Wet ‘n Wild in Italy

We are posting this from Levanto, Italy, about 80kms from Genoa. The past few weeks have been pretty wet across the coasts of France and Italy and have caused havoc for travelers and locals alike. More of that later.

We headed down from the Dolomite mountains to a campsite near Genoa but had one of our rare problems getting to where we wanted to go. Our GPS, George, wanted to send us under a very low railway bridge in a very narrow street. Alan was driving and Alison calmly asked what do we do? Just act Italian was the answer so stuff the traffic, just take over the road and turn around. Great fun! We never could find our way around that obstacle to get to the campsite and so just continued on to San Remo instead.

About two weeks or so there included lots of time on the 24km bike path just beside the camp and also a trip to the circus which had obligingly set up in the field right next to our campsite. We expected a simple, kiddie focussed night but were treated to a world class series of acts. Amazing magicians, jugglers, high wire acts and even a trained crocodile. It was a fabulous night (that’s the little boy in Alan coming out!)

There have been two major flood events in this part of Italy in recent weeks. The first was late in October when we were in San Remo. All we experienced was heavy rain for a few days but 150 kms away there was flash flooding which devastated the Cinque Terre and other villages along the coast.

Villages which we had lunch in and where we had walked the cobbled lanes just a few weeks ago were almost washed away. The worst hit was Vernazza where the narrow streets and steep hillsides combined with poor drainage to wreak havoc on everything in the water’s path. People who saw the village from the train a week or so later described cars upended and huge mounds of rubble, trees and wreckage blocking the streets.

We also went past a few days ago on the train and, although a lot of work has been done, the sight of the wrecked villages is sobering. There were teams of rescue workers busy amid the mud and rubble. There were officials on the train stations to turn people away if they had arrived unaware of the closure of the entire district. Teams of emergency workers are transported to the villages by boat from Levanto because of the damage to the roads.

The outcome for the Cinque Terre is that the worst hit villages will be closed for about 2 years. The popular walking paths connecting all 5 villages have been closed with many parts completely washed away. Considering this is one of the most important and popular tourist attractions in Italy, the impact on the region will be severe, especially next summer.

Then about a week later the second rain event hit Genoa and other areas in the region and caused extensive damage. These floods have affected our plans.

After San Remo we headed back to Genoa to see a motorhome dealer about some minor repairs and improvements to our van. We were there on the Wednesday, ordered the parts and then headed out of town to Levanto to await the arrival of the parts. We had expected to be heading back to Genoa in a week or so but then on the Friday the rains came again. Genoa was devastated with 6 people killed and major disruption to everything. Our dealer was closed for 6 days and one of the parts we ordered was lost in the floods.

So our time at Camping Acqua Dolce in Levanto has been extended somewhat but, no matter, it’s a great little town and we are having a quiet but social time. Even the camp cats are friendly. The road and even the motorway into Levanto was closed for a few days so the camp has had only 3 or 4 vans in it most of the time. We will be here until about 17 November then will head to Genoa for the work to be done and after that it’s off through France to Spain.

We have settled into Italy very nicely. But it’s still hard to get used to the deeply mysterious shopping hours and the coffee served in cups so tiny they must have been stolen from a kid’s doll set. And even then they only half fill them!

The people are very friendly. They spend so much time chatting to each other on the street. And we mean “on the street”. They don’t care, they make the cars just go around them. Sometimes the small supermarkets are more like social clubs with them all laughing and carrying on like kids. It’s contagious and more than a few times we have had a laugh with them without any common language. Like the grocery shop guy in one place who had us all saying hello and goodbye in as many languages as we could all think of. What a hoot!

They are almost always very relaxed and friendly to tourists. When we first visited Italy in 2006 we focussed on the major tourist spots like Rome, Pompeii, Pisa and so on. Our impressions then were totally different. This time we have seen life as the Italians live it and it has been great. We’ve also learned that the Italians don’t actually like Rome that much anyway! (This picture is of a town on the other side of the cinque terre called La Spezia.)

