31 April 2012: We have rested up today, after arriving in the town of Peschici, about the most northern town on this peninsular and high on a cliff top.

We walked the length of Peschici Beach, paddling in the relatively warm sea and then explored the harbour.

We are settled for the night in a busy campsite on the beach full of friendly Italian families eating, drinking and chatting around dining tables set up outside their motorhomes. Tomorrow we will continue around the peninsular, gradually making our way to Bari for the crossing to Corfu.

29 April 2012: Having read about Abruzzo and its captivating wild and spectacular terrain, we decided to throw caution to the wind along with our precious diesel (same price as in UK) to make a detour heading towards the mountains and the medieval city of L’Aquila. The mountains very soon started to impress us when their panoramic snow capped ranges came into view and we were compelled to click and snap the camera out of the van window.

The closer we came to the mountains, the more they astonished us until we entered the tunnel that took us right under the north face of the Corno Grande.

We arrived in L’Aquila and strolled towards the city. We were unprepared for what we found, mostly due to our Italian guide book being more than 3 years old. Firstly we thought the various wooden structures attached to buildings were for stopping snow from falling on passers by but when we realised that almost every building in town was supported in some way with scaffold or wooden structures, we realised that something incredibly dramatic had happened and not that long ago.

It turned out that on 6 April 2009, the epicentre of a massive earthquake struck the city causing this catastrophic damage, killing 308 people and injuring approximately 1500 and around 65,000 people were made homeless.

We came across several sections of fencing with keys attached to them with messages one of which read: “These are the keys of our houses, hanging on the barriers as our hopes”.

We walked around taking photographs and feeling awe-struck by the effect of the event and the overwhelming work still to be done to restore the place to anything close to its former state.

We left L’Aquila feeling somewhat sober and headed on our way south again, finally arriving in Puglia at the start of the ‘spur’ on Italy’s boot.
View Mountain detour in a larger map

and here's a map of the journey since Luxembourg as requested by our dear mate Keef!
View 2nd leg in a larger map

28 April 2012: We took a quick spin up to Macerata, had our daily espresso and hit the autostrasse south.

We have made a stopover on the coast at Pineta, a resort town just north of Pescara and at the foot of the mountains of Gran Sasso which boasts the tallest mountain in the Appennines (2,912 metres!!) and Europe’s southern most glacier. Just an overnight stop as we make our way south.

The weather is very warm and bright and we have seen people swimming in the Adriatic although it is not enticing us in just yet.

26 April 2012: San Marino is a republic in the middle of Le Marche and we decided to visit as it was so close by. From Rimini, it appeared in the distance as a rocky bluff with towers perched on the very edge.

Once inside the city walls, we had a pleasant walk on the zig-zag pathways and lanes up to the top to admire the views of the surrounding hills.

The lanes were lined with countless tourist shops, bars and restaurants. We were intrigued by the gun shops that also sold miniature cross-bows and were not sure if the guns were real although the cross-bows definitely were.

We followed Stella’s instructions along minor roads across country to Urbino and she took us on a wonderful tour of the hills, arriving at our campsite just 2km (as the crow flies) from Urbino on a hill overlooking the town. We caught the campsite bus into town and walked from amazing site to amazing site up and down the very steep hills, fuelled by gelato. Urbino is the jewel of Le Marche and is apparently the most well preserved hill town in Italy. We sipped wine and beer in the evening sunshine sitting next to Palazzo Ducale the most complete and refined early renaissance palace in Italy as we waited for the return bus to the campsite.

We watched the sun set dramatically behind the hills from the van and realised that we were running out of superlatives to describe these stunning towns.

27 April 2012: We are now just south of Ancona by the sea shore resting up ready to visit Macerata tomorrow, another hill top town established in the 10th century between the Potenza river and the Chienti river.

25 April 2012: Yesterday we drove to Ravenna, hoping to stay nearby to admire the famous mosaics in town apparently second only to those in Istanbul. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be as we couldn’t find a decent campsite and drove on to just south of Rimini to Riccione where we found a good resting place. There are 15km of shoreline here so this morning we walked into town along a section of the beach in warm bright sunshine for just over ½hr getting our first sighting of a blue and calm Adriatic. The bars and facilities back from the beach front were many and varied, offering every type of beach entertainment for every age group imaginable but fortunately only getting ready for the forthcoming season, not in full swing. We took a bus into Rimini to check out the sights as the old town dates back to Julius Caesar where he made his famous speech about crossing the Rubicon. An intriguing structure in town is the Tiberius Bridge built of white Istrian stone 2000 years ago and still going strong.

