Lord and Lady Snooty's European Wanders in a MB SLK
- Thread starter Lord Snooty
- Start date
Fantastic.
Thank you for taking us along virtually on your holiday Mike.
Safe onward travels to you both.
Thank you for taking us along virtually on your holiday Mike.
Safe onward travels to you both.
I'm enjoying tagging along on this free holiday....in the depths of a grey winter, the light of a blue sky 'med' day is an amazing tonic. Cheers. 
I'm enjoying tagging along on this free holiday....in the depths of a grey winter, the light of a blue sky 'med' day is an amazing tonic. Cheers.
This and this. Thanks, enjoyed my virtual trip.
Roof down action!
Today's day out was only about 75 miles for the round trip so there was no rush, although, trying to get the long haired general to get her skates on in the morning is never going to work anyway, she is definitely not a morning person. We left at some time close to 11am; as the car is parked 500 metres we decided to pack one of the bags with stuff we will not need for our last day tomorrow and took it to the car, that's one less bag to carry on Tuesday morning. Fired up the Garmin with the route I'd created the night before and off we went into a glorious sunny day with a cloudless blue sky. As we left the environs of Cefula there were a lot of bikers bout at the cafes, obviously taking the opportunity to enjoy the very decent weather. I also noticed the Caribinieri on the opposite side of the road parked up and out of the car, maybe a speed trap looking out for bikermates coming into town a tad hot.
We took the autostrada to Bagheria, as I have said before the scenery on the autostrada is not too shabby and I intended to return on the coast road. Being in no rush I set the cruise control to 60mph, temp was 15C and the mpg at this speed was showing between 57 and 58, quite incredible. We arrived in Bagheria, having learnt my lesson in entering old towns with narrow roads I had set the satnav to take me to a car park on the outskirts in the newer part of town and walk in. We arrived and the car park did not exist
Ok, I turn around and head back towards the town a little and park at the kerb, I am not sure if there are parking restrictions or not but an Italian local is gesturing that we will be ok. We get out of the car and I survey our surroundings, it does not look good, the area is very shabby, dirty, scruffy and run down with lots of rubbish everywhere hmmm! We start walking, hopefully towards the town centre, things do not get any better, after about half a mile I am very uneasy and concerned about the car. I make a decision to head back and give this place a miss and continue with the drive by heading to the coast for the SS113 and continue the drive. After much messing about and a few wrong turns I eventually find my way out of Bagheria and onto the coast road. This was much better, the SS113 is marked as green all the way back to Cefula, lovely verdant scenery to the right and ocean to the left. It is mostly a 31 mph road, we are not in a hurry and I abide by the speed limit, mostly, why rush.
The road twists and turns and has some great undulations and is a pleasure to drive, it is a perfect Sunday morning drive. We decide to look out for a coffee stop at a coastal town if possible. We arrive in a small town called San Nicola L'Arena and go past a bar/cafe on our right, it is vibrant and busy, to our left we are overlooking a marina; I find a parking spot against the kerb about 50 metres past the bar and in we go. There are loads of locals sat and stood outside drinking beer and other aperitifs. The place has a buzzing atmosphere. I order two cappuccinos and we sit outside to take it all in. At the table behind us are four rather lovely ladies enjoying a Sunday lunchtime sesh, they are animated, full of laughter, smartly dressed and having a ball enjoying La Dolce Vita. They ask me to open their bottle of bubbly for them which I do, as it goes off with a pop they all cheer. Next thing we know two more glasses appear and they invite us to join them, I give them the "I'm driving " hand gesture and one says In Italia, is no problem! It would be churlish to turn down the invitation so I accept a very small glass while they pour Alena a full one and we are invited to join them. Names are exchanged, we try and give them a brief synopsis of our travels and they are fascinated. Despite the language difficulties we all appear to make ourselves understood and we are having a thoroughly enjoyable time, I am in the company of five lovely ladies, what's not to like, how lucky am I? We spend about 20 minutes with them, they want us to stay but I gesture that we are going for a walk and look around the marina. There follows a kissing frenzy as I get the full Italian treatment of smackers on both cheeks from all of them
Feeling like the cat who got the cream we cross the road and go down the steps to the marina.
