Pratolungo (church and cow bells)

Our new home – Lago d’Orta

We left Pescina, our home for the last month, soon after eight on Friday morning and headed north to the Italian lakes.  We drove up through Siena, Florence, Bologna, Parma and Milan.  Once we hit Bolgna we took the autostrada to Milan which runs in a practically straight line from Naples to Milan.  I have only driven on it a couple of times before and had forgotten how monotonous it gets.

A train line runs alongside for most of the way and the journey is brightened when a high-speed train overtakes and makes you feel that your 80mph is more like 10mph.  Oh, and the other thing of course is keeping out of the way of Germans heading home after their holidays at speeds which must be well in excess of 100mph. 

After 250 miles we stopped for lunch and to let Buddy stretch his legs.  He wasn’t interested in having a wander round the Fido Park or even drinking any water and just lay down in the hot sun:

    

We (I) only got lost once and headed east instead of west when we had gone through Milan, but it was noticed quickly and added only about three miles to the journey so no impact really.  I did get in the wrong lane at a short stretch of toll road around Milan; not paying proper attention I went through one of the ANPR lanes for those who have pre-paid passes.  After an embarrassed discussion on the intercom (and probably a lot of impatient Italians in the queue behind me) we were let through without a ticket and it was all sorted out automatically when we went through the next toll. 

The only other thing of note, toll-wise, was that one booth wouldn’t take our cards and swallowed our ticket, so we couldn’t start the payment process again.  In the end we were presented with a long sheet of paper basically requesting, we think, that we pay within 15 days or get shot (our Italian is still not up to much).

Saying that we had been in Tuscany for a month reminded me that we have obviously hit some sort of limit and our browsers constantly ask if we want to translate English websites into Italian.  I suppose it makes sense and I imagine the limit is four weeks stay in a country and is no doubt controlled by browser cookies.

One thing I always look out for when driving are foreign vehicles and where they are from.  On the journey I saw my first ever Maltese (M) and Montenegran (MNE) plated lorries.  I know it sounds sad but it helps pass the time 😉  There were no other new plates to me but I did see two that I have only seen a couple of times before: BIH (Bosnia & Herzegovena) and MK (Macedonia).

We arrived at the campsite at about three o’clock and quickly got ourselves organised.  It’s a really pleasant site and as it’s a quiet time of year we managed to get a pitch right on the edge, overlooking the lake and the village of Pettenasco.  Behind us, to the north we can see the snow-covered peaks of the Alps, so we are in a most picturesque place.  Lago d’Orta is one of the smaller lakes, just over eight miles long and is the farthest west.  It is also the only lake whose exit river heads north rather than south.

Our spot overlooking the lake with the only island, Isola di San Giulio, to the left of the tree behind the car

After setting up camp we went for a wander around Pratolungo which is a collection of summer villas, the camp site, a couple of restaurants, a church and a couple of farms.  We heard much cow bell ringing and as we rounded a corner saw an old guy walking his eight cows down the road to his house for milking.  We did rather suspect that he and his aged wife milked the cows by hand. 

There is a small field next to us which has a single bull in it and it seems to like the sound of its bell as every so often it has a little run around with much bell clanging. 

Bringing in the last two cows – the old lady in the distance is at the gate waiting to guide them in with a pushchair

Talking about bells, the church strikes the hour and half hour but, fortunately only between six in the morning and ten at night.  There is another church further along the lake and that strikes the same times but is running about three minutes later.  If the bull next to us decides to have a run around at the right time it can feel like the bells are pretty constant.  And then, if it's time for one of the many masses they seem to have then the bells start all over again.  We had to laugh at about three in the morning because the bull decided to have a run around and show off his bell for a while.

The church behind the campsite

After being in the Tuscany house for a month it was good to be back camping again as it’s more like the boating life we both love.  In fact, Karen reckoned she had the best night’s sleep since we were camping on our way down 😊 We took it easy on Saturday morning and took our time over breakfast and deciding what to do for the day. 

We had hoped to get a ferry over to the island and maybe then across to the other side of the lake, but the website was saying that from the middle of October the only services were now on a Sunday, so we gave it a miss. Plan B was to walk down to Pettenasco which is a little town on the lake and then have a walk along the shore.  We needed to get some wine and a few other heavy things and as the walk back to the campsite is steep we took the car down and parked near the supermarket before going for our walk, so plan C in effect.

When we got down there, Karen went for a run and I took Buddy for a walk.  Karen was so happy to be running on level ground after the mountain roads and paths she has been on recently.   While we were going our separate ways I heard a boat and assumed it was just a private boat but as it went past I saw it was a ferry!  

