Msnrelais Vigneti Del Mandorlo Mombaruzzo

Destination 404

km197'196

A wonderful winding route via a inland section have lead me from Pisa to the coastline around Genova. But since in that part of the environment it was very hard to find a spot for bushcamping I took the toll freeway to prevent to get stuck in the chaotic traffic of Genova and headed north into the highlands of the northern region of Genova. A beatiful spot at the top of a mountain has provided perfect views to sunset and sunrise, but a bloody cold night!

Partiremo fra un mese circa. Oggi sto preparando il guardaroba invernale per la vita di tutti i giorni in Piemonte. La stufa è accesa dalle 6.45 e oggi non ha ancora smesso di fare freddo: il sole non l'ho ancora visto. I vestiti estivi sono pronti per essere messi in valigia ma è ancora troppo presto ...

Embarrassing isn't it? The bird (Jamie) speaks the lingo, FLUENTLY, in the 2 countries we've been to so far. And how do I get by? By attempting to communicate with the locals like Terry Scott in an episode of "Terry and June", where they holidayed in France for the week!! Communication menthods being, speak slowly and shout. My word, that was a funny episode! They don't ...

so left avignon today with thoughts to head to cinque terre, but due to traffic jam only made it as far as arenzano. found a cute pensione and jason was getting sick of driving so seemed like a good place to stop. tried a few others but was like walking through a sad run down old people town so didn't make it more than 5 mins there. well, happy hour time now, so will write more later....

Saturday 20/6/09 Cocconato

Just outside Cocconato, next to our agriturismo, is a large factory outlet/ clothing store for "conbipel". I presume they must make clothing on the premises as it is very large. Alison went in to ...

... expeditions lodged material here as northern Italy was part of France. Post Risorgimento the Italians were very much involved in exploration and gathering of artefacts. A third stream of high quality material came as a gift from Egypt after Italy’s significant assistance with rescue work prior to flooding of the Aswan Dam.

Not only is the material itself of the ...

... with us on our travels. This is cheaper and makes us much more flexible. Breakfast this morning was bread and a selection of jams and some really nice salami. Yojurt also and a really strong brew of Italian black coffee. There was also some of the glorious fresh soft cheese called robiolo, a speciality of Cocconato.

Today was a driving day, down to Alba which is medium sized town with a large central ...

Wednesday 17/6/09 Scandicci to Cocconato

Started off this morning saying arivedercci to our hosts Tina and Franko, at La Tinaia agriturismo.It really has been a wonderful place to stay. Then off to Scandicci market for a few supplies before heading off. We thought we were on top of the warren of one way streets in Scandicci but no. They caught us one last time for a good half hour.

On to the ...

... I went to two bars at night. I met Ricca's friends who were a bunch of college students. They tried to talk to me in English. They were singing and I recorded that. I had fun. We went to the Red Lion but it was boring. The place was quite characteristic. At 12ish we returned home. Ricca was a little sick. We went straight to bed.

Genoa was terrific...spent a couple of days here just wandering around the city. Had a scientific expedition the first day, visiting the Museum of Antarctica (no really! all about the big white continent!) and the Genoa Aquarium (incredible). Second day we wandered around for a bit ...