Summer 2017 - First Post - Home to Southern Italy

2016 Retrospective

Last year's blog ground to a halt in August when the power supply on my laptop decided to self destruct some where in the middle of Romania. Finally arrived home at the end of October via Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands on the ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle. On route - five rabies inoculations after I was bitten by a dog near Moldavia in Romania (Romanian and Croatian hospital and clinic services were brilliant -  no queues, no hassles, no waiting) and also managed to avoid a couple of earthquakes in central Italy by a couple of days.

2017 Plans

Decided on an earlier start this year and left home on 2nd April, stayed a couple of days with my sister in Kent and then headed off on the Dover to Dunkerque ferry on the 5th April. The first part of this year's trip is down to Southern Italy and then across to Sicily. After that A few options but no definite plans as yet - may be Sardinia and Corsica.

5th to 7th April 2017 

Made use of the free motorways through eastern France, Belgium and Luxembourg, stopping off over night at aires, to get down to Nancy and then on to the Jura by the ordinary roads where I stopped-over at a Clairvaux-le-Lacs.

Clairvaux-le-Lacs

8th April 2107 St Jean en Royans - 1168 miles

Great drive through the Jura and down to the edge of the Vercors to overnight at a simple aire on the edge of St Jean en Royans at the north-western tip of the Vercors. Weather great blue skies and low twenties.

St Jean en Royan and the Comb Laval 

9th April 2017 - Mison - 1262 miles

Super drive through the Vercors although one pass I wanted to use was dtill blocked by snow. Finally over the Col de Rouset to head on down through Die to end up just north of Sisteron at a wee village, Mison, the birth place of the guy that invented 'le horlage parlante' - also home of three WC's and two donkeys and that was about it.

Col de Rouset - Brilliant drive

10th April 2017 - Gourdon - 1396 miles

Weather remained great for a day driving through the Maritime Alps where I finally ended up at an amazing parking area above a cliff on the southern edge of them at 750m, at the hillside village of Gourdon overlooking The Mediterranean, Cagnes-sur-Mer and Nice.

11th April 2017 - Torrita di Siena - 1828 miles

A long day's drive through Nice, Monaco then into Italy where it is totally impractical to make progress on the coastal route which passes through congested towns nearly all the time - so headed of onto the autostrada which is just seems a continuous series of tunnels and viaducts crossing the ridges and valleys running down into the sea. Eventually ended up at a great little sosta at Torrita di Siena a few kilometres off the autostrada to the south of Florence. Free electric and water so a nice hot shower and haircut the next morning.

12th April 2017 - Ficulle - 1856 miles

After a long drive the previous day a few miles on to a small village with a sosta at Ficulle and a relaxing afternoon in the sun. Weather has been mostly blue skies and warm since leaving Luxembourg although cold at night.

13th April 2017 - Cassino - 2008 miles

Decided that I needed to plough on south pretty quickly - otherwise I'll never get there! Nearly got side tracked in France. So back on the autostrada - where the tolls are generally much cheaper than France - and south to stop at Cassino - home of the hill top monastery of Montecassino founded by St Benedict that was bombed to the ground by the Allies in 1944. It's now rebuilt. Walked up from the town, a steep 90 minute climb.

14th April 2017 - Stangolagalli - 20039 miles

 A few miles away a sosta with a great view was listed on Camper Contact - a great Dutch app for finding places to stay with the van. So headed there on Good Friday - a super view over the hills - but houses all over the place! There was a long Passion Play in the town square in the evening which lasted about three hours. 

15th April 2017 - Capracotta - 2115 miles

Sort of south and up into the mountains to a sosta in a small town at around 1450m that is a ski centre during the winter. The good weather continues; but, not so keen parking up in these places in the south - lots of dodgy looking youths around in the evening - probably harmless but feeling uncomfortable - so I'll probably stick to campsites in southern Italy unless some where looks ok and there are a few others parked-up.

16th and 17th April 2017 - Bisceglie - 2283 miles

South of Italy at last! The weather is on the change, it was still cloudy, grey,wet and and jsut 6C at  11:00 in the hills so decided to head on south east into Puglia - the province on the Adriatic coast that runs down into the 'heel' of Italy. Free super-stradas most of the way. My goodness! The roads in Italy off the autostrada (generally tolled) and the super-stradas (free and generally not too bad) can be anything from sort of OK to absolutely abysmal - probably the worst road pavements in Europe - Hungary and Romania last summer generally had better maintained pavements. Ended up a a campsite just south of Trani that was jam packed for Easter and virtually empty when I woke up on the Tuesday morning! People were leaving in middle of the night! Walked into Trani one day with its harbour and cathedral by the sea.

18th April 2017 - Borgagne - 2444 miles

Driving south the landscape is very flat and endless wheat fields change to more or less endless olive groves, past Bari and Brindisi, with drystone walls and odd circular stone buildings called thulli.  The whole heel is a gently undulating limestone plateau (I had expected more mountains) with unbelievably impoverished run down towns away from the coast. But spring flowers abound in the fields and along the roadside. Ended up staying near the Adriatic coast at an agriturismo, a sort of up-market farm campsite - beautifully landscaped and only 6 euro for the night. Bugger - the weather has turned cold the last day or so with a bitter northerly wind - fortunately relatively dry. Stopped off at the fortified town of Acaya, just south of Lecce for lunch.

19th to 21st April 2017 - Gallipoli -  2480 miles

 Across to the west coast of the heel to stop at a great little coastal campsite just outside of Gallipolli , not the Turkish one! The old town sits on an island linked to the mainland by a long arched bridge. Cold and very windy again! At least the sun came back ..... some of the time....on the last two days. But only about 14C or so during the day. The Austrians next door said there had been 50cm of snow in their home town of Kufstein (just south of Munich). It should get warmer again on Saturday, thank goodness. according to the paper and accuweather.com.

22nd April 2017 - Salice -  2682 miles

 A morning's drive around the Gulf of Taranto, mixed roads! To spend a few days in the extreme east of Calabria (the toe of Italy) at a coastal campsite in a pine forest. Then the next couple of weeks travelling around Calabria. And! The days are warmer with clear blue skies; although, the nights remain chilly.

Apologies: The formatting has gone crazy and I can't sort it or caption most  of the pictures - better luck with it next post!