There is a building with some sort of tower, it might be the harbour master's office and the pathway is lined with anchors. There are two breakwaters separated by a gap to allow access into the harbour we walk to the end of the right hand breakwater. In the distance towards Cefula there are snow capped mountains, and at the far end of the curving bay we can see the very distinct rock that marks Cefula some 20 odd miles away, the visibility is fantastic and there is not a breath of wind. We turn around and walk around the marina to the other, longer breakwater; I take a few pics of the boats moored up hoping to picture their perfect reflections in the calm, still water. I start to get warm, it feels like 20C, the jersey comes off and once again I am walking around in shirt sleeves. Life is good. On this breakwater is a statue of I presume the Madonna in remembrance of those who have lost their lives at sea, there are a few floral tributes at her feet. Beyond her in the distance I can see the rock formations that mark the other extent of the bay. We wander back slowly enjoying the sunshine, I sit down for a minute and check my heartbeat on the phone monitor, it is 50-51bpm, I have always had a slow heart rate at rest and this is an encouraging sign as obviously all of the walking we have been doing is improving my fitness, I feel quite chuffed.
We get back to the car and agree it is warm enough to get the roof down for the first (maybe the last) time on the tour. We do so and off we go, it feels like a summer day in the UK. Again, I try and stick to the speed limit or just over so we can both take in the scenery as we drive towards the snow capped mountains. We come across another pair of Carabinieri stood by the roadside by their car on the opposite side, the speed limit is 31, I am doing about 35, Alena waves at them and they wave back and are totally disinterested in us. As this is such a wonderful road to be on a bike I guess that they are on the look out for local bikers getting a bit throttle happy.
About a mile outside Cefula there is a fuel station, I pull in for a fill up before we depart Tuesday morning. The place is shut but the pumps have credit card facilities, I enter the card and pin and manage to work out the Italian instructions, the fuel gauge is on half full and takes about 32 litres to fill, job done. I find my back to our private parking at Alla's apartment without drama, I'm almost a local now
It is about 15.30 hrs, we walk the 500 metres back along the seafront, the restaurants are stacked out and any available tables have Reservado on them. Sunday afternoon is definitely family time in Italy and the seafront is very busy with people strolling in the sun and enjoying life. We arrive at our digs and go out for a walk to have a cappuccino in the sunshine; we bump into a couple from Wisconsin perusing a restaurant menu; we chat, they flew into Italy two weeks ago and are staying in Palermo. Tomorrow they fly to Rome and then homewards. We go to a cafe in front of the cathedral and have coffee and ice cream before wandering back to the seafront to enjoy the last of the early evening sunlight.
We have had a pretty good day all in all.
Today's day out was only about 75 miles for the round trip so there was no rush, although, trying to get the long haired general to get her skates on in the morning is never going to work anyway, she is definitely not a morning person. We left at some time close to 11am; as the car is parked 500 metres we decided to pack one of the bags with stuff we will not need for our last day tomorrow and took it to the car, that's one less bag to carry on Tuesday morning. Fired up the Garmin with the route I'd created the night before and off we went into a glorious sunny day with a cloudless blue sky. As we left the environs of Cefula there were a lot of bikers bout at the cafes, obviously taking the opportunity to enjoy the very decent weather. I also noticed the Caribinieri on the opposite side of the road parked up and out of the car, maybe a speed trap looking out for bikermates coming into town a tad hot.
