defence the way marks for the walk are grey circles of paint with a black figure 1 painted on the tree trunks. They were infrequent and given the trunks of the trees were grey and black they were remarkably hard to see. Give me a red and white GR sign any day.

Suffice to say we saw a bit more of the Tuscany countryside than we had envisaged before my compass told me we were heading in completely the wrong direction. We retraced our steps about half a kilometre to where I had taken the wrong turning. I remember looking at the way we were supposed to go when we had first seen it but had dismissed it with the thought “it can't be that way” - but it was!

We were now no longer on a track but more a wild boar trail - fallen trees blocked our way at several points.

And a close-up of the fallen trees. (the path is under there somewhere)

And did I mention this was seriously uphill with no breeze and it was hot with humidity at dew point?

But there was a surreal moment just before we escaped from the forest. We had reached a point where I was fairly sure where we were but the path had almost disappeared and though there was a grey circle painted on a tree there was no number on it. At which point a Llama trots into view and regards us from a height of seven feet, looking disdainful down its nostrils at us. Have we suddenly been transported to the Andes? Whatever, it turned around, possibly discomforted by the site of a small dog going berserk on the end of its lead and trotted off. We followed and very soon the narrow path we were on joined the track I was expecting.

Charlie was quite hot at this time. (fortunately we have a mud coloured dog)

It would be no exaggeration to say we were on our uppers by the time we got back to the site. Walks 2 to 7 which were also on offer we will postpone for another day. The humidity and lack of breeze were the killer.

I hosed Charlie down at the motorhome service point. Afterwards he had a long snooze.

 

[DBK]

Camping Orlando in Chianti to Radda in Chianti

ZFrom the campsite we drove less than 10km to Gaiole in Chianti to have a look at the aire, CamperContact #4436, but it was in an industrial section of the town and looked far from attractive so we drove another short distance to Radda in Chianti.

The aire here (#4457) was much pleasanter, though nothing is perfect and the water pressure at the tap is woefully low, so much so we probably won't fill up tomorrow. It also costs €12 a day to park here, almost campsite rates, and the parking machine wouldn't work with my bank card (probably finger trouble as the Italian instructions weren't clear) so I had to pay with coins from our precious hoard.

After leaving Charlie to keep guard we went exploring and it was soon clear this town is a popular tourist destination, with English and American voices heard everywhere.

Tourists need feeding so there were plenty of restaurants. We chose the Bar Dante as it had a good terrace overlooking the road from which we could watch the world. Graded 12 out of 30 in TripAdvisor with some good reviews.

We both ordered a mixed antipasta.

Then our first Italian ice cream, vanilla with espresso for me, plain vanilla for Mrs DBK.

There was surprisingly little choice of ice cream, vanilla or chocolate, but it was tasty but afterwards I felt I should have had something a little less obvious, the pannacotta with wild berries had sounded tempting. With a litre of water, half a litre of house white, total bill €37.50.

I can recommend the Bar Dante, not just for the food which was excellent, but also for its toilet, which is worth a detour as Michelin guides say. The throne itself sits on a raised pedestal and the sink has a foot operated tap, unusual features in themselves but it is the photographs on the walls which elevate this place to an exaulted level. I'm not sure of their origin, photographs from waitress interviews from days past perhaps? This is just one of them, there were a couple of others, which I may post some time in the future when nothing else is happening.

After lunch Mrs DBK visited an ATM then went shopping!

Not here…

This place looks better.

And another handbag added to the collection!

The weather was excellent this morning but cooler now in the afternoon and thunder is rumbling all around us.

We will continue the southward journey tomorrow.

 

[Fenman]

The waitress service is above and beyond obviously - that's going in my little special list. Bet nobody rushes out of the toilet there.

 

[DBK]

Posting this early today because after lunch the thunder Gods came out to play and now it is still bucketing it down and a thunderstorm has passed overhead. It was quite brief but at it's peak the flash from the lightening and the sound of the thunder were simultaneous.

We have had a complete change of location and are now sitting (not quite floating yet) on CamperContact #47567, Podere il Casale near Pirenza which is at the very northern edge of the Val d'Orcia, the "prettiest" part of Tuscany according to many. The blue dot on the map below shows where we are. The lollipop is on Pirenza, another hilltop town which we will explore when we leave on Saturday as we are going to stay here two nights.

