The tale of Italian contrasts and the stowaway shows the two contrasting sides of Italy we’ve seen so far. The tourist traps with 1000’s of people which differ so dramatically from the quiet, hillside villages with a real Italian vibe. Oh and we find a stowaway as well!

Il Pruno

We begin our tale leaving the wonderful eateries of Bologna heading west in search of Lucca and Pisa. Our home is another Agricola called Il Pruno, do any of you remember this term from our previous post? Agricola’s are more rural and there were animals a plenty at this one: dogs, cats and a very relaxed chicken who was not at all phased by Merlin. The opposite could not be said!

Pisa

We rode ‘Sons of Anarchy’ into Pisa. A short scoot. There are many reasons we are thankful we have a scooter for a start you don’t pay for parking and there are lots of places to park scooters in any Italian village. Also, I love that there are little scooter bays painted around showing where scooters can be left – and that no one pays attention to those!

Toby had been to Pisa before – and recalled a work trip, where he and a colleague had been amazed by the tower and equally harassed by the traders selling goods. As we walked to the Piazza dei Miracoli, I was astounded that even on a Thursday in October there were just 1000’s of tourists. A fair few of them were doing the “holding up the tower pose”! Undoubtably the tower is quite a sight and when you think its construction started in 1173 and finished in 1399 it’s pretty impressive. We took a walk around Pisa itself and got free tickets to enter the Cattedrale du Pisa (Cathedral of Pisa). Toby stuff.

Lucca

Lucca was another one of those must see towns in Tuscany so next day we took the scooter out for a ride. Certainly it is beautiful and was distinctly less touristy than Pisa. We walked around and wanted to remember the Tuscan colours that we were becoming accustomed to. We took the time for a coffee and to watch the world go by.

Pistoia

As we arrived at the Sosta in Pistoia there weren’t many people or motorhomes around. It was a beautiful, quiet town and we walked in and realised that not all Italian towns were tourist havens. Pistoia had no tourists and was enjoying a typical quiet lazy Sunday in Tuscany. We found an idyllic church Santuarina Basilica Della Madonna (Shrine of Ur Lady of Humility) and went in. The silence immediately calmed you down – it was all encompassing – beautiful – a wonderful contrast to the busyness and noise of tourist towns of Pisa, Bologna and even Venice.

There was a motorbiking meet in the Palazza with live music and it was great to see some real Italian life.

As we headed back to Beatrix the road was barriered off – hmmm strange. The Sosta and all the car parks around us started filling up as well. We heard loadspeakers. What on earth was going on. It turns out the Sosta was close to the local football ground and there was a Sunday afternoon match. It got pretty hectic for a while – then they all left and we were back to the lazy Italian Sunday.

The stowaway

The next morning was when we realised we’d picked up a stowaway.

We’d become a little relaxed and forgotten about our mouse management strategies (The tale of the Christmouse). Foolishly I thought a mouse would only come into Beatrix if we weren’t staying there. I hadn’t thought free food would be incentive enough to explore even with humans and dogs around.

I opened the wardrobe and thought that’s strange that looks like mouse droppings. There weren’t many. I shared my thoughts with Toby, who thought I was going mad. Shortly afterwards I opened the spice drawer, which also had nuts and dried fruit in plastic packaging. To my horror I could definitely see chewing activity. I began to lose the plot…. quite a bit… Toby was thankfully calm. It was early morning and we were due to head to Florence. Instead, we cleaned out the drawers and checked for any other evidence of rodent and decided we would get to Florence where we could take some action.

The drive to Florence was easy. We took the toll roads and it was uneventful. There were only a few times when Toby cursed the mad Italian driving style – which seems to be if there is a gap, irrespective of size, Italian drivers will take it, even it means you, a large 6.7tonne vehicle, may have to brake quite severely to prevent an accident.

Firenze/Florence

Toby had wanted to visit Florence to see the historical sites and to see Michelangelo’s David. The campsites in Florence were expensive, way over our standard budget per night so we’d decided to only stay 2 nights and optimise our time there. The site we’d chosen was fantastic (Hu Camping Firenze), it had a pool, washing machines, a restaurant and a bus into Florence itself and was really easy to drive to, even in Beatrix.

