Oldies On Tour

Portofino from the top of the hill

The last time I visited Portofino was around 1955 when I was 11 and it has always stuck in my memory as it was so pretty and quaint, built at the end of a small peninsular and with an interesting and significant History.  As we were in this part of Italy I suggested we spent a day there as I was sure Christine would enjoy it, albeit not the historical side of things!!

Our Camp Site is about 35 Kilometres from Portofino but as the

Portofina

coast road winds its way through several towns and villages hugging the mountain sides it will take over an hour on our bikes to get there so the first issue is what we can do with Sooty & Bella. Obviously if we wanted to go they would be on their own for far too long in Rosie, so again Christine with tongue in cheek, asked the camp site Manager/owner if he knew anyone who dog sat; well blow me down, he did!!!

Arrangements were made for the “dog sitter” to collect them Monday early evening and return them Wednesday afternoon.  He is a local Policeman and the times fit in with his travel arrangements to and from work and the shifts he does.  During his absence they are cared for by his wife, who it turns out competes in obedience competitions with their collies and has in fact just returned from competing in Scotland.  Anyway I digress: firstly with no dogs pattering about Rosie and waking us up anytime from first light, we didn’t wake ‘till 0830, on Tuesday morning, a real treat.

We had a leisurely breakfast, did a few housekeeping chores, showered and after coffee left on Pinky & Perky.  We had a coffee before we left as we had been warned that a coffee in Portofino could cost up to €20!!!!!!!!!!  I think at this point I would just quote from the Italian “Lonely Planet guide”     Portofino is described as follows:-

A byword for refined luxury, stately Portofino is beyond the wallet-stretching capabilities of most budget-minded travellers

Visitors motor bike park

We finally arrived, parked in the wrong place at first and were moved on by a very friendly female “copper” speaking excellent English.  When we parked in the right place, we were amazed as to how many motor bikes and scooters were parked together in one place, there seemed to be hundreds of them.

We walked down the pedestrianised cobbled street to the

Typical street

harbour. Apart from there being more people milling about, Portofino is very much as I remember but when we got down to the harbour it is not quite the quaint fishing village I remembered; it is now a marina, but worse than that there was a cruise ship moored in the bay and the place was full of Americans.  We now understand why we were warned about the prices of everything, not to mention the cruise ships calling, most of the locals are celebrities, millionaires with some royalty attracting shops that sell very expensive diamonds, jewellery, designer clothes, shoes and fancy handbags.

We wandered up the hill to one of the many churches; this hill also had a castle built on top and as it overlooked the bay and harbour was an excellent look-out used in by-gone days, but today

Church Interior

highlights the very pretty views and well worth the struggle up the hill.  We then headed back down some very narrow and steep steps back to the harbour area and started looking at the restaurant menus as we were both getting hungry.  Yes there were very expensive eating houses but we did manage to find something reasonable, well reasonable for somewhere like Portofino, and though we had only 1 course and wine, and very acceptable it was too; it only hurts when you think that back in Spain we could have had 4 x 3 course Menu Del Dias with ½ a bottle of wine each for the same money!!!!!

After further exploring round quaint streets, up and down the hill and seeing inside numerous splendidly and richly appointed churches, we indulged in another wonderful Italian Ice Cream. Now it was time to start the return journey but we would stop and take a swim in the Mediterranean en route. Walking back to our bikes, Christine agreed this was a place well worth visiting and thoroughly enjoyed herself.

The traffic on our return was horrendous, people returning home from work together with the tourists doing their thing made our bike rides interesting to say the least.  I have decided the reason there are so many motor bikes and scooters is very simple, cost of petrol, it is around €2 litre.

We stopped in Santa Margherita for our swim;  just parked Pinky & Perky, walked onto the beach and into a warn, clear, empty sea, great. This was followed by a walk around town then back to fighting the traffic round the sharp bends and ups and downs of this coast road on this beautiful part of the Italian Riviera.

We made a detour around Sestri Levante (the town below our camp site) Marina and the sea front before setting back up the mountain to our camp site.

We both missed the dogs but would not have been able to have such a great day out if we were worrying about their welfare, thank you Mr Italian Policeman, €30 well spent.