A non-existent ferry in the distance

It turns out I was looking at website for hiring boats for parties and that the ferries were still running 😉   We met up after Karen’s run, went for a walk, ate our picnic by the lake, and then found a bar before heading off to the supermarket.

It was lovely and quiet as a lot of the villas along the shore were shuttered up now the season is nearly over. 

Cooling the feet after a visit to the bar

When we got back to the campsite we had a rare glimpse of the guy who seems to run the place so we went to settle up in case we didn’t see him again.  His card machine wasn’t working so we had to pay by cash and we just had enough.  As we were now extremely short of cash we went out again to find the ATM at Orta san Guilio.

What a shock we got when we arrived at the village which is on a promontory overlooking Isola di San Giulio.  It seemed to consist of packed out coach and car parks and there were people everywhere.   Our original plan A had been to visit the place and walk around the promontory – we were lucky not to have followed that plan, but at least we got a closer look at the island:

A closer view of Isola di San Giulio with the evening haze starting to gather over the lake

Pescina (sad news about the floods in France)

Freshly emerged small copper in our butterfly meadow yesterday

It wasn’t until we were reading the news on Tuesday evening that we found out about the floods in south west France along l’Aude around Carcassonne and Trèbes.  It’s always sad to hear about loss of life and it sort of puts your own problems into perspective.  Our first thoughts had been around the lines of, “Wow! We were camping there and cruised the Canal du Midi with Mike & Aileen – weren’t we lucky to avoid the floods”.  Then we realised there were lives lost and it sank in how devastating it must be for those who have lost their friends and family members. 

The flooding Aude in Trèbes – we were camped inside the red circle six weeks ago 😒

When we were with Mike & Aileen in Trèbes we went for a meal by one of the three écluses (locks) in the town.  Looking back, it was so peaceful that evening, eating on the veranda by the lock; how different it would have been if we had been there this week.

The lock by the restaurant: Six weeks ago (when we were there) and a couple of days ago (from France 24 website)

Believe it or not, the brown stuff is actually water flooding along either side of the lock and down the sides.

Wednesday was a 'no do' day so we went for a longish walk in the woods above the house.  As we were going to be climbing and there was no sun it was on with the walking trousers and fleeces which was a really strange feeling.  Karen commented that it was probably the first time she hasn't worn shorts or a dress since April; we really have been lucky with the weather this summer especially considering we were in Yorkshire on the Leeds & Liverpool canal for a lot of it.  

We find it quite eerie walking in the woods here as there are very few sounds.  In the UK, even in the remotest woods where there is no traffic noise, there always seems to be birdsong.  Here, although we see birds, they seem to keep their song muted.  Other things give it an eerie feel too, like the enormous boulders that are dotted around the place.

Posing for size 😉

What we did hear on our walk was the sound of woodcutters' chainsaws and the occasional crack as a trunk finally snaps when a tree falls to the ground.

The sun glinting through makes it almost spring- like

A mature sweet chestnut orchard

The sun came back out when we got home so we spent the rest of the day on the patio reading and planning our final five month’s cruising in the UK.  We are getting really excited about cruising again and we have quite an ambitious plan (for us) to get down to Aylesbury by the end of November.  This means cruising for an average of four hours a day which is not always easy in the winter with the shorter day lengths.

We have also been researching and ordering stuff on-line ready for the move to France, so that adds to the excitement of course!

Thursday was our last full day here so, other than Karen going for her run and a visit to the supermarket at Castel del Piano, we did very little else other than starting to pack up for the journey home and just sitting outside enjoying the warm sunshine.

Our last morning view from the bedroom (we will be up and off before the sun comes out on Friday)

Buddy waiting for us to come out and have our breakfast on our last morning

We did have a wander around the butterfly meadow by the house and these are the 17 species we saw – not bad for 18^th October 😊:

• Large white
• Small white
• Southern small white
• Green veined white
• Clouded yellow
• Small copper
• Small heath
• Wall brown
• Speckled wood
• Meadow brown
• Grizzled skipper
• Common blue
• Lang’s short tailed blue
• Brown argus
• Queen of Spain fritillary
• Red admiral
• Comma

Pescina (pandas, dates and cinnabar moths)

Grey skies from Santa Fiora (I love the higgledy-piggledy lines of the terracotta tiles and chimneys)

I talked the other day about the potential impacts of a no deal Brexit on us moving to France next year.  Since then, we have seen that the Government is putting in place contingency plans to turn one side of the M26 and M20 motorways into lorry parks in case of extended delays at the border from next March.  What this means is that we should book flexible tickets to get across just in case our boat is stuck in one of the lorry parks for days as we don’t really want to go across in the car until the boat is over there.  [Note to self: one more thing to add to the do list.]

