A relatively short drive over to Tuscany and our next location – Camping Semifonte at Barberino Val D’Elsa. We managed to arrive before the 13:00 siesta and it is worth bearing in mind that the Italians still religiously follow this ritual so if you arrive between 13:00 and 15:00 then there’s no-one around to help.
One thing worthy of note on our travels through Italy is that the roads are atrocious. They are in the most shocking state of repair one could imagine. Towing is difficult and even without the caravan, journeys are truly uncomfortable.

The campsite runs its own shuttle-bus to the train station at Deiva Marina which means no driving for the day. It appears that many of the campsites in the locality do the same thing – I’m guessing because parking is an issue near the station.
We had also pre-bought our train tickets from the campsite which was a total of 16 Euros providing us the chance to visit each of the five villages making up Cinque Terre.

The first of the five villages was Monterosso which can be seen in the distance.

 

 

 

Hopping on the train shortly after lunchtime we headed to the second town Vernazza.

 

This town was badly damaged in 2011

following some major

flooding and there’s still work left to fully restore this pristine village.

 

 

Whilst walking up part of the hill behind the village we could see people walking along a very high coastal path we assumed running between the various villages. We asked a local officer of the Polizia how long the walk was from Vernazza to Corniglia – he answered that it was a 1 hour hike. The joke was on us as the hike took nearly 2 hours and was just gruelling. Having said that, I’d like to add that the views from the path were just amazing with the blue sea below and an array of wild flowers around us. The first hour was mainly steps and steep pathway, the last 50 minutes or so were all downhill.

Here is the view of Vernazza shortly after our departure. It got a lot higher than this and we weren’t exactly prepared for the hike.

 

 

We lacked proper walking boots and had insufficient liquids with us. Fortunately at the half way point a chap has his garden open and allowed us to fill our water bottles.

We spent some time looking around Corniglia and then returned to the Campsite two villages short of the five. Fortunately the receptionist at the campsite had told us the first 2 villages were the best so we had “planned” the day appropriately.

The longest drive of the trip so far clocked at around 350 miles. Left Vaison la Romaine around 08:30 and drove until 17:00 with a couple of short breaks. The previous day we had filled the car with Diesel in Vaison at Euro 1.30. Arriving in Italy and it was between 1.60 and 1.70 – so, stock up before leaving France!

This was our first major visit to Italy and we found the people genuinely helpful and friendly. Even teenagers at the local bus stop asked where we were going and ensured we caught the correct bus.

The arrival at Deiva Marina was not as daunting as it looked on the maps but still a very long descent to the campsite at Camping Valdeiva. First impressions were excellent with the Italian staff incredibly friendly and helpful in sorting out a decent pitch and helping us to organise the trip on Day 6 – our one full day on the Italian Riviera.

We had two nights here in Provence allowing a full day to explore Vaison La Romaine. In reality we spent the morning at the supermarket stocking up and then in the afternoon we unloaded the bikes and headed off via the back roads to Vaison la Romaine.

This is the view of the old bridge at the end of our cycle ride. We spent the afternoon exploring the old town including climbing to the old castle, perched right on top of the hill.

 

With more flexibility in our planning we would have stayed a few more days here.

Left Langres at the crack of dawn (well, 08:30 actually) and we are getting much better at packing up and leaving. We now have this down to about an hour and 15 minutes from the alarm sounding! Trust us, that’s a big improvement!

Heading for Vaison la Romaine we had a pleasant 6 hour drive (some 350 miles) before arriving at Camping Soleil du Provence.

Brilliant campsite on the side of a hill with great views of Mount Ventoux. Some German campers advised that we pitch such that the awning faces south (i.e. towards the Campsite reception) due to very strong winds – probably the Mistral.

Nice blend of nationalities including half-a-dozen British outfits.

The site was fantastic at this time of year but is probably heaving at the peak season especially as they have added a new camping field to the front of the site.

Departed the Caravan Club site at 07:30, catching the shuttle at 08:35, 15 minutes earlier than our scheduled departure. The Eurotunnel crossing was quick and un-eventful and whilst our outfit is some 3.1m tall (bikes racked on top of the Sorento) this was not a problem as we were travelling with all of the high vehicles and coaches.

A long drive to Langres of around 300 miles had us at the campsite around 17:00. Since the last time we travelled this route we think the main bottleneck at Reims has been solved with a new ring-road. Either that or our latest satnav has just discovered a new and faster route!

Camping du Lac de la Liez is an old favourite of ours and this time we had a lovely pitch with stunning views across the lake.

The view from our pitch at Lac de la Liez.

The site itself is expanding and doesn’t quite have the kind of personal touch and attention to detail it once had.

The toilet facilities are all relatively new but we have stayed on many family campsites which have much older shower blocks yet manage to keep their facilities much cleaner.

Departure time from North Hampshire was mid-afternoon on a Friday afternoon at the start of the May bank holiday weekend.

Traffic en-route to Folkestone was without major hold-up and preceded an overnight stay at the Caravan Club site – Black Horse farm.

Stopping over this side of the channel felt the right thing to do given we would have a fixed departure time through the tunnel.

The trip would be mainly in Italy and Germany with a few days en-route through France.

This would be our longest caravan adventure to date and the first trip with the new van – our Lunar Quasar (well, Campbells Cosmos actually). This van was towed by our Kia Sorento with ease, just as we had hoped.

Leaving England on Friday 3rd May 2013, mid-afternoon we had a good journey down to Folkestone, all the more pleasing given that this was the start of the May bank holiday weekend.

Every campsite had been pre-planned and booked prior to departure. A bit of a habit since historically we have travelled during the peak summer weeks where all of these sites require advance booking.

I’m not so sure this was entirely necessary this time and only one section of Italy would have resulted in some possibility of encountering a fully booked site. We also lost out on being able to stay longer at some of our in-transit stays. More of that in the detail though.