We took the autostrada to Bagheria, as I have said before the scenery on the autostrada is not too shabby and I intended to return on the coast road. Being in no rush I set the cruise control to 60mph, temp was 15C and the mpg at this speed was showing between 57 and 58, quite incredible. We arrived in Bagheria, having learnt my lesson in entering old towns with narrow roads I had set the satnav to take me to a car park on the outskirts in the newer part of town and walk in. We arrived and the car park did not exist
Ok, I turn around and head back towards the town a little and park at the kerb, I am not sure if there are parking restrictions or not but an Italian local is gesturing that we will be ok. We get out of the car and I survey our surroundings, it does not look good, the area is very shabby, dirty, scruffy and run down with lots of rubbish everywhere hmmm! We start walking, hopefully towards the town centre, things do not get any better, after about half a mile I am very uneasy and concerned about the car. I make a decision to head back and give this place a miss and continue with the drive by heading to the coast for the SS113 and continue the drive. After much messing about and a few wrong turns I eventually find my way out of Bagheria and onto the coast road. This was much better, the SS113 is marked as green all the way back to Cefula, lovely verdant scenery to the right and ocean to the left. It is mostly a 31 mph road, we are not in a hurry and I abide by the speed limit, mostly, why rush.The road twists and turns and has some great undulations and is a pleasure to drive, it is a perfect Sunday morning drive. We decide to look out for a coffee stop at a coastal town if possible. We arrive in a small town called San Nicola L'Arena and go past a bar/cafe on our right, it is vibrant and busy, to our left we are overlooking a marina; I find a parking spot against the kerb about 50 metres past the bar and in we go. There are loads of locals sat and stood outside drinking beer and other aperitifs. The place has a buzzing atmosphere. I order two cappuccinos and we sit outside to take it all in. At the table behind us are four rather lovely ladies enjoying a Sunday lunchtime sesh, they are animated, full of laughter, smartly dressed and having a ball enjoying La Dolce Vita. They ask me to open their bottle of bubbly for them which I do, as it goes off with a pop they all cheer. Next thing we know two more glasses appear and they invite us to join them, I give them the "I'm driving " hand gesture and one says In Italia, is no problem! It would be churlish to turn down the invitation so I accept a very small glass while they pour Alena a full one and we are invited to join them. Names are exchanged, we try and give them a brief synopsis of our travels and they are fascinated. Despite the language difficulties we all appear to make ourselves understood and we are having a thoroughly enjoyable time, I am in the company of five lovely ladies, what's not to like, how lucky am I? We spend about 20 minutes with them, they want us to stay but I gesture that we are going for a walk and look around the marina. There follows a kissing frenzy as I get the full Italian treatment of smackers on both cheeks from all of them
Feeling like the cat who got the cream we cross the road and go down the steps to the marina.There is a building with some sort of tower, it might be the harbour master's office and the pathway is lined with anchors. There are two breakwaters separated by a gap to allow access into the harbour we walk to the end of the right hand breakwater. In the distance towards Cefula there are snow capped mountains, and at the far end of the curving bay we can see the very distinct rock that marks Cefula some 20 odd miles away, the visibility is fantastic and there is not a breath of wind. We turn around and walk around the marina to the other, longer breakwater; I take a few pics of the boats moored up hoping to picture their perfect reflections in the calm, still water. I start to get warm, it feels like 20C, the jersey comes off and once again I am walking around in shirt sleeves. Life is good. On this breakwater is a statue of I presume the Madonna in remembrance of those who have lost their lives at sea, there are a few floral tributes at her feet. Beyond her in the distance I can see the rock formations that mark the other extent of the bay. We wander back slowly enjoying the sunshine, I sit down for a minute and check my heartbeat on the phone monitor, it is 50-51bpm, I have always had a slow heart rate at rest and this is an encouraging sign as obviously all of the walking we have been doing is improving my fitness, I feel quite chuffed.
We get back to the car and agree it is warm enough to get the roof down for the first (maybe the last) time on the tour. We do so and off we go, it feels like a summer day in the UK. Again, I try and stick to the speed limit or just over so we can both take in the scenery as we drive towards the snow capped mountains. We come across another pair of Carabinieri stood by the roadside by their car on the opposite side, the speed limit is 31, I am doing about 35, Alena waves at them and they wave back and are totally disinterested in us. As this is such a wonderful road to be on a bike I guess that they are on the look out for local bikers getting a bit throttle happy.
