Sad to leave Milan today, a nice place to settle into
Italy. On the road to La Spezia through
Parma. Drove mainly along the
Autostrade. In doing this I have learnt a
lot about Italian drivers and the possible existence of road rules. Briefly –
(a)
the posted speed limit is actually the minimum speed, for instance – if
it is posted as 100km/h – everyone has to do 100 – getting to 150km/h will give
you bonus points.
(b) lane lines are
guides only and should not be used to direct your vehicle along the lines – you
can earn bonus points if you drift across lane lines more the 20 times per
kilometre.
(c) give way signs and stop signs are there as to test everyone’s
ability to race through an intersection – bonus points can be earned if you can
get between 3 mopeds without losing paint.
(d) indicating any direction change is unlawful and all indicators have been disconnected.
In the end we made it – Kate did get me lost once, she was
telling me something and the map indicated another thing. In other words she gave me missed messages –
I know – a woman would never do that – one for the record books I’d say. Suffice to say we went 30 kilometres out of
our way and had a lovely drive.
Driving south we went through lots of rain, not that it
mattered too much, for about 100 kilometres there were tunnels along the way,
the longest about 2.5 kilometres and lots of others more than a kilometre. Pams fear of tunnels has subsided.
Got to our accommodation in La Spezia (the sun made a
welcome appearance about 20 minutes before we arrived) – I hadn’t told Pam it was in an old hilltop
farm house, it was just a little more ‘hilltop’ than Pam would have wanted and
the road up tested the nerves. All well
though, we dropped our bags off and went off to Portovenere.
Beautiful harbour with an old fort and lots
of colourful houses. Bought a beer and
wine and they supplied a stack of chips/olives/nibbles. We had planned to have some fish and chips
for tea…..no such luck after we finished the bowls!!
Got back to the room before dark….one of Pam's specific
instructions, relaxing now and planning another busy day for tomorrow.
Our Milan motel, sorry to leave. |
Pam checking out the Parma city centre. |
Our hilltop accommodation at La Spezia. |
Pam in the pergola, the window of our room is just behind the light shade in the centre. |
Our first 'selfy' at Portovenere. |
Arches at Portovenere. |
Pam watching from the cliff top down on swimmers at the rocks. |
Harbour at Portovenere. |
The reason we haven't needed tea each night - 10 euro for drinks and a free plate of food. |
Panorama of the La Spezia harbour. |
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