Tag Archives: Scenery

Against our better judgment we decided to do a 20km hike around San Gimignano in Tuscany. We’d been leading quite the sedentary lifestyle so were relying on our youthful vigour to pull us through. I happily anticipated a gentle pastoral stroll through a relatively flat landscape. In the end it was more the marked lack of alternative transport back to … Continue reading

Parked in Chieti the morning after the procession, we spent a long time trying to find a place to spend a few days, cheap with electricity and in an area with 3G. This turned out to be a bit tricky and frustrating (especially as our electrical power dwindled away — looks like our 118 amp hour leisure battery is dying … Continue reading

It was a freezing morning, and thankfully we’d decided to start today’s activities around noon, because it took about that long to muster up the motivation to drag ourselves out into the cold (and rush to the heater!). We are soft. Half a cup of tea later, we ventured out into the fitful sunlight to catch a bus from the … Continue reading

We met Nuccio again the next day, along with Graziella and Nuccio’s mum, who we took an instant liking to, although she didn’t speak English. She had a friendly, playful demeanour that was very disarming. Our plans for the day this time were to visit Etnapolis, a shopping centre south of Etna — Italy’s largest shopping centre, Nuccio told us … Continue reading

With some time to kill before we were to meet up with Nuccio and Carmelo again, we decided to see if we could find a caravan park to spend some time hooked up to electricity to do some work. I spent some time finding possibilities online, then we proceeded to spend the next five hours or so driving around being … Continue reading

We woke to the tantalising vision of that beautiful red, orange and yellow hillside out the window, and lay for a time just soaking it in — it’s pretty amazing that we can wake up in a place like this (and still get up to a hot shower!). Man, getting a motorhome was the best idea ever. Newly enthused by … Continue reading

After exploring the extreme heights of Mount Etna briefly, we wanted to spend some time at slightly lower altitudes and see what else this fascinating area had to offer. Armed with our inscrutable German map, we made a vague plan to spend the next week or so driving around Etna’s flanks, doing some walks along the way. We left the … Continue reading

I’ve been so wrapped up in writing software, the blogging has suffered! Time to catch up: Last time I wrote, we’d just left Selinunte, and had spent a night wild-camped on a hill overlooking the quite pleasant scenery near the road towards Mount Etna. So, we drove on, and caught our first glimpse of the volcano’s gigantic snowy peak soon … Continue reading

Leaving Cinque Terre, we drove out along those winding roads, and back onto the freeway, Michael Jackson and Queen belting out from Jen’s laptap. We drove for quite a while, passing the exit to Piza, and for a time with quite impressive mountains in the distance. Following Nigel’s directions, we eventually found ourselves driving amongst grape vine and olive tree-covered … Continue reading

Motorhoming around Europe always seemed like a very romantic and exotic thing to do, and for the most part it really is. The one caveat is bathroom-related, and there’s little romance to be had there. Seven-or-so days without the opportunity to empty the chemical toilet left a big impression on us when we started driving, and…sloshing. It was time to … Continue reading

The Ring of Kerry driving tour is another popular Irish attraction, and one we weren’t going to miss. Having been warned to travel counter-clockwise, in the direction of the tour coaches, to avoid having to make any tight passes, we started in Kilorglin and headed South. The Ring started out a little underwhelming, after some of the sights we’d seen … Continue reading