About a mile outside Cefula there is a fuel station, I pull in for a fill up before we depart Tuesday morning. The place is shut but the pumps have credit card facilities, I enter the card and pin and manage to work out the Italian instructions, the fuel gauge is on half full and takes about 32 litres to fill, job done. I find my back to our private parking at Alla's apartment without drama, I'm almost a local now
It is about 15.30 hrs, we walk the 500 metres back along the seafront, the restaurants are stacked out and any available tables have Reservado on them. Sunday afternoon is definitely family time in Italy and the seafront is very busy with people strolling in the sun and enjoying life. We arrive at our digs and go out for a walk to have a cappuccino in the sunshine; we bump into a couple from Wisconsin perusing a restaurant menu; we chat, they flew into Italy two weeks ago and are staying in Palermo. Tomorrow they fly to Rome and then homewards. We go to a cafe in front of the cathedral and have coffee and ice cream before wandering back to the seafront to enjoy the last of the early evening sunlight.
We have had a pretty good day all in all.
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Your narrative and accompanying pictures have been an absolute joy...thanks for sharing
Your narrative and accompanying pictures have been an absolute joy...thanks for sharing
Thanks mate, it normally takes me at least an hour each evening to write the day up and download the pics so it's great to hear the effort is appreciated.
Went to Sicily for Easter weekend 4 years ago. Misteak! Everything was closed for Easter. No tours, no buses, even all the churches and cathedrals were closed. It was also bitterly cold.
Your trip is showing me some of what we would have liked to see. Absolutely brilliant.
Now for the double meaning: Did you get to Mount Etna?
Your trip is showing me some of what we would have liked to see. Absolutely brilliant.
Now for the double meaning: Did you get to Mount Etna?
Hi Myke, we have been lucky with the weather, it was 17C again today. It is chilly in the shade in the narrow streets of the old city but I know they were built like that to provide cool shade in the blistering heat of the Summer. Chruches and cathedrals closed at Easter? That seems very odd in an RC country.
We didn't go to Mount Etna (oooh errr), we have had some good views of it on our travels, we talked about a trip to it but her ladyship was not that interested so we gave it a miss.
Last day in Cefula
Before I go on to today I forgot to mention a little incident that occurred yesterday when we stopped at that roadside bar where we met the bubbly swilling girls. I needed to go for a pee before we left the bar so I went into the cubicle, I had my pee, the loo had one of these pivoting flush levers in the top of the plastic cistern cover, so I pushed it down and feck me the thing just snapped and disappeared into the depths of the cistern.....feck! Luckily, there was no-one waiting outside the cubicle to follow me in so I scarpered sharpish, I only prodded it down with my forefinger, it was an honest mistake guv, it broke off in my hand!
Onto today; as this has been our last day in Cefula we fancied a pretty relaxing day. We had a late breakfast, about 11.30, we met Alla, wandered around the town in the sunshine while I listened to the two of them jabber away in Russian, honestly, they hardly seemed to pause for breath. We sat outside a bar and basked in the warmth, they drank coffee, I had a beer. It transpires that Alla is going to visit us in April, that will give us a chance to show our gratitude for all of her help. Alena has plans to take her to Stratford Upon Avon, Warwick, the Cotswolds, Ludlow and numerous other places.
Cefalu has been a delight, a wonderful little ancient city with historical and architectural delights at every turn, we have walked the streets innumerable times and are constantly finding something new to observe that we have previously missed. Thoroughly recommended. Our fiirst day was a bit fraught, what with finding ourselves inside the city driving scarily narrow roads, struggling to find somewhere to safely park and then the problems with the first apartment. Full marks to the AirBnB guy for reacting so quickly and relocating us and of course our parking problems were resolved when we met Alla. It has been a great week and we will look back on this visit with good memories.
We had a bit of a siesta during which I did the routing for tomorrow and booked an AirBnB near Sorrento for three days. The route tomorrow is a two-parter, first leg is to get to the ferry port south of Messina, cross the strait and part two is from Villa San Giovanni to Lagonegro to the hotel. That leaves us an easy day on Wednesday of only just over 100 miles to Sorrento, the plan is to leave the Autostrada at Salerno and take the Amalfi coast route which is reckoned to be pretty spectacular.
