It's a dogs life

If I can't litter, you can't either - one of the quirky signs along the waterfront in Montreux

Freddie

Em gets to meet her hero Freddie at last

Montreux

Today we're in Montreux - parked up in a snowdrift.

Yesterday after we passed through the Grand St Bernard Tunnel (and were fleeced €32 for the privilege) we descended the mountains towards Montreux. Snow started to fall and we were soon in a full-blown blizzard - the motorway had been gritted but the sheer volume of snow meant that the road was getting covered and the snow ploughs were out in force.

As we left the motorway at Montreux and approached the town the road conditions deteriorated to the extent that we were crawling along at 2mph. The approach to our parking place by the lake was down a very slippery road which I knew we wouldn't be able to get back up so Em bravely volunteered (!) to check it out. Fortunately we were in the right place - you never know for certain until you arrive as our "motorhome stops" book is somewhat unreliable! We slipped and slid down the road and managed to park in a snowdrift close enough to the Flot Bleu to enable us to plug into the free electricity supply. What a journey and we had no idea how we would get out again!!

Check out that snow.... Oh and that's Montreux and lake Geneva in the background.

After a lovely warm night (we left our heating on) we were woken at 7am by a snowplough clearing the road next to where we were parked. Once again we were amazed at the Swiss efficiency - the main roads were already clear and now they were working on the minor one's - and this one's a dead end!!!

Deep snow :-)

The birds keeping their feet dry

Sunbeds by the lakeside covered in snow - I couldn't resist the opportunity for a brief rest 

Arrivederci Italia

Today is our last day in Italy. We drove north from Torino towards the Alps and the Grand St Bernard tunnel which would take us into Switzerland. The further north we went, the more snow there was around.

Just south of the tunnel and the snow ploughs have piled the snow up along the roadsides.

Torino

Today we drove north to Torino (Turin), stopping en-route at the Basillica on a hilltop to the east of the city.

The Basillica - which after driving miles up the hill we discovered was closed for 3hrs!

A view of Torino from the Basillica

Snow falling in the carpark where we stayed the night. Unfortunately the locals lads decided to take advantage of the downfall to practice their snow driving (ie: skidding round in circles) skills.... until 3am!!

Genova

Today we are visiting Genova (Genoa in English).
The rain has stopped and the sun is shining again - a beautiful Italian day!!

Monument to Vittor Emmanuelle III

The Duomo San Lornezo

The Biosphere in the harbour

Renzo Piano's mast structure over the Genova Conference Centre

San Rocco

The view, north west from our overnight parking place at San Rocco, towards Genova with the Alpi Appennino in the background.

Stick Man looses Briefcase in Stormy Sea

Cinque Terre

Today we are exploring the Cinque Terre which are a string of five tiny fishing villages clinging to the cliffs. The villages are only accessible down very steep roads and even then no vehicles can actually get into them - the locals all park along the roadside and in specially built parking garages above the towns.

Wisely, given the size of Kiki, we parked at the top of the hill and walked down to explore Manarola which is the most accessible of the five.

As we walked down the main street towards the harbour we found it to be full of boats!!

Manarola clinging to the cliffs. The tiny exposed harbour is in the right of this picture below the town - now we understood why all of the boats had been laid up ashore for the winter.

Wanna buy a boat?

Further along the coast we looked down on the village of Corniglia which is surrounded by miles and miles of terraced grape vines.

Our View this Morning

This picture was taken from Kiki as we woke up this morning. After our snowy trek through the mountains yesterday we stayed overnight in a carpark overlooking the village of Riomaggiore on the Cinque Terre.

Snow!!

We are now driving from the east to west coasts to explore the regions Leguria and Piedmont before heading north to Switzerland.

Yesterday we drove 160 miles and stayed overnight in Pistoia - it was very cold and we woke to find a layer of frost on Kiki.

Today we drove through the mountainous Garfagnana and Parco Naturale delle Alpi Apuane.

