Sleeping in the Car...destination unknown

Ok, how did this happen you ask...well....

I left Pisa and headed for the Cinque Terre coast.  The Cinque Terre is basically a marketing gig for 5 little towns along the coast.  The road is somewhat like the Amalfi coast road, really high on the cliffs andcurvy.  It is beaurtiful and I stop in a few of them, finally ending up in Montrosso.

hope that they don't back up and squish me in the morning

I head for the local Tourist Information centre and they give me a little map with various hostels and hotels with apparent availabiltiy.  I say apparent because after walking up and down the hills for 2 hours and exhausting the list, there appears to not be a bed in the whole town (not entirely true, but at this point I did not want to pay $100 Euros).  So I decided to sit down and watch the World Cup game at a little restaurant, have a glass of Prosecco and some snacks, amazingly not too stressed about my situation, even joking with another customer that I could always sleep in my car...little did I know that would be my fate tonight.

So this is how it all unfolded...I leave Montrosso heading towards Genoa thinking there will be towns between here and there where there will be accomodation, nope, even more expensive and less availability, less than none you ask, yes less than none, by that I mean, I cannot even find a place to park my car and snuggle down for the night.

After reaching Genoa at around midnight I decide to head back down the coast from Genoa as I did not want to miss out on walking the Cinque Terre...atleast not at this point....give me time, I learn to loathe the Cinque Terre and it's over commercialized, over priced, over suntanned, over glitzy, stinking rotten marketing!

After driving down the highway for a couple more hours, I end up back in La Spezia, where I had started my Cinque Terre nightmare and decided to get off at one of the service area truck stops and have a nap.  I pull into a parking spot between 2 tractor trailers and hope that they don't back up and squish me in the morning.  I climb over into the back and dig out my sleeping bag and curl up in the back seat of my little Lancia Yipsilon and sleep from 2:30 until what I think is 6:30, but it is really 5:30 ARGHHHHHHH! Oh well up now, may as well start driving.  I head to the bathroom, brush my teeth, refresh my contacts and grab a super duper Italian Espresso and head for Portofino...to hell with the Cinque Terre.

I find a haven...a haven I tell you in Santa Margareita Ligure (just a short hop down the road from Portofino and a huge decrease in cost).  Ahh sleep, in a bed!