Seggiano (the deafening silence)

Our home for the next month

Our last day camping was spent in the town of Lucca.  Karen went for a run before we left and found it odd that even though a barrier was down at a level crossing and the lights were red, cyclists and pedestrians were still crossing the line.

Obstruction on Karen’s morning run

The main thing we wanted to do in Lucca was walk around the perimeter on the outer of the four city walls, the original wall being built over 2,200 years ago.  The second wall was built in medieval times and replaced most of the original wall although parts of the original can still be found in basements.  The third wall was built in the 14^th and 15^th centuries as the town had expanded so much.  Finally, the current outer wall was constructed between 1545 and 1650 and is one of the only complete city walls left in the world from that period.

On the way into Lucca there are many examples of farm houses built with ventilation in the walls of the upper floors where hay was stored above the living quarters and the ventilation kept it dry.  These walls are protected by law now and cannot be destroyed when the farms are converted to holiday homes or villas so they are usually lined with glass on the inside to make for additional accommodation.

Two of the converted farmhouses with their preserved haylofts (or fienile) 

Lucca’s outer walls are just over 4km long and are lined with trees thus making an ideal circular walk out of the heat of the sun.

An avenue on top of the wall along the western side

The walls have a large green-belt on the outside which gives a sense of space as it provides a parkland between the suburbs and the city.

Walking along the northern section showing the green space outside the wall

As is typical of Italian towns, there are many old churches in Lucca and we passed several on our walk – Lucca cathedral was built in the 11^th century and many others were built before then.

Lucca cathedral

Circular brass plaques have recently been placed in the path every 200 metres to commemorate something to do with the preservation of the walls and are clearly sponsored by local car companies.

The start/finish plaque

We were soon doing plaque spotting in line with canal milestone spotting and found many plaques must have been stolen as we only found about ten in situ.

The skies darkened about half way around and all the tourists, including us, sheltered under the trees whilst it rained for about 20 minutes.

Sheltering from the rain

One of the large villas and gardens open to the public

When we completed our circuit, we walked into the centre.  The rain had stopped and the tourists were back on the streets and in the piazzas.

Even with the sun out, the streets remain in shade as they are so narrow

Drying out in piazza San Michele

Clouds have rolled away

The intricate façade of the 11^th century San Michele in Foro church

We spent the rest of our last day camping reading and going for the odd quick butterfly spotting forays.  We both agreed that this particular site was one of the best, if not the best, of the ten we have stayed at over the last three weeks.

Relaxing in the evening sun

There was a bit of excitement during the evening as we heard some commotion and saw a guy who looked like he had had too much to drink and had fallen trying to get into his camper.  It transpired that, even though (or maybe because) he had been drinking, he had decided to do some night maintenance under the van.

  

We packed up on Wednesday morning and set off for Seggiano where we have rented a cottage for the next month.  Seggiano is in southern Tuscany and about 40 miles east of Grosseto which itself is about 15 miles inland from the Mediterranean coast.

As with our journeys through France we kept away from the motorways and followed country roads inland, away from the Italian Riviera.  As usual, the pictures cannot do the scenery justice but here are a few from the journey:

  

  

   

By mid afternoon we could see Seggiano, a hilltop town like so many in Tuscany and had the task of finding the house.

Heading for Seggiano

We used Google maps to get us there and after travelling about a mile up an unmade road, realised that we were in the wrong place.  An Italian woman came out of a farmhouse to find out what we were doing in her road.  Her English was as non-existent as our Italian and all she could do was point back up the track and say, ‘Seggiano’. 

A young couple pulled up behind us in a car and the guy got out to find out what was going on and turned out to speak a little English.  He was an odd-job man who had arrived up to do some work for the lady.  It also turned out that he knew Luca, the guy we were renting the cottage from, and therefore knew how to give us the correct directions.  We were about six miles the wrong side of Seggiano – so much for Google maps!

We finally found the place and settled in.  We hadn’t realised just how high up in the mountains we were – at around 900 metres it was just short of the height of Snowdon.  Of course, being higher, the air was cooler but still pleasant enough to be outside in the evening in shorts and tee-shirts.