We both feel that we can’t worry about what may or may not happen so on Monday we made a few phone calls and fixed dates with various parties 😊 We will be craned out of the water and onto a lorry on Monday 25^th March at Gayton on the Grand Union canal in Northamptonshire.  All being well (Brexit traffic jams permitting) the lorry will arrive in Migennes which is about 100 miles south east of Paris on the Wednesday and we will be craned into the River Yonne.  I would naturally say, ‘dropped in’ but crane drivers don’t like hearing that expression 😉 Of course, this is all on the assumption that the coming winter isn’t as wet as last year and that the boat yard isn’t under water as it was last winter making access by road impossible.

One thing that has struck us since driving in this part of Tuscany is the number of first-generation Fiat Pandas on the road.  It seems that every farmer and old couple has one or more of these cars that were first introduced in 1980, meaning that some of them are only two years away from their 40^th birthday!  They are so versatile and are often seen in fields where we would think only a Land Rover would venture, but then we remember that many of them are 4x4s.  They are in fields because they seem to be the vehicle of choice for carrying ladders that are then used to climb the fruit trees.  They are also seen loaded to the gunwales with bags of sweet chestnuts that have been scavenged from the sweet chestnut orchards.

The other day when we went shopping in Castel del Piano out of the first eight cars we saw on the road, seven were first generation Pandas.  On Tuesday we drove to Santa Fiora, an old mining town, about ten miles away, and when we got back to the car, two Pandas were parked next to us 😊

  

The area around Santa Fiora was mined for cinnabar from which mercury is extracted through heating.  As with most of the original mercury mines in the world, the mines at Santa Fiora are now closed but old galleries and shafts etc. have been preserved and form part of a museum.

Unfortunately for us, the museum was closed as it was a Tuesday, but we saw an old ore wagon exhibited outside the building:

  

I must admit to my ignorance as I never realised that mercury was formed from cinnabar ore and that was one of three new things I learnt on Tuesday (yes, I still try to learn something new every day as I’m likely to be forgetting things as I age 😉).

Cinnabar ore (unsourced image from the web)

You may be familiar with the cinnabar moth, a scarlet and black day flying moth (not to be confused with the burnet moths which are also scarlet and black but have spots). It wasn’t until today that I realised where the moth got its name.

Cinnabar moth

You may also be familiar with the cinnabar moths’ yellow and black striped caterpillars that feed on ragwort (the yellow flowered plant poisonous to cattle and horses and many other animals).  Plants are often seen with their flower heads covered in the distinctive larvae.

Cinnabar larvae on ragwort

My third new fact for the day was that cinnabar moths were deliberately introduced to New World countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America, to control ragwort infestations.

Not to be discouraged by the fact that the museum was closed we had a gelato in one of the piazzas in the oldest part of town (it was Gelato Tuesday after all) and then went for a walk around town.  We were lucky that the promised rain held off, but the skies remained grey which is probably why we had the place to ourselves 😊

We sat under the clock tower to eat our ice creams

Yet more narrow car free streets

At the bottom of the town we came across the Peschiera, a trout farm built in the 1400s by the Aldobrandeshci family.  It was built so that the whole family and their attendants could be fed during the days of religious fasting. In the 1400s there were more than 200 days of religious fasting each year 😂😂😂

The Peschiera, still full of large trout and now aerated by a water spraying system

The trout farm is fed by a stream and the outfall was channelled through stone troughs which the villagers used for washing etc.

The communal washing area or lavanderia

Santa Fiora is on the slopes of Monte Amiata and our house is directly opposite on the other side of the mountain.  Rather than taking the easy, but longer, route home round the bottom of the mountain through Arcidosso, Castel del Piano and Pescina we drove up and over instead.  It’s four weeks since we went up to the top and we were interested to see the changes now autumn is nearly here.

Autumn is definitely here at 1,600m – this ski lift will be in operation in a couple of months

Snow poles were useful, so we could judge the side of the leaf covered road - mind you, we didn't meet any traffic going up or down

We have two days left now before we leave on Friday for the north Italian lakes and have mixed emotions.  It will be sad to leave, as everybody is after a holiday, but it’ll also be good to be getting on the road again and heading for home.

Pescina (a porcupine at last)

A different sort of town square at Bagno Vignoni

Karen has changed her running course so she can utilise a path we have found in the woods and avoid running so much on the steep road.  She leaves the house, uses our ½ km long drive as a walking warm-up and then runs 2 km uphill to the path which seems to follow a contour around the mountain.  At the same time, Buddy and I take the car up the road and park at the start of the path and then go for our own walk in the woods.  We then time it so that that we all meet up ½ km from the car, so Karen can do her warm down walk and we all drive back home for a cooked breakfast. 