We went out for an early evening stroll about 5'ish, we walked a couple of kilometers following the sea towards the late afternoon sun. Lots of dog walkers around and a few hardy souls were having a dip in the sea. It was an opportunity to look back and take a last couple of pics of the city and the rock that dominates it bathed in sunlight. There are a few decent looking hotels along this stretch and a number of beachside bars and clubs, closed at the moment but I expect in a couple of months they will be getting very busy.
Outside one of the hotels I spotted this lovely Alfa Romeo Spider; which is an amazing coincidence because the American that I was talking to yesterday said he owns one of these and he was disappointed that he had not seen one over here, then bloody hell here we have one.
We wandered back and have just had dinner; we had some huge prawns which we bought from Alla's husband Salvatore at his fishmongers, they were delicious.
Just a few pics today, tomorrow we will be up at 7am as I want to get on the road sharpish.
Before I go on to today I forgot to mention a little incident that occurred yesterday when we stopped at that roadside bar where we met the bubbly swilling girls. I needed to go for a pee before we left the bar so I went into the cubicle, I had my pee, the loo had one of these pivoting flush levers in the top of the plastic cistern cover, so I pushed it down and feck me the thing just snapped and disappeared into the depths of the cistern.....feck! Luckily, there was no-one waiting outside the cubicle to follow me in so I scarpered sharpish, I only prodded it down with my forefinger, it was an honest mistake guv, it broke off in my hand!
Onto today; as this has been our last day in Cefula we fancied a pretty relaxing day. We had a late breakfast, about 11.30, we met Alla, wandered around the town in the sunshine while I listened to the two of them jabber away in Russian, honestly, they hardly seemed to pause for breath. We sat outside a bar and basked in the warmth, they drank coffee, I had a beer. It transpires that Alla is going to visit us in April, that will give us a chance to show our gratitude for all of her help. Alena has plans to take her to Stratford Upon Avon, Warwick, the Cotswolds, Ludlow and numerous other places.
Cefalu has been a delight, a wonderful little ancient city with historical and architectural delights at every turn, we have walked the streets innumerable times and are constantly finding something new to observe that we have previously missed. Thoroughly recommended. Our fiirst day was a bit fraught, what with finding ourselves inside the city driving scarily narrow roads, struggling to find somewhere to safely park and then the problems with the first apartment. Full marks to the AirBnB guy for reacting so quickly and relocating us and of course our parking problems were resolved when we met Alla. It has been a great week and we will look back on this visit with good memories.
We had a bit of a siesta during which I did the routing for tomorrow and booked an AirBnB near Sorrento for three days. The route tomorrow is a two-parter, first leg is to get to the ferry port south of Messina, cross the strait and part two is from Villa San Giovanni to Lagonegro to the hotel. That leaves us an easy day on Wednesday of only just over 100 miles to Sorrento, the plan is to leave the Autostrada at Salerno and take the Amalfi coast route which is reckoned to be pretty spectacular.
We went out for an early evening stroll about 5'ish, we walked a couple of kilometers following the sea towards the late afternoon sun. Lots of dog walkers around and a few hardy souls were having a dip in the sea. It was an opportunity to look back and take a last couple of pics of the city and the rock that dominates it bathed in sunlight. There are a few decent looking hotels along this stretch and a number of beachside bars and clubs, closed at the moment but I expect in a couple of months they will be getting very busy.
Outside one of the hotels I spotted this lovely Alfa Romeo Spider; which is an amazing coincidence because the American that I was talking to yesterday said he owns one of these and he was disappointed that he had not seen one over here, then bloody hell here we have one.
We wandered back and have just had dinner; we had some huge prawns which we bought from Alla's husband Salvatore at his fishmongers, they were delicious.
Just a few pics today, tomorrow we will be up at 7am as I want to get on the road sharpish.
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I'll second that, a great read Mike, thanks for taking the time to post and share it all.
The effort is very much appreciated thank you Mike.
In trouble with the fuzz - again!
