Thursday 04/09/08The last few days have been spent chilling out which has been nice. Spent some time on an aire making some silver screens for our cab (there wasn't a lot to look at near the aire) - we can't afford to buy any and Kylie had picked up some cheap cheapy car ones from Tesco before we left so we did a blue-peter jobby and now have made to measure ones with the added decoration of gaffa tape.Heading towards Cannes we managed to pick up a new radio station - 'Riviera Radio' - in English!! The fact we got so excited about this made me add up how long we've been away - it's only four weeks on Friday, lol. The radio station's soooo funny cos it's so obviously set up for and aimed at all the rich-folk that have yachts and villas on the Riviera. The adverts are all for stuff like getting English papers delivered to your 'villa, yacht or private jet', or for crates of wine to be delivered to ports so that they can pick them up in their yacht. And all the presenters talk posh. He he he, but it entertains us while we're driving.Cannes was very busy and not very motor home-friendly with absolutely nowhere to park. So we didn't. But we had a good drive through the centre and along the beach front so got quite a good eyeful. Definitely wouldn't have been able to afford to go shopping or anything anyway as it was just crammed with designer shops. Sigh. Scary moment on the way to the campsite in Le Bar Sur Loup where we're staying at the moment - tomtom decided to take us through a shortcut as we were leaving the village to get to the campsite which involved a very tight turn down a narrow one-lane road. Andy was sure he could make it (Kylie was sure he couldn't) and we ended up with the van HOOKED on the corner of a barn roof. To make matters worse the road was at the top of a very steep hill so Andy was trying to reverse off the roof, burning rubber, and in the end he got us out, although it looks like we'll be doing another blue-peter jobby on the roof as it has a bit of a hole now. It's gaffa-taped up for now (god bless that gaffa tape) and will do til we find some fixing stuff. He he he. The rest of the ride to the campsite was just as hairy as it's right on the mountain-side with ledges cut into the side of the mountain and some very steep bits and some very tight turns. Still got to get out tomorrow. Eek. This morning we had the crazy-ass idea of biking into the village. It's only about a mile and half we thought, piece o piss, NOT taking into account that it was a mile and half of an average of fookin steep as the village centre is in fact sat on TOP of said mountain that we are camping on. Twas fun coming back down though. And cooling off in the outdoor swimming pool, mwahahahaha.So that's the last few days. Oh, and it's the first week that we've come under budget - yay!! Pats on the back for us. Going to Nice tomorrow. If we can get bloody parked. Then onto Monaco.Hope everyone's well back home, will write soon xxxxSunday 07/09/08So now we're in Italy! Saw a lot of Nice from the van and viewing spots but same old problem with parking. We maybe should have researched parking facilities in the major cities instead of driving in blind. We headed to an aire on the outskirts of Nice that was in our Camperstop book, when we got to the right area we pulled into the side of the road to try and work out how to get to the aire which was meant to be on a motor home dealership. At this point some crazy (or maybe not) old lady jumped out of her back garden and flagged us down and rambled onto us for about 20minutes in French as she didn't speak a word of English. We picked up what we could and the general gist of what we could pick up is that she was warning us not to stay the night there. She said use the facilities (water/toilet dump etc) but definitely don't stop the night. Other bits we picked up were that they don't like the English round here, they/re always getting pulled over by the police (this was accompanied by the money gesture), there have been attacks (this was accompanied by the strangling gesture), and basically advised us to move on ASAP. Her final words were whatever you do keep your doors locked at all times (frantically pointing to the locks as we were shutting the doors). Needless to say we fooked right outta there. Eek! Well there is a distinct lack of aires and campsites in and around Nice so we decided to move on into Monaco. We were a tad gutted that we'd not seen more of Nice and had a walk around but it was the same old same old like in Cannes - nowhere to park, even on the outskirts, and very difficult to navigate your way round a city centre full of tiny roads and cliff-edges in a 6m long motor home. Also no campsites or aires marked in Monaco but we thought we'd plough ahead anyway as we wanted to see Monte Carlo at least. And still no luck!! By now we'd been driving for most of the day, it was 4pm, we'd not eaten since the last of the crunchy nut cornflakes were consumed at about 8am, we were running out of water, and food, it was 30c+ heat again which is stifling in a van with no air con (he he), and we had no idea where we were going to spend the night. We took time out on a car park (which we weren't allowed to park in but we did anyway as we weren't going to leave the van) on the beach in a town past Monte Carlo (missed the casino there - was on our list of things to see so another gutter), and it was the first time so far that we both just felt really peeved off and frustrated and upset. But hey ho, up an on, and we decided we'd have better luck finding somewhere to spend the night in Italy so decided to cross the border and leave France.So we've been in Italy since Friday and we must admit we're a little bit disappointed (Andy hates the place, especially the roads). We've only seen a very small piece of it but so far it's all been the same - quite dirty and a bit jippy and not super-friendly. We drove the coast road round after crossing the border as this seemed to be the only way (that or the motorway which is tolled), and it took us ages as it's just town after town along the coast, with windy roads up and down hills, and town centres that you have to try and navigate through, without squashing the gazillion moped riders. It seems so far that this area of Italy is definitely an area where people come to specific locations for a holiday and don't bother exploring the rest in between. We got as far as Diano Marina on the Friday and saw signs for an 'aire' - yay we thought - but their idea of an aire is very different to those in France - it cost us 12euros for one night and we parked up amongst what must have been 500 Italian motor homes - the amount was staggering, never seen so many motor homes squished into one place. We perked up a little when we discovered that showers were included in the price as it had been another incredibly hot and muggy day - but soon realised they were outdoor shared showers with cold water only! It was actually quite refreshing though once we caught our breath.Saturday we