We will now hang around tomorrow waiting for the dogs return, pack up and off on Thursday morning for another adventure

Having had a week of really bad thunder storms, rain, and generally grey days, we thought winter was upon us, but now we have moved away from the mountains, everything is back to normal!

View from our pitch

We had a day without doing much, time to get Geoff’s back better, and for me to top up the tan, went for a lovely swim in the pool, and the dogs enjoyed swimming in the river, what a difference when the sun shines again. Moving tomorrow, so have not fully unpacked, but

View from our campsite

thoroughly enjoyed a day in the sunshine. We left early after Geoff upsetting the natives, first he made someone’s stuff wet, and mind you they did put it by the water tap, when he was filling the water tank! Then when we went to leave, we were trying to pay, and the lady wanted us to park no mean feat when you have 11 metres to fit into the normal parking places, so Geoff went out the gate, an Italian coming the way, just blocked the road, we could not reverse, and he would not, so he struggled to get around us.  All good fun!

View by the Pool

Geoff wanted to go on the coastal road, which we did, but the only problem was it went up the side of a mountain, it was S bends, very narrow in parts, and sheer drops, and very scary, I was not a happy teddy, we had to spend some of the time in first gear, as it was so steep, so certainly not a relaxing drive. (Geoff enjoyed it though!)

We eventually found our campsite, and the welcome we had was lovely, so friendly, and so helpful, quite a shock, and such a lovely space, we get ourselves sorted, and I manage to get TV for the first

Geoff in the Pool! Somewhere!

Ready steady………..

time in ages, so we watched the highlights of the Qualifying of the Grand Prix and the ‘Last Night of the Proms’ Brilliant! Today we spent washing, and cleaning up, sunbathing, swimming, and catching up with the website, a lovely lazy day. The swimming pool here is lovely and deep, very big, and also empty of people, maybe because it is cold, but it is a pleasure to be away in September

Up early walked the dogs, I did not want anyone in the office to see we had two dogs, we are paying nearly 40 Euros a night, which is scandalous, so don’t want to pay anymore, we will be moving as soon as we have completed Pisa. The big plus is we can walk from here to see the sights.

Cathedral and Tower at Pisa

We left about 9.30a.m walked through a tunnel under the railway line, past all the stalls selling their souvenirs, and into the walled Piazza Dei Miracoli.  The Piazza’s expansive green lawns provide an urban carpet on which Europe’s most extraordinary concentration of Romanesque buildings – in the form of Cathedral, Baptistry and Tower – are arranged. Two million visitors, every year mean that crowds are the norm.

We visited the Cathedral, this was first started to be built

Pisa Cathedral

in 1063, and continued until the 13^th century. The elliptical dome, the first of its kind in Europe dates from 1380.  The buildings striking cladding of alternating bands of green and cream marble became the blueprint for churches throughout Tuscany. The wooden ceiling decorated with 24-carat gold is a legacy from the period of Medici rule of the City.

The Tower was started in 1173, and then ground to a halt a decade later, when the first three tiers were observed to be tilting. In 1272 work started again, with artisans and masons attempting to bolster the foundations but failing miserably.  Despite this, they keep going, compensating for the lean by gradually building straight up from the lower storeys and creating a subtle curve.

Over the centuries the tower has tilted an extra 1mm each year. By 1993 it was 4.47m out of plumb, more than five degrees from the vertical.  The most recent solution saw steel braces slung around the third storey that were then joined to steel cables attached to neighbouring buildings. This held the tower in place as engineers began gingerly removing soil from below the northern foundations. After

Stairwell going down

some 70 tonnes of earth had been extracted from the Northern side, the tower sank to its 18^th century level and, in the process, rectified the lean by 43.8m.  Experts believe this will guarantee the tower’s future (and a fat tourist income) for the next three centuries.

As there are 300 steps inside, Geoff has declined going up, (he is also not feeling well) if you suffer from giddiness

View from top

(which he does) or have heart problems, they say do not go up.