The leaves on the trees are changing colour but we still have the stunning blue Tuscan skies 😊

After the run/walk in the woods we spent the rest of Saturday at home enjoying the late summer sun.  In the evening we went out for a pizza at the restaurant we failed to get one at last week.  On that visit we found they only fired up the pizza oven in the evening, but we still enjoyed a full lunchtime meal.

One thing we have noticed is that food shopping is more expensive here compared with when we travelled through France, which in turn seemed more expensive than in the UK.  We were pleasantly surprised how cheap the meal was, even a bottle of good local wine was only 8 euros, and we did enjoy the pizzas.

Don’t usually put up pictures of food but these were really special for us

Sunday was a ‘do day’ and we decided to make it a touristy day and visit Montepulciano, Pienza and Bagno Vignoni.  This meant a circular drive of about 60 miles, further east into the beautiful Val d’Orcia and away from ‘our’ mountain, Monte Amiata.

It was Montepulciano first and to get there we had to drive through Vivo d’Orcia which you may remember is a village where we bought some antihistamine tabs when we first arrived. I mention this because when we were at the pharmacy we couldn’t believe how busy it was considering how small the place was. Anyway this time, as we drove down the hill to the village we passed six or seven coaches parked in a viewpoint lay-by and then came across cars parked all over the place at the side of the road. It turned out that the village was hosting a chestnut and mushroom festival. We ummed and aahed about changing our plans but decided to carry on.

Not far from Montepulciano we found ourselves on an unmade road for about 6km and it was a real bone-shaker as it was heavily rutted.  It was odd as all other main roads we have been on have now been tarmacked but for some reason this one had been left.

The dust had turned all the vegetation grey

Approaching Montepulciano

As with other hill towns we have visited, the streets are thankfully car-free except for the residents.  I expect this is down to the whole region being declared a UNESCO World Heritage site which must help boost tourism and hence the local income.

   

Apart from Siena, where we expected it, we could hear English being spoken everywhere; it seemed the place was full of Americans of all ages. One group of youngsters (probably in their early 30s 😜) made a big fuss of Buddy whilst we were having lunch outside the  town hall.

The town hall in Montepulciano

Looking north across the valley (Val d’Orcia)

Walking to one of the squares

After lunch we walked back down the hill to the car and headed off for Pienza.  We heard thunder in the distance and noticed that the clouds were rolling in from Monte Amiata.

Random picture of me and Buddy with rain clouds approaching

Even though the clouds threatened, the rain never came, and they soon cleared away.  Driving to Pienza we noticed there was a lot more traffic on the roads and especially motor homes.  We realised that we were on the main route, other than the autostrada, between Rome and Florence.

We arrived at Pienza to find it just as packed as Montepulciano so decided to give it a miss and head off for Bagno Vignoni.  Again, it was busy, but we decided to stop and look around as it was quite different to other places in that the main piazza was a thermal pool that dates back to Roman times.

The thermal baths in the centre of Bagno Vignoni

As we were finishing our wander round, the clouds started rolling in again, but we had a look around the site of some old mills before heading back to the car.  I cannot find out what the mills were used for but they were driven by the water from the thermal springs.  There were several mills dotted down the hillside, some of which are being restored.

Not much more than foundations left – Rocca d’Orcia is the hill town in the distance

As we got back to the car there were a few large drops of rain, more thunder and that was it, but it certainly feels like we are going to get some rain in the next day or two.

Although we were glad we had the day trip it made us appreciate how fortunate we are staying away from the tourist traps and have our local hill towns of Seggiano, Arcidosso and Castel del Piano.  Although they don’t have the grand palaces and town halls etc. of the well-known towns, they are still inspiring in their own way and very peaceful to walk around.

Having been here a few weeks we now have our own routine and it’s a bit like living on the boat where most of the time we’re completely on our own and happy with our own company.

Oh, and the porcupine?  Unfortunately, it was fast asleep at the side of the road, so I’ve still only ever seen one live one in the wild.

Pescina (a visit to Siena and the effects of a no deal Brexit on us boaters)

Siena's Piazza del Campo

Thursday’s weather forecast was dismal, the worst since we came away; we were due to wake up to rain and for it to stay all day with the occasional thunderstorm.  As it turned out, we had very little rain, but it was the first day that we haven’t seen the sun since leaving the boat over 50 days ago ☹

Even though the weather was better than expected we decided to stay put and do those things we planned to do anyway.  The main objective was to find out more about a no deal Brexit and how it could impact our move to France next year.  Ironically, more is known about the impact of a no deal Brexit, than an exit with a deal by 29 March next year.  In a way that’s obvious otherwise we would know what the terms of a deal are and the impacts those terms would have on us.