As you can see by the title I have enjoyed more relations with a member of Italy's finest - more on that later.
Last night Alla invited us to her apartment for dinner, we had already eaten but it felt wrong to refuse, we felt like the Vicar of Dibley on Christmas Day, I forced myself to scoff a plateful of an excellent lasagne. I asked Alena to make sure she knows what to do with the car park barrier remote when we leave as we would be making tracks early and I know Alla is not an early riser. Alla takes us downstairs to outside the main entrance to the block and there is a scooter there with a topbox, she lifts the lid which is not locked and says just put it in there. I have no idea who owns the scooter, it is not her husbands as he has a V-Max, inside the topbox are the owner's helmet and the bike keys, clearly they live in a very trusting community and petty crime is pretty much non-existent. We bid our goodbyes.
I wake up at 6.50am for a pee and give her ladyship a slap on the arse and tell her to get up, I get an indistinguishable grunt in reply, I think she got the message. I get brekkie on the go and make a brew. Alena finishes the packing of our bits and bobs as we took the majority of the luggage to the car yesterday. By about 8.15 we are ready for the walk to the car, I send Giovanni a quick text thanking him so he can get the cleaner in. It is another cloudless morning. We arrive at the car, I start it up, power up the Garmin so it can find the satellites while we pack the boot, we exit the car park, Alena deposits the barrier remote and we are away just shy of 8.30.
i had decided to head west first to pick up the Autostrada, I could have gone East but it meant going back across town whereas going West gets us at the junction after just 2.5 miles and we can double back on ourselves. It works like a dream and soon the cruise is set at 75mph and we are up and running with 108 miles to do to get to the ferry port at Tremestieri. There are a number of contraflows that slow us down but we never come to a halt and we exit the highway. The road down to the port spirals around two complete 360 turns with the second one quite tight - I just follow the sign for Ferry Imbarco. We arrive at the jetty close to 10.30, there is a line of cars to the right and the start of another line with just one car, we join that one just in time to see a ferry departing - bugger! I mentioned before that the tickets don't have timings on them, you just take pot luck and rock up and embark. But wait, there is another one coming in - woo hoo! It docks in a couple of minutes and the trucks and cars start rolling off. Our tickets are checked and we are all called forward, we end up about third car from the front of the unloading ramp.
We go to the passenger lounge hoping there is a cafe, which there is but it is closed. I content myself with emptying my bladder. We watch the jetty and a late comer arrives, he gets to about 20 metres from the ramp when it starts to rise, would he give it the beans and go for a Bond like launch off the jetty onto the ship - sadly no!. I ask a crewman how long for the crossing and he tells me 50 minutes, I settle into a comfy seat. The ferry makes really good time and is docking at Villa San Giovanni before we know it and by 11.30 we have disembarked and are heading for the A2. 190 miles to go for our overnight at Lagonegro. The temp is 18C, the scenery is great, we are making good progress and then!
We approach a tunnel (one of seemingly hundreds we go through on this trip) there is a cop car in the right hand lane, we follow a load of cars who overtake him, we have slowed down and are a little above the speed limit for the tunnel. We get past, clear the tunnel, i pull in in front of the cop and set the cruise to 75mph (speed limit is 81). He sits behind us for a few miles and then the blue lights come on and he starts flashing me - what have I done? We are approaching another section of roadworks where we lost the right hand lane, I pull in just at the start of the traffic cones. He comes to the door and speaks in Italian, I let him know I am English, he says follow me. He takes us down the right hand lane on the right of the cones and then pulls into a parking refuge. He is about mid-20s, military styled striped trousers and knee high boots. I remain in the car and produce my license, Alena asks if he wants passports, he does and asks for more documents. I have a folder in the boot with the V5 and insurance certificate. I produce them and he goes back to his car with everything. There follows an anxious ten minutes during which we are wondering what transgression we have committed. He returns to us with our docs and goes to the back of the car and points out the absence of a UK sticker - bollox, guess which muppet bought one before leaving and clean forgot to stick it on the car? He explains that this is a penalty, I shrug my shoulders and give him the open palms gesture as if to say fair cop. I am expecting the ticket book to come out for what I assume is a fixed penalty fine when he hands me the docs and says bye bye! I stand there for a few seconds giving my best impression of an open mouthed goldfish before finding the ability to speak and in grovelling gratitude say "bye bye, grazie grazie" Phew, I guess he just didn't fancy the paperwork.
