When in Rome...

...eat a lot of Gelato ...drink expesso in a sidewalk cafe; without sitting down it's cheaper .... disobey traffic rules and park anywhere... try home made pasta and take-away slices of pizza ...talk loudly and gesticulate madly ...and as a tourist pack more sight-seeing into each day than in any other city in Europe!
We have had a good Roman Holiday, Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn style; on the scooter, even though ours is not a retro Vespa. Of course, we had to see the Colesseum, Roman Forum and Pantheon,but also enjoyed the vibe of the modern city. St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum, including the Sistene Chapel, where highlights too.

Tuscany

We spent time in Tuscany, especially up in the north and we had a great time in Lucca, a fully walled Tuscan city, home to Puccini, who is having his 150th anniversary this year. Of course, we could not miss a trip to see the leaning tower of Pisa. The Tuscan coast is pretty much like the coast further north; and popular with Italians, but not teeming with overseas tourists. We do plan to travel back up north through Central Tuscany; we haven’t sampled much of the wine yet!

North Italian Coast

After crossing into Italy from Monaco, we followed the coast for a few days. The Italian Riviera is much like the French, just a little poorer and a little less polished, perhaps. The Europeans are holidaying like mad all along the coast – it seems all you need is the sun, a narrow strip of sand/stone and the gentle Med. I think possibly, you need at least a villa and a yacht/speedboat to enjoy this coast. We enjoyed sight- seeing rather than the full on beach holiday thing. We stayed in Levanto a while and spent a day exploring the Cinque Terre by ferry while Homer had a service. It is hot and sunny almost all the time and at night a breeze picks up to cool things down while we sleep. Italian food is just so good, from a slice of take out pizza, to pesto and gnocchi, to fish or lamb.

Cote de Azur

We drove along the whole French Mediterreanean Coast. Some towns like Nice, Antibes and Menton are beautiful with very pretty coastlines, but the beaches are not the best. They are crowded, narrow and often stony or the sand is dark. The weather is perfect though. Hot but not humid during the day and warm with a cooling breeze at night. After the French Riviera we drove through Monaco towards Italy and so now we can claim Homer has driven on a Grand Prix circuit.

Campsites!

After about two months in French campsites, I think I am an expert! Obviously, all are quickly graded by me according to the ablution facilities. 3 star places provide toilet paper but hardly ever a toilet seat – just the porcelain. 4 stars gets you large, clean showers with enough hooks for your clothes and towel, but only 2 places so far have had showers with taps that you can control. Ususally the tempreture is set and you have to press the knob every few seconds to keep the water running!! Only a few places have required one to buy a token to get any water at all. We always opt for electricity but the top campsites also provide you with a tap on site. We have used the “ snack bars “ only as an excuse to watch the tennis on their TVs. The better campsites have shops and playgrounds etc. The pools have thousands of rules – no running, no diving, no food and beverage, no shoes in the pool area. Many places also have a no baggies rule, so Neil had to buy a speedo just to take a dip! You usually have to walk through a shower system, something like a cattle dip, to get to the pool area. Most caravaners and mobile homers are very quiet and conciderate but the tenters and back-packers are more noisy, especially when they come in at all hours of the night. Some campervanners never leave their site!! They might as well have parked in the driveway at home for all they see of the area they are in. Then again, I guess the weather is better than in the UK. We confuse the fellow German campers who come over to talk to us because of the Munich plates, only to discover we speak no German. We have not met even one South African in a campsite anywhere yet, eventhough Homer has an SA flag for a bumper sticker. And the number of people with dogs!! You definitely see another side of life in a campsite!!

Provence

Ah! The quintessentially French experience, well at least since Peter Mayle wrote his book. It is a beautiful part of the world when the sun shines – Van Gogh and Cezanne captured that! We spent 3 days in Avignon, where a huge Theatre Festival is held every July. The vibe was great, but in rather wimpy fashion we did not attend even one show due to our very poor command of the French language. We had to look in at Chateau Neuf de Pape again and we have one excellent bottle of red to be opened when we get our next van visitors! Has anyone ever tasted lavender ice cream? It is now Neil’s favourite flavour after about 30 years of being a rum and raisin fan! We are going to make it when we get back to SA – this will have to include a visit to Margaret Robert’s farm, I guess!

Carcasonne and the Camargue

We had been in the Languedoc area a year before with Dom, Tash and Neil, so it was fun to be back. We spent two nights in Carcassonne and two nights on the coast near Montpellier in a town called Palavas les Flots; which is seasidy and tacky but pleasant never the less. We cycled a long way along the canals in Carcassonne and Palavas. This area is great for barging, by the way, if anyone has that holiday in mind. We visited Nimes and Arles; both towns have Roman amphitheatres that are well preserved. This area is also renowned for the French style bullfighting, but whenever we have been here there have been no bullfights on. The weather is hot and sunny all the time now, but it does generally cool down nicely at night.

The Pyrennes

We spent a few days driving through the Pyrennes, the mountain range between France and Spain. Homer did well on all the mountain passes, while Neil did all the difficult driving, I enjoyed the magnificent scenery. We saw the Pyrennes from the French, Spanish and Andorran perspectives, too. Quite by accident, we found ourselves often on the Carmin De Santiago, a 1200km trail from France across the mountains and all the way to Santiago on the north western corner of Spain. Done by pilgrims in the middle ages, it has become popular for tourist-pilgrims to walk at least part of the way these days. We also found our way to another very religious site, Lordes, where 7 million Catholics visit each year.

Popping into Northern Spain

It seemed to make sense to head to San Sebastien in Spain after Biarritz. San Sebastien is a wonderful little city, with a pleasant city beach and a wonderful old town section, full of Tapas bars. From there we went to Bilbao, to see the great architectural wonder that is the Guggenheim Museum. The building is a masterpiece! We also went to Pamplona, a week too early for the San Fermin Festival; or Running of the Bulls, as it is known. Pamplona is a bit too touristy these days, we thought. We also visited Andorra, which we felt has been totally spoilt by so much development.

Biarritz

Known as one of the best surfing spots in Europe, we decided to spend a few days chilling out at the beach. In its hey-day Biarritz was known as the Monte Carlo of the Atlantic, but it is a little jaded now. The young surfing crowd was there, but the sea and waves did not seem up to scratch.

St. Emillion

We were headed for the Medoc and got sidetracked for a while in St. Emillion, another top Bordeaux appellation. Each farm is fairly small, so the whole area is just dotted with little chateaux. We had such fun driving along the country lanes amongst all the vineyards on the scooter. The town itself is a beautiful medieval village filled with wine shops and restaurants. We even did an introductory wine tasting course and now we feel we do know something about Bordeaux wines.