Tuscany to the Mediterranean

We spent the morning doing washing and cleaning up. We left Roma and drove north past lots of apartments and traffic. We stopped for lunch by some caves and burial tombs carved out of tofa cliffs. While the washing dried Mum and Thomas walked around to a closed in a cave and a small amphitheatre like the Colosseum but carved into a hill. We drove though dry clay-like soil, grapes and olives. We stayed outside the medieval walls of Tuscania.

The next day some of us went looking for information on the cork-oak trees. The National Reserve office and tourist office sold local art and produce. We had to force the information out of them. We decided to not hunt for Cork-oaks with the limited knowledge we had. Instead to keep moving north to Monteriggioini, another small walled village. We parked in the gravel park on the side of the hill with lots of other neighbours. Inside the walls there was Co-operative market in the Piazza. There were lots of Italians tourists with their ‘Poofy’ jackets and Umbrellas on their long weekend. Some kids were playing with firecrackers and celebrating Halloween/day of the dead. Anneke and Johanna put towels on their heads and chased and scared the little kids running around our camper. The next day mum went to a mass in the small church. Thomas and Anneke tried to get a stamp at a Tabbachi but didn’t succeed. A Tabbachi is like a dairy or corner store.

We drove to San Gimignano and parked on the side of the road. We walked up to the walled town in the pouring rain in our raincoats. The towers were really tall and there was red ivy growing on the stone walls. It was raining so hard the sewer overflowed onto one place in the street. Yuk. There were lots of shops selling painted ceramics, pizza, gelato and tourist souvenirs. The piazza in town had a well in it full of money. Anneke finally got a stamp for her postcard after going to every shop in town. We came back saturated.

We went to Florence on the first of November and it was still raining. We came in from along the hill looking over Florence down below. We happened to have stopped Michael Angelo piazza with a view over the city. There was a bronze replica of David a famous nude statue by Michael Angelo. The Duomo and its massive dome stood out from the rest of the orange red buildings. We could see the Ponte Vecchio the famous 14 century bridge lined with expensive jewellery shops that was the only bridge in Florence that was not bombed in WWII. We parked by a stadium east of the centre and walked in the rain. We past ‘Vespa’ scooters, three-wheeled electric cars and colourful graffitied dumpsters. We reached the Duomo and its piazza full of tourists that tried to poke ours eyes out with there hundreds of colourful umbrellas.

Inside was closed until later. W e stopped to admire the beautiful pink, white and green marble façade and the Duomos bell tower, trying not to get too wet. The Santa Maria del Firoe cathedral aka the Duomo the fourth largest cathedral in the world with its huge dome. We sheltered from the rain in a open air museum of nude statues. We walked past the gelatarias that had rainbow displays of swirled gelato mounds decorated with fruit slices and other things to show their flavours and make them even more good looking than they already are.

We walked along the muddy Arno river and over the bridge. We made our way back to the Duomo and joined the line behind some Australians. It was very plainly decorated compared to the outside. There were frescoes on the walls and a few glass windows.

We drove to Pisa the next day. We parked 2km north of town and had lunch. An English-speaking Italian guy came over and talked to us after seeing our ‘New Zealand’ sign, he was very friendly. We walked to the wall around the city and then to Piazza de Miracoli. The leaning tower was on a much greater lean than we expected and a little bended like a banana. It stood out between the other building not because of it’s height but because of the lean. The tower itself was really nice to look at because of the little arches on every level. The top second to top level was covered for restoration work. We took photos pretending to stop it falling over. The Piazza de Miracoli (field of miracles) and spacious area and didn’t make you feel you were in a city. It was lined with tacky tourist stalls where Johanna bought a little leaning tower.

We walked around the Cathedral and the Baptistery and then inside. Like lot’s of other churches in Italy it had huge sculpted bronze doors. It had a golden ceiling and 68 striped marble pillars to hold it up. We could see the Frescoes painted on the small dome. The baptistery was in front of the Cathedral, is a circular or octagonal building. There was also one in Florence but they charged to get inside them.

We walked towards the river down so main streets. William took out the laptop and hooked into some unsecured ‘Wifi’. We managed to tell our worried friends and family that we were alright. We reached the muddy brown river and Thomas got a map at the tourist info and asked for the best Gelataria. We looked in the nearest Gelataria. The Gelato wasn’t as extravagantly decorated as some places but it still tasted amazing. It was very strong and rich. Some of the flavours we had between us were strawerry (made from real strawberries), coconut, tiramisu, caramel, coffee, lemon sorbet and banana.
We drove north with rocky peaks to our right and resteraunts to the left blocking out the view of the sea.
We walked on the beack at sunset out to a pier where men were fishing with nets on long poles.

We had an interesting experience looking for a ‘dump’ (to empty our sewage and fill up with water.) We ended up in a rubbish dump and some gypsies living in old caravans pointed us to a hole in the ground in the sewage treatment plant.


We drove though La Spezia and over some olive covered hills. The houses were mostly painted in yellow, pink and orange with painted on shutters, frames and bricks to make them look nicer. We parked for a late lunch between Santa Margarita and Portofino. We smashed bits of marbles of rocks and put Kina (sea urchins) back in the sea before they were buried by the construction works. We wanted to go on the straight ‘autos trade’ (toll-motorway) after driving the afternoon on the narrow windy roads. We didn’t though. We stayed in San Rocco and could see Genova along the coast.
 
We went walking around to San Frutuoso Abbey between Portifino and San Rocco, We could see the Alps to the north. The track was paved til the last bunch of houses that were set on the hill. It was a little bit like the ‘Mumma Mia’ island but not as dry and the sea was a dark blue. We whacked spiky red fruit off the trees and saw some mountain goats. We rested at a Battery/Gun point looking out to sea. The track then got quite rough. We had to hold onto a chain and not slip or we’d fall off the cliff and into the sea below. We got to a point where we could se where the track went across another cliff but it looked wet and slippery. We hadn’t gone as far as we’d thought and decided to have a snack and think about continuing.

We turned around because we weren’t prepared enough and didn’t want to risk it on the slippery cliff. We went back and talked to a New Zealander living in Italy going to check his olive grove on his bike.

We drove to Oasi Park campground near the french border.We had wifi to publish our blogs about Italy. We went walking on the beach, made huts out of the washed up bamboo and buried cans for the metal detecters to find. We did lot's of washing.
On our second day William and Tom went for a Run and we did more walking. We went into the centre of town and ended up in a children’s Halloween festival. We had pizza and bread smothered in Nutella. The girls got their faces painted and we tried throwing balls into bowls to win goldfish in bags. But we got bracelets and yoyos instead. There was a Piñata and Johanna had her pockets full of lollies. Thomas tried cooking 'Polenta' (corn porridge). Mum booked plane tickets home. We are flying from London to Auckland on Singapore airlines, we’re glad we’re not on Air Asia because there’s no food, movies or spacious seats. We're going back to france tomorrow.