The lesson here is when overtaking a cop car, keep overtaking a few more cars so he doesn't get plenty of time to sit behind us and check out the back of the car.
We continue and about 1pm pull in to some services for a much needed coffee and a bite to eat, brekkie was a long time ago about 7.30. I get two large takeaway coffees, Alena grabs our bag of bread, cheese, salad,, olives and fruit and we wander off to the picnic area. We are the only ones enjoying eating al fresco, to us it is very Summer like, to the Italians it is still Winter. I strip my Jersey off and we get back on the road and have to resort to occasional use of the A/C to keep the cabin cool.
We continue to enjoy the fabulous scenery and approach a range of snow capped mountains, I aks Alena to snap a few photos through the windscreen, are these the Appennines by any chance? Somebody please enlighten me. The rest of the journey is completed without fuss and we arrive at our hotel at 15.00. We are no more than a half mile from the junction so an easy escape tomorrow morning. The cost is a reasonable £73 which includes breakfast. We dump our gear and go downstairs and have a beer sat in the sun.
Not many photos today as it has been a travelling day, mileage covered is 297, 52mpg, we are at nearly 900 meters altitude, and total distance is now 2860 miles.
I am going to save the posting now and we are off to dinner, I will post the phots later.
As you can see by the title I have enjoyed more relations with a member of Italy's finest - more on that later.
Last night Alla invited us to her apartment for dinner, we had already eaten but it felt wrong to refuse, we felt like the Vicar of Dibley on Christmas Day, I forced myself to scoff a plateful of an excellent lasagne. I asked Alena to make sure she knows what to do with the car park barrier remote when we leave as we would be making tracks early and I know Alla is not an early riser. Alla takes us downstairs to outside the main entrance to the block and there is a scooter there with a topbox, she lifts the lid which is not locked and says just put it in there. I have no idea who owns the scooter, it is not her husbands as he has a V-Max, inside the topbox are the owner's helmet and the bike keys, clearly they live in a very trusting community and petty crime is pretty much non-existent. We bid our goodbyes.
I wake up at 6.50am for a pee and give her ladyship a slap on the arse and tell her to get up, I get an indistinguishable grunt in reply, I think she got the message. I get brekkie on the go and make a brew. Alena finishes the packing of our bits and bobs as we took the majority of the luggage to the car yesterday. By about 8.15 we are ready for the walk to the car, I send Giovanni a quick text thanking him so he can get the cleaner in. It is another cloudless morning. We arrive at the car, I start it up, power up the Garmin so it can find the satellites while we pack the boot, we exit the car park, Alena deposits the barrier remote and we are away just shy of 8.30.
i had decided to head west first to pick up the Autostrada, I could have gone East but it meant going back across town whereas going West gets us at the junction after just 2.5 miles and we can double back on ourselves. It works like a dream and soon the cruise is set at 75mph and we are up and running with 108 miles to do to get to the ferry port at Tremestieri. There are a number of contraflows that slow us down but we never come to a halt and we exit the highway. The road down to the port spirals around two complete 360 turns with the second one quite tight - I just follow the sign for Ferry Imbarco. We arrive at the jetty close to 10.30, there is a line of cars to the right and the start of another line with just one car, we join that one just in time to see a ferry departing - bugger! I mentioned before that the tickets don't have timings on them, you just take pot luck and rock up and embark. But wait, there is another one coming in - woo hoo! It docks in a couple of minutes and the trucks and cars start rolling off. Our tickets are checked and we are all called forward, we end up about third car from the front of the unloading ramp.