Our new home

It was unbelievably quiet and felt even quieter than when we are out in the countryside at home on the boat as there was no sound of water fowl. 

Once again, it was difficult to get a decent picture but we just caught the sun setting over the furthest mountains as we sat outside in the fading daylight - it was pitch black by eight o’clock.

Our view from the front in the setting sun - hopefully we'll get clearer pictures over the next few weeks

Our journey for the last month

Lucca (and another change of wine)

The pretty but touristy port of Portofino

As we only stayed one night at the worst campsite in the world it meant we would have three nights in Rapallo giving us a chance to take it easy for a couple of days.  Apart from a quick look around Portofino, we did very little else on Sunday.

I took Buddy for a stroll after breakfast and started climbing a hill out of Rapallo, away from the houses, and came across a rather dilapidated building.  Even though we were off the beaten track there was a sign, in both Italian and English, explaining the history of the building.

The Lazzaretto

The Lazzaretto was built in 1450 as a hospital to house victims of a leprosy outbreak in the area.  A wealthy landowner of Rapallo donated the land and paid for the construction.  In 1475 the plague epidemic devasted this area of the Italian Riviera and brought the building into use again, to house the victims from the village.

The 15^th century mural shows the Madonna with child and the three saints Lazzaro, Giacomo and Biagio who, apparently, were miracle workers.  The first saint being the one the building was dedicated to.

We took a picnic lunch to Portofino which involved a pretty drive along the coast for about six miles.  There is only one road into Portofino and the police had a road block a kilometre outside and were only letting cars in when an equivalent number came out.  Whilst we were waiting we got chatting to one of the policemen (who had good English 😉) and it turned out that his wife was born in the same village as that where we let our house out!  Hence his good English.

I suppose we could have guessed that Portofino was a tourist trap as it is a well-known destination.  Mike (of nb Charlie Mo) had already warned us there would be loads of tourists (and he’s right, we are tourists too) and it would be even worse if a cruise ship was in  the area, which it wasn’t 😊 All the restaurants and bars were packed but we found a quiet spot at the far end of the natural harbour to sit down and have our picnic.

Our view back across the harbour was rather spoilt by a shiny boater though:

     

I looked up the details of the boat and it was last sold in 2015 for just over 39 million euros.  Other than the six crew, it can only accommodate eight people, so it really is rather extravagant.  I suppose if you have that sort of money then you’re probably the sort of person who doesn’t care about other people and whether or not you’re spoiling their view ☹

Contrary to the forecast, we had some rain in the early hours of Monday morning, and it was funny lying in bed listening to the mad panic in the campsite.  Doors were slamming and there were lots of agitated discussions as people got out of their camper vans to bring things into their vans or under their awnings to stop them getting wet.  We were glad we had our tent cover; it has been really useful for keeping us in the shade and on Monday night it kept everything dry too.

We packed up on Monday morning to set off for Lucca. It kept raining intermittently so once again we were glad of our awning as we were able to pack everything away, including the tent without anything else getting wet.  OK, the awning was soaking wet but we knew it would soon dry out when we pitched tent later in the day.

By the time we had paid up and left the site for our short 90-mile journey to Lucca it had stopped raining and the sun was out.  In fact, it turned out to be one of the hottest days so far and we were really glad we had a shady pitch when we got to the campsite at Lucca.

Glad to be in the shade

We were a little sad as we realised this would be our last campsite for a while, but we have a whole new stage of our holiday to start soon – and we’ll have a proper bed too 😊 Anyway, before that we will have a couple of days to explore the wonderful town of Lucca and its four concentric town walls.  Fittingly, we think this is going to be the best campsite we have been to as well.  

Once we set up camp we popped to the local supermarket to stock up for our stay in Lucca, including some wine of course.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but whenever I buy wine on this holiday I’m making sure that it is locally grown and produced.  Now we are in Tuscany I am sticking to that rule and am very happy about that too 😉

The site is arranged so that campervans and caravans are in the middle and tents are positioned on terraces above them.  When we were having dinner, it felt quite strange sitting above everyone else and watching their comings and goings.  Karen thinks I am nosey but I say I’m a people watcher, especially as I like to make up people’s life history as I watch them.