At least if a deal is struck then the main impacts won’t affect us until the transition period is over at the end of 2020.  With a no deal then the impacts start affecting us in the next month or two, so we need to get into action ☹

The outcome of these investigations is that, as well as shipping the boat out of the UK by 28^th March, we need to:

• Get long-term visas for France
• Obtain international driving permits
• Acquire a Green Card (many of you will remember that this is something we used to have to do before driving abroad to show proof of third-party insurance cover)
• Set up our boat Wifi and at least one phone with French providers (as surcharge free data roaming would no longer be guaranteed)

Buddy actually presents the most problems.  Currently, although the UK isn’t a Schengen country, we are treated as one for all intents and purposes.  After Brexit we will be treated as a ‘third country’ and, as far as pets are concerned there are three different scenarios depending on what grade of third country the UK is considered as.

• Listed part 1:  No change but a very unlikely scenario
• Listed part 2:  Need to register at a point of entry in France to show proof of rabies injections etc.  Buddy will have to have a blood test (titre test) three months before we leave to prove there is enough rabies antibody in his system.  We need to do this in December then!
• Unlisted:  The most unclear scenario.  Government advice is to visit the vet four months before departure ☹

Clearly, these aren’t the only things we need to do, but it’s enough to be getting on with, especially as we haven’t dealt with all the practical boaty things yet. 

Friday saw us leaving mid-morning and heading for a day out in Siena.  I don’t get that emotional about things, but I would say that Siena is the most moving city I have ever been to so I was really looking forward to returning and also sharing it with Karen as she had never been before.

Even at this late stage of the season the tourists were out in force so thanks goodness we went on a Friday and not the weekend.  Of course, we went to the stunning Piazza del Campo where the Palio horse race is held in July and August and then walked around many of the side streets and other piazzas.  It was an amazing feeling knowing that many of the buildings were over 600 years old. 

There were very few signs of the last Palio and nearly all the flags hung in the streets in the lead up to the races had been taken down.  Each contrade, or district, has its own flag and I think there are 17 contrades in Siena, compared with the three in our local town, Castel del Piano.  Even though their last palio was over a month ago, the flags there have only just been taken down this week.

Unfortunately, dogs weren’t allowed up the Torre di Mangia so I went up on my own.  After walking around and visiting a few other places we stopped back at Piazza del Campo for a quick beer – it would have been rude not to at any price (it was more than double what we have paid anywhere else this holiday).  We then joined the throngs in the square itself and had our picnic lunch sat on the herringbone patterned brick paving which was laid across the square in 1349.

We finally managed to get Buddy to drink from running water.  Until now he has always been too frightened to get near it.  Karen encouraged him by cupping her hands and letting him drink from them and slowly moved her hands away until he was drinking straight from the water stream.

Buddy no longer frightened of running water

Here are some of the other photos we took in Siena:

Torre di Mangia

Looking down on Piazza del Campo

The Escher-like steps of the tower - over 400 of them

Looking down on the duomo from the top of the tower 

The duomo

Buddy resting on the herringbone bricks laid in 1349 whilst we have our picnic

  

Many of the bleachers aren't put away but they're not available for sitting on either.  A misnomer I expect because I imagine these would be expensive seats as opposed to the traditional cheapest seats in the stadium (the original meaning of bleachers).

Gelatos - even though it was Thursday - we are tourists after all

On some marble steps - looks like we think we're in a dog show

On our way home, we stopped off to see the thermal waters of Petriolo.  Although these were nowhere near as impressive as the thermal pools and streams we saw at Bagni San Filippo, the smell of sulphur was far stronger and left an acrid taste in the mouth for some time afterwards.  The ambience of the place wasn’t helped by a new motorway viaduct being built across the valley. 

  

By the way, after today’s visit I would still say that Siena is the most moving city I have been to.  I mentioned earlier about also being moved by art and the only time art moved me was 20 years ago at the Monet exhibition held at the Royal Academy.  Over 80 of his paintings had been collected from around the world and exhibited for three months or so – it was spellbinding as well as breath taking as it made me gasp out loud several times and my chest kept tightening too.

It’s Saturday today, so probably a quiet day with a walk in the mountains.

A couple more shots of Siena from the top of the tower:

Looking down on the cathedral (duomo)