And although we are in the midst of upheaval in Europe, there is no sign of any problem. Berlusconi has just resigned, and according to the media Italy is almost broke and chaos reigns but we just don’t see it. Of course Berlusconi owns all the TV, most newspapers and a big chunk of the radio networks in Italy so we imagine that kind of softens the news for the locals!

We have had some computer problems and part of our solution was to buy a new Netbook. What a good idea. But in Italy Windows 7 Starter only allows you to have one language – yes, Italian. What a nightmare trying to figure out the commands. Trying to set up the computer in Italian took Alison a little longer than usual and caused some rather colorful language at times! Luckily, a very helpful dealer in San Remo managed to wangle a language change for us – although by that time Alison had finished the setup!

We have also had a very social time in Italy. Richard and Rita are a British couple who have a motorhome but have moved out of England and bought a house near Levanto. The house settlement has been delayed by the floods so they are a bit like us, stranded in the camp.

We have had some great nights with R & R and will no doubt look in on them next year when we are back in the neighborhood. We had better bring plenty of wine! They are certainly a bad influence on us young and impressionable travelers. But what a fabulous time they will have in their new house in such a beautiful part of the world.

In San Remo we had a great night with Bruni and Heinz, two German caravaners with links to Australia. They left Germany for a one year holiday and are still on the road 6 years later with no sign of settling down – despite the fact that Heinz in about 75! They have also just bought a new car and caravan. Bruni told us of fabulous times they had in Australia touring from top to bottom in rented motorhomes. From San Remo, they were headed south to spend 5 months in Sicily. What a great life.

We also met Liz and Paul in San Remo, two Aussies from Sydney doing a similar trip to us. It was great to swap laughs about our travels. They went off from there to France and were caught up in the floods but managed to stay dry. They are heading to Spain for the winter and hopefully we will meet up again somewhere in Spain.

Now, we always expected to see odd things in our travels but we did not expect to be at a surf carnival in Italy. Levanto is actually a popular surf spot and is right now holding the World Longboard Championships. And better still (apart from the numerous surfer girls in town, not that Alan has noticed of course!) is that an Aussie is favorite to win. Only trouble so far is that there is no surf, the seas are as flat as a tack!

We have continued to plan our travels for next year. At this time we expect that Iceland will be our primary destination for the summer. That should be a little different. Before that we will spend most of winter in Spain and some time in France. That’s it for now – next catch up will likely be from Spain.

Cheers everyone and arrivederci from Italy, A & A

Back to Hamburg

We left a cold and drizzly Belfast and headed back to sunny Hamburg, the plan being to pick up Berty2 from the dealer, spend a few days sorting out any bugs, pick up the gear we shipped from Australia and then really start our travels. Things have gone well enough but not entirely according to plan.

The journey from Belfast to Hamburg should have been a 90 minute flight but took a day and a half because no direct flights were available. It had to be a bus to Dublin then a flight to Frankfurt (on everybody’s favorite, Ryan Air), then a night at an airport hotel, rent a car and drive the 620kms to Norderstedt. We had hoped to go by the super fast ICE train from Frankfurt but found out too late that you must book 7 days in advance and it was full anyway. The drive was another high speed one at up to 150kms/hr on the Autobahn but the weather was very wet and stormy which made for a long day and overall, a very long and tedious trip from Belfast.

We had our last night in a hotel in Norderstedt, and it was a really nice one, the Wilhelm Busch, before picking up Berty the next morning, Wednesday, 1 June.

Lundbergs had prepped the van really well but there were some small issues to sort out and the legal weight paperwork had been done incorrectly at 3.5 tonnes instead of 4.25. (At 3.5T we would have a carrying capacity of only 350kgs and would be over the limit all the time.) They assured us that would be fixed soon and we set off on our first driving adventure.

Our first major problem was that we had our home and a few borrowed plates and cooking gear from Lundbergs, but no food, bedding or even a towel. We had shipped most of what we need from Australia but all that gear was still waiting for us at the port and we could not pick it up until Monday, five days away. And to complicate things just a bit more, it was a public holiday on Thursday with virtually everything closing. (When the Germans say holiday they mean HOLIDAY, no work, everything closed.)