I bought the tickets, and it was very well organised, they only let 40 people in at a time, and on the ticket is the time

View from the top

you can go in. So I went alone, I had no trouble with the steps, but it was very claustrophobic, especially when people started coming down and you had to pass each other.   I walked all around, and you had fantastic views from the top, we were then shown more steps, which were very narrow, and even more claustrophobic, (Geoff would have hated this) when we

Bell Tower

arrived at the top there were six huge bells, and several small ones, I felt wobbly at this point, so had a quick look around, and climbed down again.  Glad I did it, but do not feel the need to do it again. I joined Geoff for a drink, and

Part of the University of Pisa

we then took a horse and cart ride around Pisa itself, which was very good, with the guide pointing out the points of interest on route.  We couldn’t always understand her, but we nodded in agreement.

Narrow streets of Pisa

Next onto the Baptistry which was completed in the 14^thcentury, there was a beautiful hexagonal pulpit, with amazing carvings on, and whilst we

Baptistry

were there a custodian demonstrated the double dome’s remarkable acoustics and echo effects.

Midday and we have seen enough of Pisa, so we headed back to the campsite, had a quick lunch, and managed to slip out just before the start of another day. (2pm)

We went looking for another site, but just couldn’t find one suitable, although we have this year’s Aries book, it seems it is totally out of date, we worked our way further and further away from Pisa but the only ones available were 40 Euros, and we decided we could not afford to stay there waiting for Jane to arrive.

Eventually we ended up in Sarzana, which is near La Spezia, a delightful site, which is

Peace and quiet

almost empty, on a riverbank.

We put the ground sheet down, plugged into the electricity, and then went to do our emails, three campari spritz later, we left the bar, but at least Geoff is far more relaxed, and forgotten how bad his back is! We had an early night, after we had played a few games of crib.

………..And that was just in the streets outside the Museum!

The Entrance

Yes we are in Maranello, the Mecca for Formula One Grand Prix Racing and the home of Ferrari. I say Mecca as Ferrari is the only team in F1 to have been racing since the inception of the world Championship back in 1950. Many teams have come and gone, some have gone and come back, but Ferrari is still challenging for the “titles”.
Though the museum attracts Motor Racing addicts from around the globe and naturally the main emphasis is on their motor racing heritage and achievements in all the various categories and formulas: This museum also traces the Ferrari History back to 1947 when Enzo Ferrari broke away from Alfa Romeo to set up his own factory in Maranello. His ambition was to contest the new F1 world championships commencing in 1950.

1sr Ferrari Race Car 1947

His first racing car, produced in 1947, was the Ferrari 125S, and was also the first car to use their well known logo, “the Prancing Horse” (see below), Enzo was quoted as saying at the time “A promising failure” this was probably the only failure he ever had! Also on display was his first production

1947 production car 166 Aerlux

car, the Ferrari 166 Aerlux.
The first “Grand Prix” that Ferrari won was the Silverstone Grand Prix held on the 14th May, 1951 (driver: Froilán

Ferrari P166 1st Ferrari winner 1951

Ascari’s 1952/53 World Championship winning car

González) and this was followed by the first Driver’s world championship in 1952 (driver: Albert Ascari) and again in ’53 with the same driver. Their winning habits continued, to date they have won (up ‘till this year’s Belgium Grand Prix) 219 Grand Prix races out of the total of 849 (26%) that have been held over the 60 intervening years; not to mention the countless Le Mans, Daytona 500’s and various other formulae wins.
In addition to the largest collection of Ferrari cars in the world (as you would expect!!) there was the “Timossi – Ferrari Arno X1”, this was the Hydroplane built in the 1950’s, powered by the same 4.5litre V12 engine that powered the 375 F1 car that one their first Grand Prix at the Silverstone track in 1951. This boat actually broke the World Speed Record for its class (150.19 MPH) in 1953.
This was a superb visit, for apart from the numerous cars there was very old film footage of by-gone motor racing at various venues. When one watches the Grand Prix of to-day on the TV, we forget where Motor Racing has come from. The horrific accidents that took place causing death and serious injuries to both Drivers and Spectators; this was a regular occurrence at race meetings, totally un-acceptable in to-days climate of health and safety!!!!!!!!!!! A point to demonstrate the changes are the Crash Hats on display from each of the Ferrari world champions spanning 1951 to 2007.