We have noticed that the nationalities of campers have changed over the last week; the majority of camper vans are now German but the nationality of people in tents remains cosmopolitan, although we’re usually the only Brits.  The other thing we have noticed is that people in tents tend to be young couples (like us – haha 😊) and the older people are in the vans.

Our rather supercilious view above the camper vans on the site in Lucca

Rapallo (out of our comfort zone)

A fine example of tromp de l’oeil (see Saturday below)

As we were at possibly the second worst camp site in the world on Thursday night we quickly packed up and set off on Friday morning.  We had expected a heavy dew over the tent as the other two nights that we had camped next to water we awoke to a wet covering.  It seems that our theory was wrong as, even though we were next to the Med, the tent was bone dry and our towels that we had left out had also dried.  We now think the previous two occasions when dew had formed were because we were camped by salt water lakes.

The old Genova to Ventimiglia railway line running through the campsite (built in the 1860s - the last time the camp site was renovated 😉)

I suppose we were lucky the railway line has been rebuilt this century otherwise we would have had noise from trains to contend with too!  The new railway line is another engineering marvel but not so good for the tourists.  The old line used to hug the coast, corniche style, and was in the open for much of its length.  The new line is nearly all in tunnels.  For example, the tunnel through San Remo is 13km long and has the new San Remo station in the middle.

Our tent can just be seen - four terraces up, two terraces above bare-chested guy

We managed to travel our 1,000 miles through France without going on any motorways but accepted that we would at the top end of Italy.  This was because we have had three days driving on the trot and it was unfair on Buddy, let alone us, so we decided to get to our next stop as quickly as possible; hence using the autostrada.

I love driving through this part of the French/Italian riviera as the journey (on either main roads or motorways) constantly changes.  One minute you are on a high viaduct and the next going through a tunnel to come out the other side onto another viaduct and so on.  There are dozens of tunnels and viaducts on the A10 between the French border and Genova and we soon lost count.

One of the tunnel entrances on the Autostrada dei Fiori (motorway of flowers)…

…and a viaduct

As most people will know, one of the viaducts collapsed at Genova recently so there is a diversion through the city and it was a nightmare.  Not only are there the hundreds of scooters that the Italians love but also lost lorry drivers and tourists creating additional driving hazards.

Motorway closed – diversion is through the city

It’s strange why we Brits call the city Genoa as it’s probably more difficult to say than Genova 😉

Going past the collapsed bridge – the crash barrier is in the way, but you can just see the road comes to end in mid-air just left of centre

We found a camp site north of Portofino outside a town called Rapallo.  As with all the other camp sites in Italy (apart from the nightmare of Cevio) it was practically full.  On the other hand, this was small, clean and quiet and we soon settled in.  The only drawback being the number of cats roaming around which means Buddy has to be kept tightly tied up.  Saying it is quiet doesn’t mean it hasn’t been packed but for some reason everyone seems to be peaceful here.

Dried up river next to the camp site – probably quite a sight when it’s full of Alpine snow melt in the spring

The rivers are rather disconcerting as they are shown on our road maps as thick blue lines but when we arrive most are bone dry so we sometimes lose our bearings.

Quaint packhorse bridge back to the site

It was still a little cloudy, but we were glad the pitches were all in the shade.  We decided to take electricity for the first time on this trip as it is getting increasingly difficult to keep fresh meat and other produce cool.

Our new view

Local water melons

Having moved on the last three days we took it easy on Saturday – that meant having breakfast at midday before going out.  We went down to the port of Rapallo to have a look around.  We are on a large square shaped peninsular with four towns along its east facing coast: Rapallo (where we are), Santa Margherita Ligure, Paraggi and at the far south, the most well-known, Portofino.

An information board at the port puts it all in perspective (we are camped in the far right)

We each use different weather forecasting apps and Karen’s, which is Italian, was forecasting a high chance of thunderstorms during the afternoon.  Although we kept seeing dark clouds rolling off the mountains we didn’t get a drop of rain all day.  In a way it would have been good as it would have relieved some of the constant stickiness in the atmosphere.