On Piazza Cavour is an 18th Century Fish Market, all of the stone counters and the waterspouts for cleaning fish are still there. The area is now lined with fashionable bars that come alive at night. We photographed each other sitting on the old fish counters.

We are off to the hills tomorrow, starting with the Republic of San Marino.

22 April 2012. We arrived at ‘Bella Italia’ campsite on the outskirts of Peschiera del Garda, a half hour drive from Verona where we settled the van and walked into the town which proved to be very pretty with restored old quays buzzing with café life. This is by far the largest campsite we have ever stayed in with over 800 pitches. It is run surprisingly well and is equipped with ample facility blocks that are immaculately maintained and could not be cleaner. We are one row back from the Lake Garda shore. 23 April 2012. From our new campsite we walked into Peschiera del Garda from where we caught a bus into Verona. Where to begin…such a treat to see so many beautiful buildings with varied architecture from so many different periods.

We spent the entire afternoon strolling from one major site to another, enjoying the change in scenery from bustling streets and piazzas to the peaceful riverside walk. The Roman Arena made from pink marble is the third largest Roman amphitheatre in existence and is now used as Verona’s opera house.

Juliet’s balcony (according to popular myth) was a popular attraction with lots of people touching the right breast of her statue as doing so is supposed to bring a new lover. Needless to say Paul was dissuaded from trying it out!

Friday 20 April 2012. Somewhat grounded today due to a national public workers strike meaning no trains, ferries or buses, we explored the promenade in Baveno, learning about the rose granite that has been quarried from the surrounding mountains for centuries and about the stonecutters who carve it. This wall painting in town was painted in 1979 by Gilberto Carpo, helped by students, depicting the complexity of the stonecutters trade:

We walked from Baveno to the neighbouring fishing village of Feriolo and climbed from there high up along a mule track to a tower which is the only remains of an ancient roman settlement.

Saturday 21 April 2012. We took a 5 minute bus ride to nearby Carciano di Stresa from where a cable car starts a journey to the top of Mottarone, a point 1,491 meters above sea level from where 360º views stretching from the Po Valley to the Alps can be seen and below the surrounding lakes. We decided to walk to the cable car half way point, some 800 meters above sea level and aided with a very vague map, set off. We zig-zagged up and up and up, finally arriving at our destination after about 3½ hours in a very foot sore and weary state. We caught the cable car and then a chair lift to a lookout point where sure enough we saw all 5 lakes and the Alps in the distance. A friendly chap took this picture of us and then on the way down on the chair lift I took one of Paul.

Down at lake level in Stresa, we caught a ferry back to Baveno that stopped off at 2 islands on the way, Isola Bella and Isola Pescatori. I don’t think we will be walking very far tomorrow.

In the style we have come to expect of this country, neat and orderly vineyards and farmland cruised past us and the terrain gradually became more mountainous as we left Germany and entered Switzerland. Such long tunnels, especially the Gottard which was over 16km! We emerged from one tunnel to be presented by a panoramic view of snow capped crags so high and so awesome we just grinned at each other in amazement. Finally on a 2 lane road cut into the mountainside that narrowed as we started down the side of Lake Maggiore, trucks and buses approached us on one side and jagged rocks threatening us on the other. We were glad to be in a reasonably narrow vehicle but still held our breath sometimes trying to make the van thinner. Stella steered us to the campsite successfully once again although she did try to leave us at a 5 star hotel first, just a stone’s throw down the road. We are again in a prime position on the edge of Lake Maggiore in Baveno, Italy. Here is the view from our van this evening…honestly it really is!

Arrived in Dover the night before the 8am ferry booking and spent the coldest night of our lives ‘wild camped’ near the terminal on Marine Parade! We woke to a freezing gale force wind blowing and made our way to the ferry terminal and boarded pretty much on time after queuing amidst a forest of giant trucks, we were beginning to think we were the only non-commercial vehicle planning on boarding this boat. The crossing was rough but not too uncomfortable and we arrived on time in Dunkirk, switched on our Sat Nav (fondly nick named Stella) and followed her instructions. She steered us successfully to our first resting place next to the river ‘Our’ and within sight of a beautiful castle. We walked into town and tried the local brewed beer with dinner, ‘Bofferding’, a charming name for a very nice beer. Back at camp we were literally 3 meters from the river and woke the following morning to the song of various birds going about their business on the water.

The afternoon saw us arriving in the village of Sulzburg, surrounded by pine clad hills, part of the Black Forest, just south of Freiburg in Germany. Stella had taken us right to the doorstep where we were welcomed by a tiny brown squirrel just behind our resting place for the night. We wonder how we managed before Stella, she has impressed us and changed our lives, steering us through countless complex junctions and interchanges where we would otherwise have surely come unstuck. Tomorrow we head for Italy.