Showing posts with label Livorno. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Livorno. Show all posts

Corsica at Last!

Today's route
We managed to make it to the ferry terminal in Livorno with a bit of time to spare but not much because we were soon being directed onto the ferry.  Catching a ferry is so easy compared to that between France and England.  There is no check-in but instead men go down the rows of cars with an electronic hand-held computer.  They check your booking and put a sticker on your car window to signify that you have paid and 'checked in'.  Simple but effective with no fuss at all.

We drove onto the ferry and got out; going inside the passenger part of the ferry to find a suitable seat on which to place our bums for the next 4 hours or so.  We found a table near the front window of the ferry so were able to look out ahead during the crossing.  Well...  at times it was difficult to see out because the waves would hit the bow and spray would spurt up, hitting and cleaning the window at the same time.  It made for a good exciting crossing for some but not for others.  Our 'neighbour' at the adjoining table looked ill and held his head in his hands.  I was tired and managed to sleep across two chairs for a while before moving to the floor where I could stretch out more.  Later on our fellow traveller's wife disappeared and came back a short time later, seemingly having found another place for them to sit.  The ferry was being bumped around a bit and with the chap feeling ill - it didn't help.  He ended up crawling across the lounge area of the cocktail bar on his hands and knees, getting up when he found a stable hand-hold near the bar and walked with his wife down a passage.  I later found him sitting cross-legged on a passage floor with his forehead against a glass wall.  People were lying down in the passages or on any surface they could find, some of them looking quite unwell and making use of handy bags.  I found one lady in the bathroom, holding onto the sink and looking very sorry for herself.  At least she had made it to the bathroom in time - others didn't and had puked up in the stairwells or passages - that despite every passenger being given a nice bag to do the job in.

We arrived in Corsica 1½ hours later than expected - probably due to the rough crossing. There were queues of cars at the ferry terminal - people heading off the island.  We were glad not to be waiting in THAT queue.

After a couple of hours drive along the coastal route of the island we finally arrived at one of a couple of campsites that Paul had in mind that we could possibly stay at but decided to press on southwards to a smaller campsite in the hills.  When we got to the campsite entrance it was raining and a strong wind was up, whipping up dust-clouds where the earth was dry.  We didn't feel happy about unpacking the tent in the rain let alone in strong winds so headed to another possible campsite not far from Porto Vecchio.  Fortunately the rain hadn't hit the coastal area and the wind had died down quite considerably by then so when we arrived at La Chiappa Naturist Village (http://www.chiappa.com/en/) so we decided to stop there.

Once checked-in we were driven by electric car to find a suitable spot (vehicles are not permitted on the site unless unpacking or loading up).  We found a suitable spot, fetched our car and drove in.  Well, the pitch that we found was nice but not quite 'it'. So we had a wander around the area on before finding something more suitable.  One pitch was on a rocky outcrop overlooking a bay but there would have been no ways that we could get our tent pegs into the ground.  Another pitch was a bit too small for our tent (Paul pacing the site out).  We finally found a spot that was big and level enough for our tent but was away from the ocean and more public areas of the campsite (such as pools, restaurants, tennis courts, communal showers, etc).  We don't have a view of the bay because of the trees but it is a nice enough pitch ... except for the biting midges or mozzies, or whatever is chewing my legs and leaving itchy bumps.

We shall see what tomorrow brings.






Across Italy

We had a reasonably early start this morning but taking our time to get to Livorno where we are to catch a ferry to Corsica tomorrow.

Initially we took the motorway and then I got a thought into my head - we still had enough time on our hands to get to the hotel so why not get off the motorway and take a few back roads to Livorno so that we could see some of the beautiful hilly landscape a bit more.  Paul was quite agreeable to the suggestion but perhaps regretted it.  The roads were very narrow at times, and very windy too.  At one point the road going down into a gorge valley was blocked by barriers so Paul had to reverse all the way back up the hill until he could find a driveway on which he could turn around on.  As we reversed up the hill 2 vehicles (one being a van) were coming down and overtook us slowly, wondering what the heck we were doing.  We managed to stop them and explain, and mime, that the road was closed further down.  Needless to say they continued on down but eventually we saw the one vehicle heading back up behind us - the driving realising we were right.  He tooted and waved at us as he passed us.  The van?  We hoped the driver managed to turn around somehow!  We managed to find an alternative route on the other side of the gorge.

Pisa is on the way to Livorno so Paul felt it would be a good idea for me to see the leaning tower of Pisa as I had never been there before.  Looking at the time, I was quite reluctant to see the tower.  I had a feeling there would be crowds of people let alone perhaps a long wait to go up the tower and that it would probably be best to go very early one morning.  Anyway  I relented and we managed to find parking at a stadium outside the walled city.  When we arrived at the area of the tower - there was a queue of people waiting to get in and one had to purchase a ticket from a ticket office - which was not at the tower.  We had a wander around the area and around the cathedral (currently undergoing restoration) and grounds.  The museums required a ticket to go in which we could obtain at the ticket office.  We popped in at the ticket office - to find out that we would have to wait over 1¼ hours to go up the tower.  We decided not to wait - it was already 5:30pm and we still had to go to our hotel in Livorno.  Hopefully, when we have a bit more time, we will go back to Pisa and also visit Rome and Venice.  But that is for another holiday.

We found the hotel (Max Hotel, Livorno) and checked in.  The hotel restaurant would only open at around 7:30pm but we were hungry so we went to the adjoining shopping mall. Well, it was supposed to be a shopping mall but it wasn't.  It was a strange building with about 3 shops, a hairdresser and a cafe selling snacks.  We didn't really have a good feeling about the 'shopping mall' so got into the car and drove around searching for somewhere to eat.  We delayed eating when we saw Intersport and decided to take a quick peek inside to see if they had any swimming flippers/fins in our sizes.  Success at last, and they weren't too expensive either.  There was a shopping mall close to Intersport so we tried our luck with regard to finding a bite to eat.  There was a food court with a few places to eat so we ended up at a place selling pizzas.  We ended up having a pizza but felt a bit rushed because the place was closing - we were the only ones left having a meal.

We managed to find our way back to the hotel with the use of the satnav's instructions but a delay in voice speech led us to us missing a turn-off so we had to carry on the road that we were on until the satnav found an alternative route back to the hotel.

I've just realised we didn't take any photographs during our journey except for when we were in Pisa!  Oooppss...

Tomorrow morning we have to be up early to catch the ferry so early night for us.  Yawn.

Our tracked route across Italy from Venice Mare to Livorno

PHOTOGRAPHS

 

 




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