Storm clouds behind a rather pleasingly coloured building in Rapallo

There are very large villas along the harbour front, some in a good state of repair and others, sadly, not so:

The top storey of the villa on the left is not good at all with missing windows and area of roof tiles as well as shrubs growing through the roof

The facades of many of the houses in this area are painted in the style known as ‘trompe l’oeil’ (trick of the eye, or literally deceives the eye), which makes flat surfaces looks three dimensional.

The design at the top and the window surrounds have all been painted as well as the shutters on the right

The colonnades and the cornerstones are not real on this house

Another good example where the only ‘real’ things are the green shutters and shutter stops (oh, and the balconies of course 😉)

We walked around the harbour and came to Rapallo castle.  This was built in 1551 following an attack by Turkish pirates in 1549 when dozens of local women and children were apparently taken as slaves.

Rapallo castle

The beaches around the harbour were packed with sunbathers and the sea full of swimmers.  We had left our swimming gear back at the tent which was a great shame as the sea looked so inviting and cooling,

Looking back across Rapallo bay

Talking about swimming gear I am paying for not letting Karen check what I had packed for our holiday.  I had misjudged the weather totally and only brought a few tee shirts, everything else is either hippy, polo or rugby style tops – far too warm for the weather we have had ☹  Still, camping on the way back to the boat will be different as it will be at the end of October so I suspect I will be glad I packed the warmer gear.

The reason I said we were feeling out of our comfort zone is because neither us know any Italian other than the standard ciao and boungiorno.; at least we can get by in France with our (improving) 'O' level French.  Karen was in a grocer shop today whilst I stayed outside with Buddy and had several conversations with locals where neither of us knew what the other was saying other than Buddy was used as the focal point.  One old guy even shook my hand on the way into the shop and again on the way out saying, ‘Buonasera’ which I at least could respond to 😊

We will stay a third night at Rapallo, visit Portofino on Sunday and then head off south to find a camp site around Lucca for our final stop before driving on further to the place we have booked in the hills above Seggiano in the far south of Tuscany on Wednesday.

Our approximate route to our ninth camp site at Rapallo

Cevio (we need our Italian speaking daughter!)

A freshly emerged southern white admiral on our washing on Wednesday morning

I was saying how much we like the current campsite and one of the reasons I forgot to mention is that the couple who run it make no attempt to speak English.  Don’t get me wrong, we don’t expect foreigners to speak our language, it’s just that it gets a bit wearing when we speak in French to someone and it doesn’t take long before they start speaking in English.  The couple here are not being deliberately awkward by not trying English, as some are, we just believe they find it even more difficult than us to speak another language 😊

Talking about foreign languages we have just realised that we haven’t been to Italy before without an Italian speaker with us.  That means we don’t really know much, if any, Italian.  Sophie has provided us with a list of how letters are pronounced (Italian is good in that letter sounds tend to be constant unlike English) but as I only asked for it on Tuesday I don’t think we’re going to learn much before we’re there 😉

Tuesday was yet another stunning evening and the new moon looked like it couldn’t be any newer:

  New moon from our tent

We woke on Wednesday to a clear, bright, blue sky and with the promise of it being another hot day.  It certainly turned out to be very hot and, even though quite a lot of cloud appeared during the day, it remained very warm.

We wanted to go for a swim (to hopefully teach Buddy to swim too), visit a couple of villages, have a trip along the Gorges du Verdon as well as pay a visit to a supermarket.  We kept changing our minds about which order to do things in, including going for a swim in the lake first and cooking pancakes on the shore, in the end we decided to drive to the gorge first.

We drove along the eastern side of the lake (Lac de Sainte-Croix) and had some stunning views as we wound through the hills.

Looking down on one of the islands on the lake which is about 6 ½ miles long

The far end was the touristy bit because this is where the river Verdon enters the lake and also marks the end of the spectacular gorge.

The business end of the lake

Looking into the end of the Gorges du Verdon

We both found it really uncanny seeing all the pedalos and kayaks making their way into the gorge – it just seemed so unnatural.  Talking about it later in the evening, Karen did point out that if we had our boat there then we would have gone in as well.

