Florence
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
155
169
Trip End
Oct 15, 2008
Florence,
Tuscany,
Italy
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
We had a quick stop in Naples before driving back up the coast to see the best of Tuscany. Naples hadn't really got a good wrap so we had about 2 hrs. You need more like two days I think to see it properly. You keep hearing about the crime scene here, but we had no trouble with pick pockets, I suppose we were being very cautious but we saw nothing to make us suspicious. We did have an amazing pizza though, well with Naples being the place that invented it you would hope it to be! The servings were huge, so we had to get a box to take out.
We drove until we could drive no more and ended up on a break wall in a tiny fishing village near Rome, before getting up the next morning to head to Sienna. Sienna was nice, but very touristy, and our camp site was over priced. That combined with us getting on the right bus going the wrong way.......... led us to being a bit annoyed with the whole place. But really the main square and the Duomo make this place well worth going to.
We had read about a tiny little town called San Gimignano, and being that it was on the way to Florence, we went to have a look. This is our favorite little place, it is completely touristy (locals who are they) but the town takes it all in its grace. It had towers pointing up all over the town, and being set on the top of a hill means there is a good view around every corner. Also a little shop on the main street sells the best pizza slices...............
We arrived to Florence with out a problem and did our usual drive around an area 50 times trying to find the camper stop.
Sorrento in the sun, the day we left
We eventually found it only to discover we couldn't get in. Dave went to find some one to ask while I sat in the car right next to a boom gate hoping that no one pulled in behind us. In the end a nice old man let us in using his card, so what was meant to cost us 12 Euros a night we got for free, bonus!Florence was lovely, even waiting in a line for an hr and a half to see the statue of David with a 10 Euros entry fee at the end, didn't put a dampener on it. The statue was really worth seeing, but would I do it again, no. We did our wander around, poking our heads in anything that looked open and free. We had decided to have a beer that evening in a small pub called Joshua's tree house, it was meant o have a 5 hr happy hr and cheap beers. On the way we saw a trio who looked a little lost (Scott, Christian and Kirsty), so we offered them the use of our map. We got to talking and found out they were from Aust and NZ and after saying we were on the way to the pub they decided to join us. Well these guys didn't mind a drink, and after a very long happy hr, we headed next door for a feed of pasta where we met another trio of Aussies who we all ended up having a rather loud chat to. It was a very good night and left us (well Dave) feeling very shabby the next morning, with Dave saying the usual wait until your 30 then you will understand speech.... (He said the same thing to me when he was 25).
So tasked with driving for the second time that week we headed out of Florence on our way to Pisa and the Cinque Terre, or so we thought. About 5 minuets into the trip, Clive stopped, again. Now I don't really know if you can call this one a break down, because simply we had just run out of fuel. So nice and hung over Dave had to get out of the car in the rain, had I mentioned that, and push the car about 20 meters to a car park off the side of the road. We had a jerry can, and found a petrol station about a 5 min walk away, thank god, and after our stupidity we thought we deserved a reward with a nice healthy meal at Macca's.
The leaning tower was fun to visit, but there are so many tourists it is unbelievable. We stayed for all of an hour, got the picture looked about at everyone else getting a picture and left. The drive on to The Cinque Terre region was unremarkable and long, and by the time we arrived at Moneglia, where we were staying we were both exhausted. It is a beautiful area though and the camp site was in a fantastic place. To get to it we had to drive through a one lane tunnel that went for 3kms, the turn off was half way through it and we missed the first time through! We got to park right next to the crystal clear water with a view back towards the town. The weather had been getting colder so it wasn't really swimming weather which was a shame. We chilled that night and went to bed early to get ready to hike around the 5 villages the next day.
Miles so far: 15213
