Lake Garda to Tuscany

Malcesine - view onto Lake Garda
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Saturday, 8th & 9th November

Next day we quickly passed into Austria for 5 minutes – took advantage of their cheaper fuel and food in Lidl supermarket! Drove over the Brenner and the Europa Brucke (IBridge) a feat of engineering into Italy, bit annoying having purchased our “vignette” (compulsory Austrian pass for the motorway) to be charged ANOTHER 8 Euros to drive thru the Brenner pass.…..sad to leave Germany, such a wonderfully organised and clean country oozing wealth. Drove via the autostrade to the other side of Trento coming off to make our way to Lake Garda and found the ONLY campsite open during the winter! Reckon the lady there took us for idiots charging us above the odds! However, we parked and had a view right across the lake to the mountains beyond, absolutely fantastic! Spent 2 nights and visited Cassone village nearby, Malcesine (plus castle) which we loved and Riva del Garda which we didn’t. Most of the villages alongside the lake were separate communities with their own fishing quays surrounded by a community square ringed with cafes and restaurants, many of which were closed for the season. Their tiny little cobbled side streets leading here and there were a delight.

Romantic Garda, rambling Tuscany & beyond

Our first view of Lake Garda
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Monday, 10th November

Sadly left Lake Garda area to make our way towards the west coast and Pisa. Decided to travel on a minor road thru plain country towards Mantova . After getting a bit lost in Reggio nell Emilia – a town apparently without any bloody signposts we climbed thru the “deli appennino” a range between middle Italy and the west coast, up to about 1300m and put the motorhome thru its paces. Stopped briefly at a disappointing so called “medieval town” (Castelnuova del Monte) we descended to Fivizzano, a delightful “real” medieval town where we decided to stop in a municipal carpark! Hoped not be moved on by the caribineri! Have to say that Mike’s ability to negotiate terrifying hairpin bends up and down the mountains is to be applauded! Turned out to be an ideal spot to park, traffic died down and we felt safe parked under street lights and outside houses.

The village of "Cassone" near the campsite we stayed at
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Tuesday, 11th November

Drove from Fivizzano on the last of the descent from the mountains heading for Marina de Massa as we had read that the camp site was open all year round. We found it eventually after once again being given absolutely NO directions by the ever helpful Italians and wandering around Viareggio endlessly! Parked up amongst a million pine trees with large pine cones dropping around us and for some weird reason a number of mosquitoes appeared from where? Anyway after a walk and finding out where the laundry was we came back to the site to find that the power tripped when we put the microwave on and that plus the mossies made up pack up and leave in annoyance! After doing 10 days worth of laundry at the cost of AUD17 incl drying (is that a lot?) we set off to find somewhere to park for the night. Drove and drove and finally on a long straight road flanked by trees we parked against the walls of the Villa Borbone – one of the 4 villas in the area now run by the state but built in the 1800’s by the Italian aristocracy. Turned out to be not so bad a spot when the noise of traffic quietened down. Wouldn’t be such a good idea in the summer we thought when so many more people were around and the sun didn’t go down til quite late.

The castle at Malcesine - still Lake Garda area
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Wednesday, 12th November

Set off for Pisa very early arriving by 9 am which proved a good thing as the rain that fell endlessly on our roof had abated so we viewed the tower with only about another 30 tourists! Yes, it does lean……very white which was surprising and impressive which was surprising too. The historic centre is roughly in the shape of a quadrilateral surrounded by 12th century walls. Then the rain fell so we sought out an internet spot for checking emails which we found in a photocopier shop! (As we have said before, weird place – Italy!)

The famous "leaning tower" of Pisa - NO we didnt climb it!
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Set off for the coast south of Pisa to locate once again one of the few camp sites open in winter so we could have a shower after 2 days! Not that we couldn’t have a shower in out motorhome but it uses lots of water and gas and we’re mean! The rain bucketed down as we journeyed south on a road running above the ocean heading for Cecina Mare – where we found a great spot and parked right alongside the ocean. Beach was shit but we could hear the ocean and that was good. We recalled from years past that the Italians have this strange idea (to Aussies anyway!) that the beach is not owned by the people but by the hotel/business adjacent to it and large fences are erected to ensure no-one who hasn’t the right, can use it.

Volterra, a wonderful old Tuscan village - up in the hills
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We liked the sound of the ocean so much as we fell asleep that we stayed 2 days even though it was pretty wet and cold.

Friday, 14th November

Left in an easterly direction towards Siena in the heart of Tuscany and stopped firstly at Volterra, one of the most important centres of Tuscany. Built on a hilly ridge 545 m above sea level & surrounded by 2 defensive walls, one Estruscan (8th Century BC) and one Medieval, untouched by modern contemporary life, Volterra celebrates 3,000 years of civilisation and boasts its traditional craftsmanship in alabaster. Volterra has, over the years been subjected to domination by Rome & Florence and was, so far, one of the most interesting places so far on our trip.

San Gimignano, Tuscany
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Onwards to San Gimignano standing 334 m above sea level, once again the site of Etruscan settlement dating from 3rd to 2nd century BC. Once again the place withstood a large range of interference from outside and finally fell to Florence in 1353. Its called the city of towers – 72 of them originally but only 14 remain. A beautiful town but visit slightly marred by motorhome owners having to park 1.7kms away and walk or catch a once hourly bus! Why were discriminated against?

Finally we reached Siena and found a carpark located about 4 kms from the centre to park in so spent the night before setting off for the centre by bus the next day. Ended the day buying a magnificent pizza up the road – speciality with a fried egg in the centre!

San Gimignano, Tuscany
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Saturday, 15th November

Siena was altogether more sophisticated being a large city with an impressive vast open piazza surrounded by medieval buildings. The shops were classy and we found the most wonderful gourmet shop with local wines, cheeses, dried herbs and mushrooms, some especially prepared for their soups etc., salamis and an enormous variety of “pan forte”., that sticky fruity cake they eat at Christmas…..things weren’t cheap there!

Siena is famous for its annual horse race – held for centuries, in the main piazza where the riders wear the colours/heraldry of the local cantons. They race around the edge of the piazza with people packing the centre and hanging out of all the windows of the buildings. Not that we saw any of this but there were plenty of paintings and photos around to show us.

Volterra, Tuscany
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Deciding we should try to move further south at last we hit the autostrada after lunch deciding the cost would be worth it and managed to travel over 300 kms before pulling into a service centre for the night parking in front of loads of massive trucks!