Bella Italia and a bit more France!

Ciao la mia bella amici.  Spero che questo blog trova a tutti voi bene e amare la tempo bello si hanno attualmente!

Well here we are at last in the land of la dolce vita!  Arrived here from Provence, via Antibes a couple of days ago.  Having both boys birthdays back to back (and still chastising myself for going on that tram journey 4 years ago!) we had a pretty full on couple of days.  Ben’s birthday was action packed (he had it all planned on an itinerary) and we went from bouncy castle, to tennis (where the winner won a can of diet coke!!!), football where we all got a bit hot and red-faced and finally a cool dip in the pool.  Even Kev braved the elements for a quick dip wearing the obligatory speedos (well in his case a pair of more modest ‘Daniel Craig’ trunks.  A burger tea went down extremely well and as for the Betty Crocker, well Oeteker gateau, it was surprisingly delicious, topped off with a smothering of dark chocolate, smarties and buttons.

Some 12 hours later and we were doing it all over again, but this time it was Tom Tom’s big day.  Fortunately there wasn’t an itinerary for day 2 so with Tom’s consent we headed over to the Lac de St Croix, at the edge of the  Verdon Gorge and re-visited Moustiere a beautiful spa town nestling at the foot of a warm Provencall hillside. 

It was a baking hot day and as usual we had set off later than we should have, and in doing so had not given ourselves quite enough time to get to Moustiere, find a nice restaurant for a birthday treat and enjoy!  The roads are steep and twisty (many lacets) so by the time we’d arrived, parked in the free car park at the bottom of the hill, stopped several times to tip stones out of crocs and sandals it was just before the unofficial end of France’s temps de dejeuner. 

Some 10 years ago we’d experienced a fabulous steak frites at a simple little cafe in one of Moustiere’s many stone squares; how hard would it be to re-find this gem? 

Half an hour later, having dragged the children up and down countless steps and through alleyways with shops selling gorgeous provencal goodies recessed deep in cool dark caverns we still hadn’t found nivarna and time was running out.  We passed a cafe selling predominantly pizzas but the steak-frites the biker boys were manging looked good so we sat down and persuaded the marie that he really would like to feed us.

I know it wasn’t the moule-frites Ben had been promised for his birthday or the spaghetti Bolognese that Tom wanted but we were sure it’d be just fine, especially when they had a dish with mussels, squid and white fish which I said i would share with Ben.  (Talk about taking one for the team!)

Disappointing wasn’t the word!  I tried to be brave but couldn’t muster a happy Mummy smile as my delicious light fish dish arrived caked in thick, undercooked batter. It all disappeared with the help of my youngest son, but next time 1. Don’t try and recreate an experience 2. Don’t be late for lunch in France and 3. Don’t take one for the team!!!!

We went on to have a fantastic 5-seated pedalo trip on lac de St Croix where everyone took it in turn to pedal, steer and lounge off the back of said pedalo, marvel at the way the water had gouged through the rock sides, creating sheer walls of stone, huge caverns and waterfalls (oh no that was just me) but all agreed it was magnificent and the children particularly loved Daddy steering them into the spray of the couple of waterfalls that fell directly into the river. 

The journey became even more exciting as we paddled back to base and a low rumble of thunder was heard and dark clouds started to gather in the distance, then a flash of lightning, another rumble, another flash.  Excitement turned to focus as Kev and I took charge of the pedalling as the children shouted words of encouragement and squeals of ‘go faster, go faster.’

Back on terra firma we all felt much happier and with such a tale to tell, of near certain death!

Another birthday finished with another delicious cake, this time chocolate and vanilla marble- styley c/o Oeteker.  Not bad, not bad, particularly when smothered in nutella, chocolate buttons and smarties.

We waved good bye to Provence on 4^th June after a day of packing up camp, route-planning and a small amount of relaxing poolside!  Having decided to break our journey to Italy half-way we had a stop over in Antibes.  The site was clean but rather basic (the loos were as i imagine Roman stalls! Ames and I weren’t the least impressed, but the boys thought the urinals excellent and insisted on showing them to us, particularly the corner ones!?!) 

We seemed to miss the beautiful palm-lined boulevards of Antibes that afternoon as we only ventured onto the pebbly beach opposite the site (Tom and Ben were banned from stone-throwing into the Med after several wayward throws!).  We did manage to navigate the beautiful tree-lined roads up in the hills above the town as we searched out a Lidl and Decathalon but perhaps didn’t quite grasp all the pearl of the south had to show us!

Having been fleeced E36 for a one night stop-over (Kev had suggested we manage without electric hook-up and he was right!!) we limped off site into the bright Mediterranean sunshine, on-coming traffic and a nose for pastures new – Italia!

Having checked the routes (we were now using the truckers guide of Sat Nav!) to ensure that are under-powered car and over-weighted van could cope with the terrain, we had decided to auto-route our way to Emiglia-Romana in northern Italy and the town of Ameglia.

I don’t mean to sound ignorant and as you know I do hold a geography degree, but northern Italy is mountainous and I don’t mean a bit, I mean REALLY mountainous.  Fortunately the autoroute took us ‘through’ the mountains, tunnel after tunnel after tunnel (not good for my claustrophobia!) but the scenery was amazing.  Precipitous hillsides, mostly terraced, many with greenhouses; deep gorges down to the Med, tiny tumbled down farmhouses, beautiful villas with stunning gardens but over-looking the auto-route.  Life continued all around with this whacking great lump of tarmac carving its way through. 

We stopped at one point for a quick picnic lunch and a loo break, and yes girls, it happened, my first Italian wink!  Yes I was surrounded by my 3 children but it happened, and I’d only been in the country an hour!

We reached Ameglia and River Camping, whose strap-line by the by is “Here everyone has fun”!!  It is a lovely site, great pool (although we all have to swimming caps, mmm nice!) and super play park with a pirate ship, zip-wire......

Today we headed, again rather belatedly, to Pisa.  Long, hot journey but interesting.  It’s quite industrialised along this coast.  The snow that I thought covered the top-most of the mountains turns out to be quarried marble and huge slabs of it lie in shop fronts and yards along the road side.  We went through a town where the road was lined with orange trees (fully formed fruits growing on them).  Pisa itself was busy but we managed to park away from the throng and stroll along the river before turning up towards the square housing the domo and tower.  I loved looking at the buildings; huge wooden doors with ornate brass handles, a shuttered window slightly ajar, the small bricks that made up many of the walls, a worn boot scraper.....

We took the obligatory photos, Ben holding up the tower against his back, Amy with her hands, Tom with his feet! 

Amy got her photo taken with a Japanese lady, Tom said it was because “Amy was lovely”.  Finished the trip with a gelato before heading off back up the coast.

Tomorrow is swimming (in the new caps bought from Decathalon) and beach.  Ah La Dolce Vita!!!!  Buonanotte.  xx