It was also very busy. There was a constant stream of motorhomes and bus loads of people arriving to stay.

It gave us chance to do our washing and to try and catch our stowaway. Amazingly we did this within an hour of putting the traps out. Thank goodness and I’m so pleased we kept the traps with us! In the end, our stowaway got a few dried cranberries, some walnuts and most disturbingly the last of our rich tea biscuits.

We headed into Florence by bus with Merlin.

Similar to Venice, Florence can be a tough place for little grey dogs as people are generally looking up at the wonderous sights. Watch out people, Merlin walking here!

We walked from the bus into the old centre of Florence seeing the very busy Ponte Vecchio from afar and walking through the arches of the Uffizi Gallery. The scale and wealth in Florence is apparent – it oozes renaissance culture and everywhere you look there is a famous statue or building. We walked the sights to decide what we wanted to spend our time and money on the next day. It’s truly incredible with the beautiful Duomo, and Brunelleschi’s dome, the Piazza Della Republicca and of course the Galleria dell’Accademia – home of Michelangelo’s David.

We saw all of these from the outside – as observers. There were again 1000’s of tourists, a real hive of activity. We headed back to the campsite and decided to have pizza out and planned our trip the following day.

After Venice, we hadn’t booked to see either the Duomo or David and thought we would just rock up – this was a mistake. Assuming the queues would move quickly, we arrived at the Galleria dell’Accademia at 09:24 but didn’t get in until 2.5 hours later. Not being the most patient person in the world, I struggled to keep my state of mind calm for the wait. We met some interesting Americans in the queue and some Italian ladies who made us laugh when they wouldn’t move forwards in the queue because there was a portable toilet nearby.

Michelangelo’s David

It was worth the wait.

When you realise the size of David, that was sculpted from a single piece of marble and look at the detail – it is breath taking and he really seems like a real person who has been is frozen in time. The photos don’t do it justice – this Michelangelo had some game. We learn that at least two other notable sculptors of the time refused to work with the marble as it had flaws. Somehow though Michelangelo produced this.

What I would say though is that if you want to see it, book ahead!

Fixing the stairs on the way to Grève in Chianti

Toby is always on the look out for spare parts for Beatrix. The makers of our stairs happen to be an Italian company. Toby had been doing a lot of emails with the American parent company – with the result of we can ship the part to you in the UK. This wasn’t going to work for us. The factory where the stairs are made is just past Florence – we could just drive there.

We decided to chance our arm and drive to the factory, just half an hour away in Sambucca! of all places. Armed with Google translate, Toby spoke to a helpful employee who seemed like she wanted to help and came out to look at Beatrix. Then the heavens opened and as the rain came down, the lady looked like she wished she hadn’t answered the door.

To her credit, she did get us someone who spoke brilliant English. The message was not what we wanted to hear. Unfortunately they couldn’t help as the stairs aren’t made any more. BUT they did give us the name of a company just down the road that might be able to fix the stairs.

We headed off with hopes rekindled. Realising that the workshop, Due Elle, was about to close for lunch, we had 30 minutes to get there. Making it with 5 minutes to spare and were given a thumbs up and a we can do that….. after lunch. It took them an hour but they fixed the stairs – result!

Grève in Chianti

After the success of getting the stairs fixed we headed to our first free Sosta in October in a cheery mood.

It was in Grève in Chianti and it was wonderful. I had a work day and Toby took the opportunity to explore the wonderful countryside. Tuscany really is beautiful when you get away from the tourist traps. These smaller Tuscan towns are colourful, quiet and filled with the smells of sweet, fruity grapes in the barrels and burning smoke from pruned vines. Full of character and seemingly a million miles away from the tourist attractions.

This wraps up the tale of Italian contrasts and the stowaway. We hope you’ve enjoyed it. Remember to like the blog on WordPress and subscribe to get these sent to your inbox!

Sally, Toby and Merlin