Leaving Italy

Wednesday 27th Nov started off quite bright and sunny so we decided to try to explore the Amalfi Coast. It's breathtakingly beautiful, very steep, very spectacular and very Italian, but the roads were so narrow and twisty and a bit stressful in a campervan (can't imagine what it'd be like in the summer?), so  we abandoned it halfway round and headed north towards Rome.

 

This photo doesn't do it justice, but there weren't many parking opportunities. The villages are quite literally clinging to the hillsides.

The Italian driving is something else!! There don't appear to be any rules, and if there are, nobody obeys them. The only exception seems to be that using your mobile phone whilst driving IS compulsory! With that in mind we thought it best to avoid the Rome ringroad at rushhour! Instead we took a detour and covered about 100 miles of very potholed roads in the wet & dark. Horrendous!

On Friday it was still cold so we decided to save Rome for another visit and headed off north towards the French border.

The A12 was a very scenic drive mainly following the coast to the west, past the islands of Giglio ( where the cruise ship is being salvaged after hitting the rocks last year) and Elba, with snow topped mountains to the east.

 We also went past Pisa, and could just about see from the motorway the Leaning Tower. From La Spetzia to Genoa was especially picturesque. We stayed overnight west of Genoa on a weird site, somewhere between shanty town and refugee camp, but safe and friendly at least.

On Saturday we drove all the way to Marseillan in France where we will be spending the next three weeks.

Sunday was cold but sunny with bright blue skies. Great to be back in  'la belle France' !!