We go to the passenger lounge hoping there is a cafe, which there is but it is closed. I content myself with emptying my bladder. We watch the jetty and a late comer arrives, he gets to about 20 metres from the ramp when it starts to rise, would he give it the beans and go for a Bond like launch off the jetty onto the ship - sadly no!. I ask a crewman how long for the crossing and he tells me 50 minutes, I settle into a comfy seat. The ferry makes really good time and is docking at Villa San Giovanni before we know it and by 11.30 we have disembarked and are heading for the A2. 190 miles to go for our overnight at Lagonegro. The temp is 18C, the scenery is great, we are making good progress and then!
We approach a tunnel (one of seemingly hundreds we go through on this trip) there is a cop car in the right hand lane, we follow a load of cars who overtake him, we have slowed down and are a little above the speed limit for the tunnel. We get past, clear the tunnel, i pull in in front of the cop and set the cruise to 75mph (speed limit is 81). He sits behind us for a few miles and then the blue lights come on and he starts flashing me - what have I done? We are approaching another section of roadworks where we lost the right hand lane, I pull in just at the start of the traffic cones. He comes to the door and speaks in Italian, I let him know I am English, he says follow me. He takes us down the right hand lane on the right of the cones and then pulls into a parking refuge. He is about mid-20s, military styled striped trousers and knee high boots. I remain in the car and produce my license, Alena asks if he wants passports, he does and asks for more documents. I have a folder in the boot with the V5 and insurance certificate. I produce them and he goes back to his car with everything. There follows an anxious ten minutes during which we are wondering what transgression we have committed. He returns to us with our docs and goes to the back of the car and points out the absence of a UK sticker - bollox, guess which muppet bought one before leaving and clean forgot to stick it on the car?
He explains that this is a penalty, I shrug my shoulders and give him the open palms gesture as if to say fair cop. I am expecting the ticket book to come out for what I assume is a fixed penalty fine when he hands me the docs and says bye bye! I stand there for a few seconds giving my best impression of an open mouthed goldfish before finding the ability to speak and in grovelling gratitude say "bye bye, grazie grazie" Phew, I guess he just didn't fancy the paperwork.The lesson here is when overtaking a cop car, keep overtaking a few more cars so he doesn't get plenty of time to sit behind us and check out the back of the car.
We continue and about 1pm pull in to some services for a much needed coffee and a bite to eat, brekkie was a long time ago about 7.30. I get two large takeaway coffees, Alena grabs our bag of bread, cheese, salad,, olives and fruit and we wander off to the picnic area. We are the only ones enjoying eating al fresco, to us it is very Summer like, to the Italians it is still Winter. I strip my Jersey off and we get back on the road and have to resort to occasional use of the A/C to keep the cabin cool.
We continue to enjoy the fabulous scenery and approach a range of snow capped mountains, I aks Alena to snap a few photos through the windscreen, are these the Appennines by any chance? Somebody please enlighten me. The rest of the journey is completed without fuss and we arrive at our hotel at 15.00. We are no more than a half mile from the junction so an easy escape tomorrow morning. The cost is a reasonable £73 which includes breakfast. We dump our gear and go downstairs and have a beer sat in the sun.
Not many photos today as it has been a travelling day, mileage covered is 297, 52mpg, we are at nearly 900 meters altitude, and total distance is now 2860 miles.
I am going to save the posting now and we are off to dinner, I will post the phots later.
Back in the room after a rather lovely dinner. They obviously don't get many English visitors here as there was no English translation on the menu so it was guesswork all the way. We sat down and a glass of champagne each was brought over, what a nice touch, I had a beer, a rather potent 6.5% ABV, Alena a glass of white, me a glass of red, I played safe and ordered a pizza, Alena ordered a salad and a fish dish in linguini.
The pizza was excellent, Alena filmed the dude making the base and then cooking it. The restaurant was very classy and busy. I finished with a coffee, all in all a very good experience.
Did I mention that this time we at least got a pic of the cop car if not the cop himself.
The pizza was excellent, Alena filmed the dude making the base and then cooking it. The restaurant was very classy and busy. I finished with a coffee, all in all a very good experience.
Did I mention that this time we at least got a pic of the cop car if not the cop himself.
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