As we left Pistoia and started to climb into the mountains we saw that the cars coming the other way had several inches of snow on their roofs! We soon found out why - the rain we had been having had fallen as snow on the higher ground.

Kiki pauses for breath on a very snowy mountain road

An alpine village - snow covered roofs everywhere

Fortunately for us the snowploughs had been out and the temperature was just above freezing which meant we didn't need our snowchains - a good thing too as we don't have any!

Grotte di Frasassi

Today we drove from our overnight stop in the Auchan carpark at Ancona approximately 60km east to visit the Grotte di Frasassi. This is the largest underground cave system in europe and one of the top five cave formations in the world. The caves extend to over 35km and the public guided tour which we took is around 2km long and took nearly two hours.

Stunning formations, including a massive cave that's big enough to contain Milan cathedral!

Some of the most beautiful white stalagtites and stalagmites we have ever seen - pure calcium deposits with no impurities to colour them. The caves were only discovered in 1971 which also explains the lack of contamination from oil lamps/candles etc that we have seen in other caves.

Lost in Translation

We weren't sure either....

Conero Penninsula

Today we drove around the Conero Penninsula which is a very small National park just south of Ancona - its the only natural feature in several hundred kilometers of unbroken (read bland/boring) beaches. The headland itself doesn't have any roads (that you can drive a motorhome along!) so we could only really get to the two ends of the Penninsula.

Looking north from Numana towards Mont Conero

Portonovo - a tiny, pretty cove backed by the inevitable string of bars and restaurants.

Probably our last view of the east coast as tomorrow we are heading west again.

Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo

Today we're heading North through the mountainous middle of Italy and the Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo which is one of the largest national parks in Italy. Unfortunately we left the clear blue skies and sunshine behind when we came inland and started to climb up the mountains.

Lake Barrea - stunning unspoilt countryside.

At over 1500m it was cold - there's snow on the top of the surrounding mountains

Hill towns cling to the edge of the mountains

Gargano - Day II

After our early start today we continued our tour around the Gargano Penninsula. Here are some of the highlights of the day...

Sea Caves

Natural Arches

Rock pinnacles

Trabucco - huts perched on the rocks with fishing nets in the sea

Sunrise

We got up at 6am this morning to see the sunrise - unfortunately there was low cloud so we didn't see much sun.

Kiki's overnight stopover - wild camping at it's best!

Gargano Penninsula

Today we are on the Gargano Penninsula which is the largest national park in Italy.
We left the campsite at Manfredonia this morning and drove along the south side of the penninsula. It is absolutely stunning - there is hardly any development and what there is has been strictly controlled which means that unlike the Amalfi there are vast area's of unspoilt natural coastline.

A small development and some fish farms off the coast.

Natural Arches in the rocks

Stunningly beautiful, unspoilt coastline - quite a rarity it seems in Italy!

We parked for the night in a tiny carpark nest to an old Spanish castle - the picture shows the view from our windows as the sun sets.

Manfredonia

We are currently staying on a campsite close to Manfredonia. On Sunday we drove from Paestum on the West coast to an Ariee di Sosta in Troia which is about 3/4 of the way across the country. The Sosta was free and had even had free electricity so we decided to stay two nights despite the fact that there's nothing in Troia - I walked the length of the town in 10mins!

After Troia we drove towards the Gargano penninsula (which is the "Spur of Italy" on the east coast) and stopped at a supermarket on the outskirts of Manfredonia to stock up with essentials such as beer, cheese, pizza, wine etc...

When we came out we saw that another English motorhome had parked alongside. We got chatting with the owners (Robin & Gill), swapped some books and stories. It was raining and we suddenly realised it was getting dark and we hadn't decided where we were going to stay for the night. Robin said they we heading for a campsite a few miles away so we decided to do the same.

We had such a great evening eating, drinking and swapping tales with our new found friends that we decided to stop a second night (and do two loads of washing at the same time).

Kiki and her new friend on the campsite in Manfredonia.