This is a hard place to find. CamperContact shows no photographs, no rating and no reviews - and the coordinates they show are also wrong! The published co-ords will take you to the aire in Pirenza which isn't bad but not what we were looking for. I'll upload photos and a review before we leave. I've already told them about the coord problem.

What we have come to is an organic farm which has a restaurant and also runs courses on everything from bread making to truffle hunting. http://podereilcasale.com/en/

They also have a small camperstop area for up to 8 vehicles.

Which doesn't look anything special, though it has electric points and there is a shower and a toilet which we haven't explored yet.

So why come here? We are eating in the restaurant tonight and this is the view from the terrace earlier today.

Note the thunderstorm in the distance, this has now arrived. Here is the view out of the window a few minutes ago.

(Just had to rush out and collect one of my Crocs which was floating away!)

And the cost of this rural water park? Almost exactly €30 per night including taxes. The meal (which is extra of course) had better be good, and I am sure it will be.

More to follow later.

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[Fenman]

Might be a tad difficult to concentrate on the food given that stunning view.
I guess the €30 might help focus on the table.
I'm looking forward to photos later. Is the terrace covered or could the rain ruin the view?

 

[DBK]

Might be a tad difficult to concentrate on the food given that stunning view.
I guess the €30 might help focus on the table.
I'm looking forward to photos later. Is the terrace covered or could the rain ruin the view?

No, it has a roof might have to wear wellies though. It's now stopped raining and no more lightening so I'm just going to take the dog for a short walk.

 

[DBK]

It was a very short walk as it started raining again. Charlie found a waterfall. Rain draining off the fields.

 

[DBK]

A Two Pudding Problem

I think I mentioned earlier the thunderstorm had moved off, which it had, but it or a close friend returned soon afterwards and we have had rumbles of thunder all afternoon and evening and now the rain is falling steadily again.

But no matter, we had a reservation at the restaurant so it was on with the glad rags, a clean shirt in my case, and off we set, picking our way carefully around the puddles, clutching umbrellas.

The restaurant is in an old barn, but not any old barn as it has a marble fireplace decorated with circus figures and a wizard.

After ordering, they brought out a little taster of ricotta and peas. Very delicately flavoured but it helped build the anticipation.

Then we shared a plate of mixed cheeses from sheep, cows and goats. They were very different from each other, the cheese that is, one for example had been matured in crushed grape skins left over from wine making, another had chilli in it. There was a set order for eating them, working clockwise from the youngest cheese. The "dollops" are acacia and clover honey plus a chilli sauce. The honey went very well with the cheese and we must try this ourselves.

The menu offered another course between the starters and the main course, which we passed on, which was possibly a mistake as the portions weren't huge and we probably could have managed one.

However, as a main Mrs DBK had the vegetarian option - deep fried courgette flowers with a courgette flan.

Very tasty, but the courgette flowers were so crisp they shattered when cut, sending edible shrapnel all over the table.

I had grilled lamb and it was yummy. The green blob is chard I think, or some sort of spring green.

For puds we took the waitresses' recommendation and had the yoghurt mousse with berries. I had already attacked mine before remembering to take a picture, which is why it looks a bit lop-sided. It was very nice, the mousse was sweet but the berries had a tang to them

But, before listening to the waitresses' sales pitch we had set our hearts on the biscotti with a desert wine. How was this problem to be overcome? The answer was easy - order a second pud. The idea was you dunked the biscotti in the wine then eat it when it was softened a bit. The wine was a fortified one and probably vile if drank on its own but it did a good job of softening the biscuits.

When we got back to the 'van our resident travel critic had taken exception to All the Aires France, which was a pain as I've found it just the right thickness for putting under the coolbox to level it.

It could have been worse. I haven't seen the bill for the meal yet as we are running up a tab while we are here, but with a litre of house red I suspect not a lot of change from around €80, possibly a shade more. We'll ask Charlie to check the bill when we do see it on Saturday.

 

[DBK]

I forgot to mention the wall lights in the restaurant. They struck me as a bit of typical Italian design, we've had Italian lights at home in the past and they do have a certain look. Then I noticed these ones looked just toilet roll holders. It somewhat detracted from their image.

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