We were soon climbing up the hairpins on one side of the gorge.  We only went about half way along the 20-mile length of the gorge before we turned back but we had some brilliant views.

This was at about 1,300 metres, looking back down to where the river enters the lake

We could just make out the pedalos and kayaks in the blue part of the river far below

There is a view (entirely subjective) that this gorge is the most beautiful in Europe and I must admit, that it is absolutely awesome the further you travel upstream.

We returned along the far side, so we could see the dam and thus complete a circuit of the lake.

The hydroelectric dam (although I think it’s made of concrete etc.)

We returned to the spot on the shore we went to on Tuesday afternoon and Karen was first in the water.  We were hoping that by us going in that Buddy would want to follow suit and thus get confident in swimming.

Far from it, he became very anxious and would hardly step into the water whilst we were in there.  It seems we have taken a step backwards in getting him used to water ☹

Not happy that Karen was in the water…

…and a picture of me in the water to prove to our children that I can now just about swim 😉

We lay on the shore drying off and were thankful that we weren’t by the sea as we avoided the unpleasantness of feeling sticky and uncomfortable with sand and salt water.

After popping into the supermarket down in Aups we went back to the tent.  Whilst Karen was cooking we had a bit of rain which was most unexpected although the forecast said there was a 20% chance of thunderstorms at midnight.  The rain didn’t last long, and we sat out all evening but, as there was cloud cover, we couldn’t stargaze. It did mean it was really rather muggy and we were aware of the buzzing of mosquitos for the first time.

We packed up the tent after breakfast on Thursday and set off on the back roads through the hills to stop for lunch in Monaco.  We passed through many of the hilltop Provençal villages that this area of France is famous for:

  

  

Neither of us had been to Monaco before and were a little out of our comfort zone as the place was packed with people.  Monaco is the second smallest sovereign state in the world and the most densely populated.  Over a third of its 38,000+ inhabitants are sterling millionaires and we assume the rest either service them or work there.  We also assume that by millionaire it is meant true millionaire as in having at least a million pounds of free cash as opposed to having it tied up in assets such as houses.  The other fact that surprised us was that 6% of the population are British.

We entered the city through a spiral tunnel – something else neither of us had seen or been on before.  Driving down the start/finish straight we turned and went to the far end of the harbour where a multi-storey car park on five levels has been built beneath the sea.

Walking out of the car park we were faced with the opulence seen in so many of the famously rich ports around the world

This boat had a helicopter on one of the rear decks and was still small enough to fit in the harbour

We had our picnic lunch on the harbour wall where there were some steps leading down to the sea where we could dangle our legs in.  We were opposite the back end of Queen Victoria and the constant convoy of tenders bringing cruisers on and off the boat created such a wash that a load of crap was washed ashore so we decided to avoid the leg dangling.

Cruise ship Queen Victoria anchored out of the harbour

The town end of the harbour where the smaller boats berth

When driving through the packed streets to get out of the city we felt rather sheepish in our car;  the other British plated cars we saw were two Lamborghinis, three Ferraris, two Porsches and two McLarens ☹

Once we were out of Monaco we headed towards Italy, San Remo in particular.  Once again is was a scorching hot day even with clouds in the sky; we were really looking forward to getting to a campsite and setting up with a cold beer.

Crossing the border

In the end we bypassed San Remo as we couldn’t find any camp sites with decent reviews and headed for Imperia instead.  We followed Germans with a caravan into the site and they got the last spot.  It was really ‘resorty’ anyway so we gave all the other sites a miss and headed further east.  We agreed we would stop overnight at the next site we found.

We pulled in at the first site at Cevio and realised immediately that it would only be one night.  The view could have been a lot worse but the site could not have been.  Tired and run down would make it sound not too bad; the site was full of Italians in campervans apart from a couple of Germans and us.

View was OK from our pitch

I won’t begin to explain why the site was so bad but, needless to say, we got up first thing on Friday, packed up and headed in the direction of Portofino.

Our travels and eight camp sites since getting to France 17 days ago