Our first day was one of life’s real challenges. A new and large vehicle and a drive of about 80kms through all kinds of traffic and streets, many of which seemed like Chapel Street and the back roads of South Yarra only narrower. Of course, Alan, who is a bit inclined to exaggeration, was saying from the driver’s seat of his big new van that all the roads, even the Autobahn, looked like a skinny side street to him. And the discovery that German supermarkets have tiny carparks. After many, many tricky turns, stressful moments and more than a little swearing we finally reached our camp and were able to shop for the basics in the local supermarket.

We spent 2 nights at Grobensee in a slightly rundown campsite beside a small lake about an hour from Hamburg. It turned out to be a really nice wooded area and a very friendly camp. We had no outdoor furniture but both neighbors offered us their spares.

One very charming German man wrote us a wonderful note in perfect English (while we were out walking) offering us their chairs and table set while they were out for the day. He is typical of the friendly people on campsites. His written English was perfect and his spoken english was very good although some things got a little confused in the translation. He was telling us about their travels and how, when they go away for a longer trip, they put their dog in a “dog asylum”. Mind you, we also thought little Hanna the terrier was a wee bit crazy.

We moved from the camp beside the lake to the camp beside Ikea because it is only a few minutes drive from our van dealer and there were a few things still to be sorted. It was only supposed to be for a couple of days whilst we picked up the goods we shipped and sorted out a few small bugs in Berty2. It has turned out to be longer than expected, in part due to the weight error taking longer to fix. We will end up being at the Ikea site for about 11 nights, but that’s ok as it has given us time to really sort out the van and find the right home for everything. In the first few days we made full use of the Ikea restaurant and have shopped there almost every day buying everything from pillows to plastic crates. We’re just about on first name terms with even the strawberry seller in his little hut near the front door. This picture is the first time Alison cooked a meal in the van.

On Monday it was time to collect our gear from the shipping agent at the port of Hamburg, and what a massive place it is. We rented a Mercedes C220 wagon and promptly had our first disagreement of the trip. Would it be big enough (the car, not the fight) to fit all the gear in?

George, our GPS, did us proud and steered us right to the shipping agent’s door, deep within the confines of the port. We queued with the German truckies and eventually our gear appeared, toppling off a wobbly forklift pallet. And yes, it was all there and it all fitted in but only just. It could be said that Alan was so keen to be sure to get it all in that he disassembled the seats and left Alison sitting with her knees around her ears so as not to have to hear the magic words – “I told you it wasn’t big enough!” We then simply drove out of the port, through what was no doubt the wrong exit and back to Berty2.

Our motorhome has a garage about a meter wide and the full width of the van. Alison loves the garage so much it is now known as Alison’s shed. As you can see it is pretty much chokers with stuff, even a washing machine. The Internet is great. In Belfast we managed to buy a plastic twin tub machine for about A$130 from a German supplier and had them ship it to our dealer. Washing costs a fortune in campsites, about $8 per load (washing only) so it will have paid for itself in about a month. It was actually a ‘housewarming’ present from Alison’s mum – thanks Margaret!

Hamburg is a money town. Even the Ikea carpark has Maseratis in it. Last Saturday we had a day in town and did the obligatory harbor boat trip and lots of shopping. Alan counted about a dozen Ferraris along with one of those super sportscars that have no name, attract crowds and cost millions. Typical was this Bentley parked on the footpath outside the Emporio Armani.

The local neighborhood around the camp can be fairly described as German quaint, even the street names confirm this: Rumpelstiltzkin, Hansel, Gretel, etc. But we have managed to negotiate the local bus route and then the underground into town a couple of times. Even better was that we managed our way back once after a big day, drinks and dinner and armfuls of shopping.

We are still waiting for the final legal paperwork to come through on the van’s carrying capacity but it is just a day or so away and we are having some minor modifications done to the van. So it is a bit of a waiting game while we get these things sorted but Lundbergs are still looking after us really well. In the meantime we have taken advantage of the spare time and explored the sites of Hamburg, which is a really pretty city and is also one of the largest ports in the world!

More about life onboard in our next blog, and on Friday we’re off to Bavaria and hopefully warmer weather as Hamburg has turned a little cool over the last week or so.

Cheers A & A