set off heading towards Pisa yet again looking for another aire that didn't seem to exist - we got as far as Viareggio entered into another town centre with teeny roads and crazy one-way systems and 2tonne limit bridges, following the occasional aire sign to just end up going round in circles for about an hour. Again. So we thought sod it and headed to a proper campsite with our ACSI card which gives us discount. So for 14euros a night we've ended up on a proper campsite with a proper pitch, electricity, real showers and toilets that have a bidet in each cubicle! (But still a little pongy). The campsite's in a town called Torre del Lago which is just outside Viareggio and is a nice enough little town but everywhere still seems really rough. There's signs everywhere around the campsite warning you not to leave your car or bike unattended near the beach, there's barbed wire round the perimeter of the campsite and they lock us all in from 11pm. And we have to wear little gay wrist bands that identify us with the campsite. Oh, and on the way to finding the campsite last night, we were driving down a lovely road through the woods and out jumps the lady boys!!! Touting for business!! And it was only teatime!!! LOLWe were going to get the bus into Pisa today rather than try and attempt to drive into it, but it's Sunday so there was only one each way. So we're going to go tomorrow instead. Today we thought we'd give the beach a try as it's free (which is rare in Italy), so we took the "5minute" walk which was nearer 45 minutes through the woods that the lady boys were parading next to the day before. It was a nice walk actually, lovely woods with massive pine trees and lizards running about, but the beach was another matter. What a s*** dump. As soon as the trees opened onto the coast there was an overwhelming whiff of wee (Kylie was mortified. So was Andy). It was strewn with dirty tissues and used condoms and we were scared to take our shoes off incase there were needles kicking about too. We had trudged there for 45minutes so we stubbornly sat on our beach towels for about 5 minutes and then decided it was time to come back. After we'd been approached by a guy with no teeth selling beach towels.So. We're looking forward to Pisa tomorrow but are done with the beaches in this area methinks.Italy seems like it's going to be an expensive job as we've almost given up on free-camping, the diesel is more expensive and so are the food shops, so we've decided to prioritise the sites that we really wanted to see, and leave out a lot of the exploring. We've already seen quite a lot of the South when we honeymooned down there so we're going to leave the South for another time. After Pisa it's Rome (heading there Tuesday), and then we want to see the lakes (Lake Garda) and Venice and I think that'll about do us for this trip.So, we'll write again when we get chance with some more Italian adventures, hopefully some better ones. Hope everyone's well. TTFN xxxxFriday 12/08/08Hi everyone. We managed to get to Pisa the following day after our last blog and it was very impressive, so we're pleased to say we've finally seen a bit of Italy that we like. The tower was smaller than we thought but just as impressive, the whole area around the tower was nice - really clean and finally a bit of grass to sit on (we've been missing grass). Very touristy but in a way it was nice to hear some English voices (and American and Australian). Lots of dodgy blokes trying to sell fake rolex's etc too - don't give them eye contact or they're on you like flies round poo! Met a nice English couple that evening called David and Jenny and we tried very hard not to be those crazy English people with a manic glint in their eye that won't let other English people go cos they really want to talk to some other English people cos they've been away from home for so long!The next day we made a move towards Rome and it was a first not-too-stressful drive as we didn't get lost once! Although the roads were a nightmare - we think we've got potholes back in Britain! Got to Rome on Tuesday and we're stopping at a really nice campsite called "Happy Camping Village" that's just on the outskirts of the city. There's a free shuttle bus to the nearest train station and then it's only 20mins to Rome centre. We did Rome Wednesday and yesterday and it was absolutely fabulous. And absolutely red hot. It was late 30s both days which made walking round all day harder than normal - we did about 6 miles each day and this is how hot it was - we drank at least 3 litres of water each which wasn't really enough and only went for one wee all day. Which was maybe a good thing as there is a distinct lack of public loos in the city. And cos we're still on a tight budget there was not the luxury of café stops - pack up all the way for us. Mmmmmmm warm sangers ftw. Rome was all we expected and more. We did all the main sights including the Vatican and the Collosseum, got to see plenty without having to pay to get in anywhere. The only place we wanted to see but didn't pay for was the Cistine Chapel, but we'll just have to do it another year eh. The places to see are all so immense it's hard to capture it on picture or video but it really is an awe-inspiring place. The most awe-inspiring probably St Peters in the Vatican - the inside is about the size of four football pitches and every square inch of it is so ornate and kept immaculate, and all the pictures and statues are so huge and everything's marble. We didn't go inside the Collosseum but saw plenty from the outside, and we saw a similar thing in Pompei so not too worried. All of the other churches are pretty much the same but we read up on the best ones to see and just did them. So Rome was a truly beautiful city, but we certainly can't say the same for the train stations on route! We forgot to take a picture but they really were scary places - rubbish and graffitti everywhere and every square inch of the trains graffitied too. Oh and Rome was full of beggars too which wasn't so nice. Especially as I wanted to give to them all as they had eyes and limbs missing. But hey ho we're on a budget. We treat ourselves to a meal from the pizzeria on the campsite last night - their 'large' beer really is large - see photos. And Ky was happy with the house wine for 3euros per ½ litre! And the pizza's were very nice and authentic. And huge - see pictures. Excuse all the photos we've put on the site from Rome - there's hundreds but we didn't have time to sort through them all.We've put a few more videos on from the camera too. We've got loads of videos from the camcorder that we still haven't put on.Mark - yeh, course it's alright to give the Dutch guys this website address.Thanks for all your messages - it's nice to know you're all keeping up with us. We're heading towards Lake Garda or Venice tomorrow, haven't decided which one yet. Or which country we're hitting next. But we'll let you know.Catch up with you all soon, take care everyone, missing you all lots xxxxxxxxxx