The Classic Ferrari 250 GTO

Like all Museums, there is never enough time to cover everything in depth however I am very glad I had the opportunity to spend several hours just “drooling”!!!
Both sides, and across the road from the museum were business offering Ferrari test drives, tempted yes, but too expensive!!!!! Also, In the background was the Ferrari test track and the sound of V12’s roaring around was something to behold.
Whilst I was “filling my boots” with Ferrari nostalgia, Christine elected to clean up Rosie and take Sooty and Bella on a long walk. I can’t understand how anybody could pass up the opportunity to view so many wonderful cars, oh well it takes all sorts!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bock to Rosie by Mid Day just as it started to rain (again!). When we arrived in Maranello the previous afternoon we were fortunate to meet an official Ferrari Car Park attendant who told how to “manage (break!) The car park rules” and we parked/slept in the actual Ferrari Museum car park overnight, very handy for the visit next day, and it was free!!!!!

Anyway, we left as soon as I returned heading for Florence where we had identified an Italian Aires close to the city centre. We had thought of stopping in Bologna en route as there is history there as well but decided against it, we can’t do everything.
There are two possible routes to Florence from Maranello; Autostrada or conventional road, now I wanted to go conventional but after a discussion we went Autostrada and thank goodness we did as both routes have to traverse the Galvana mountain range which was very high and very steep. To make things worse, it rained cats and dogs all the way up, across the top, and half way down until we suddenly arrived back into sunshine.
Arrived in Florence, fighting our way through typical Italian City
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Traffic where the mighty “rule” and the timid get “left behind”, found our Aires only to find the barrier was down and no-one around to show us what to do or how to get in. After searching to no avail we decided to reverse back out of the entrance (into a busy road!!) and move on towards Pisa only to find for some Italian Car Driver stopped right behind us hooting his horn. Anyway this driver obviously had the necessary zapper as the barrier suddenly lifted so in we went. After circumnavigating the site we decided it was obviously not for us, insufficient room, so back to the exit barrier. We were hoping it would lift, and low and behold it did, so we were on our way again, this time heading to Pisa.
We left Florence for Pisa, (maybe return on our next sortie into Italy), back through the city traffic, onto the Autostrada and “wham”, full stop: Traffic everywhere until the local “fuzz” set up a diversion and we filtered around a “Spaghetti Junction” look-alike, wound our way past a service station that we couldn’t access, juggled to force our way from 5 lanes of traffic into 2 then eventually arriving back at the toll booths we entered the Autostrada through about 2 hours earlier, and had to pay €1.60 for the privilege, huh!!!!!!!!!!! By this time we were both ravenous so we stopped in a service station and enjoyed a Spaghetti Bolognaise waiting for the traffic to subside.
Looking across to the other side of the road, the traffic looked to have cleared as it was moving fast so we were off again. Of course to get to the other side of the duel carriageway, we had to foray back into Florence! Back on the Autostrada and through the toll booths for the second time and wham, wall to wall traffic, again and back to fighting for gaps as before, 5 lanes filtered down into 2!! Still we accomplished that and about 30 minutes later we were flying having past the remnants of an accident where by now the only tell tale were several huge 1 ton rolls of paper parked on the side on the road.

Tom-Tom did its job and we arrived right outside the camp site as planned about 1800hrs, booked in, parked up and straight out with Sooty and Bella to search for this leaning tower. Our original plan was to probably stop for 3 nights but learnt that their published tariff, €16, was just the starting point, we had to add on; per person, per dog; trailer etc etc., so rather than being ripped off we decided to leave the following day after we had done what we needed to be done in Pisa the following morning.
Back to the Camp site, a quick game of crib, shower and bed, ready for an early start visiting the various sites thenext day.

The Prancing Horse logo was granted to Enzo Ferrari from the family of an Italian Fighter “Ace” killed in the First World War, it always adorned his fighter ‘planes.

Registrar booked, Hotel booked, just need to do invites now, we are, all being well, getting Married on the 7th April 2013 at 4pm, we are so lucky, with Andrew giving us the venue etc., we are both getting so excited.

Having spent a lot of time on internet, we are leaving the camp site near Venice  tomorrow, and heading for the Farari Museum, needless to say Geoff is going on his own!

We have had a lovely time here, especially in Venice, and now looking forward to seeing Piza, we will probably not be on internet for some days, but we will be back.