Italy 2026

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• Mon 29th Dec
  Left Brighton last night, and spent the night in a pub car park, The Farriers Arms, at Ashford. Very early start this morning to the Chunnell, and found it absolutely packed. Couldn’t get an earlier train than the 9.20 we had booked, and the trains were over an hour late. Finally arrived in France at 11.00 am, (12.00 French time). Decided that we no longer had time for our planned drive to Chatres, so stopped at Pont de L’Arche, a free aire at this time of the year, in an attractive medieval village. The delights of Chatres bio shop put off until tomorrow!
• Tue 30th Dec
  Completed our drive to Chartres, via filling up the mysterious AdBlue, and the very necessary autogas. After raiding the Bio shop, decided to spend the night here.
  On a cold but sunny afternoon, walked into the town centre, which boasts an enormous church, and a huge cathedral, just a few minutes walk from each other.
  The church, with a fine array of flying buttresses.
  

  

  The inside was cavernous and a little dilapidated.
  

• The Cathedral
  One of the many entrances.
  

  The inside was dominated by a huge rood screen, quite magnificently carved in stone.
  

  

  And, many stained glass windows, showed off well in the low January sunlight.
  

  

• Wed 31st Dec
  Another cold cloudless day. A day of driving south, directly into the very low, very bright, sun. Temperature started at minus three degrees this morning, and by midday rose to one degree. Writing this in the evening, as the temperature drops again.
  Drove to a “CamplngCarPark” site, an extensive chain of sites throughout France, unmanned but reasonably priced, open all year, and has basic services, water, emptying, and electricity. We are now at Sancoins, just SW of Nevers. I was hoping to make a scenic crossing over the Alps, and although the forecast is for clear sunny weather, the forecast temperatures are really low, so we will be boring and cross into Italy along the mediterranean coast. Too built up, and too difficult to park near anything interesting. But considerably warmer.

  

  Our parking for the night, adjacent to a canal. We thought the water looked very still, and a handy stone confirmed it is frozen over, and that was at 3.00pm!

• Thu 1st Jan
  Minus 6 degrees this morning, and another drive south directly into the low sun. I selected an aire not too far from Grenoble. Once we reached Grenoble, with 14 kms to go, the road turned vertiginously upwards, and just kept going up. Now parked up, large parking area, and at an altitude of 3,300 feet.
  Surrounded by impressive snow capped mountains, unfortunately obscured by hills at our parking.

  

• Fri 2nd Jan
  Minus 10 degrees this morning. But windless and sunny. In fact, have hardly seen a cloud since we started, and no rain. Hope I’m not tempting fate…….
  Drove to Briançon along a dramatic valley, with towering mountains either side of us.
  A scenic lunch stop just before Briançon.

  

  Have become very confused over names of passes over the Alps. Twice we have crossed from Italy to France via Coll de Madelaine, but when we have asked google if it is open, we get somewhere well away from the border. Our Mitchelin map has it firmly shown where we expect it to be. We are now parked up in a tiny village called Guillestre, to head for an Alpine pass of uncertain name, possibly “Ouvert”.

  

• Sat 3rd Jan
  Another remarkably clear day, perfect for the Alps crossing. A long steep drive to the Coll de Larche.
  

  The view from the summit. A lot of walkers and skiers around. From there, very down until steep climb to Coll de Vars. We well remembered this from our previous crossings, which we had always known as Coll de Madelaine. Very confused by these names, but a very enjoyable drive, from which we descended to Cuneo in Italy.
  Sue felt tired, so Josie and I went for a walk into “Centro Historico”, although google search had suggested a not very interesting town, and so it turned out.
  Very wide main street, car free, with covered walkways either side, and lots of shops. Display boards (Italian only) indicated one section constructed in 1710, and further on constructed in 1760.
  The road led to a very large square.

  

  The square.

• Sun 4th Jan
  Started well enough, decided to drive to Savona, on the coast, avoiding the paege toll road. About 20 kms away, the satnav took us on a narrow twisting and very slow road, not interesting, and I’m sure not the best way.
  As expected, very busy, very built up, very difficult in such a big vehicle. The sosta camper was a fenced concreted plot adjacent to the main road, not at all attractive. We had thought of exploring Savona, but decided against. The whole stretch of coast from the French border to beyond Genoa has very few opportunities for motorhomes, so we decided to move on. Took the motorway to beyond Genoa, and it must be a contender for the worlds must unpleasant motorway.
  I had selected an Agritourisme site, a farm, which looked rural, and convenient. Some way away, we were shunted onto a narrow and very steep twisting road, which had Sue squealing. Finally made it to within a few hundred yards of our destination, to be met with a makeshift barrier. What a fiasco!

  Fortunately, there is a parking area.
  

  So, here we are for the night. Certainly quiet, if not very salubrious.
  Having trouble with internet since entering Italy, in house router not working, so having to hotspot, frustratingly slow. Also, google maps and organic maps fail to locate us, I’m sure they use GPS, but fortunately satnav doesn’t have a problem. I don’t understand.
  And, the altitude app, which definitely does use GPS, also doesn’t work.
  Maybe its Russian sabotage.
  Tomorrow is the hunt for autogas, which is a problem in northern Italy, often refused, but not a problem further south. Tuesday is a public holiday in Italy, so autogas will not be available, and we rely on it for heating. Last filled up just before we left France.

• Mon 5th Jan
  Left our impromptu parking, fortunately by a less hair raising road than the one there, but still wound slowly round many tree covered crags, with a constant backdrop of snow covered mountains, the Apennines I presume. Eventually dropped down to lower level, and the first garage we encountered filled up with autogas. Now below the Italian silly belt, so hopefully will no longer be a problem. So, to celebrate, we found a launderette, and did the washing.
  Now parked up in Lucca.
• Tue 6th Jan
  As today is a public holiday, decided to continue pushing south, so a long drive to Massa Marittima, a surprisingly large hilltop town.
  Found on the news that just north of us had a heavy snow fall, and Rome, south of us, had torrential rain. We were blissfully oblivious of this, just rather cold.
  We walked, rather upply, to the Cathedral di San Cerbone, and the nearby Fonti Dell’Abbondanze. (Fountain of abundance).
  The cathedral was built in the early 1200’s, and looked little altered since.
  

  The Fonti, a well supplying water for the town, has a fresco painted around 1265, depicting the tree of fertility.
  

  The information board rather demurely describes the tree as having fertility symbols hanging from its branches. A detailed close up of said fertility symbols.
  

  A view across the main piazza, taken from the cathedral steps.
  

  An interesting looking facade on one of the buildings, now a museum and tourist office.
  

  No information about these plaques and heraldic symbols.

• A downhill day.
  Another long drive to just south of Rome, Pomezia. Had a text message telling me my EU data on my sim was about to expire. We use 1p, and buy a data only “bundle”, which lasts 30 days, but it seems that in the last year, the amount of data allowable has been restricted to 14mb, so that purchase was a waste of money. All because of that despicable Farrage, and brexit.
  So, we found a sim selling shop, and some very helpful English speaking staff, and bought an Italian sim. Which didn’t work. Back to the shop, and the pooled resources of four of the shop workers, and two hours later it is working. And I thought computer ineptitude was unique to me. And Sue.
  But have now found, something I have heard about, that it will not allow hotspotting, and routering, so can only be used on one device, so only half useful. Seems I need to get a sim as well, and my new ipad will only take an e-sim.
  Cannot face attempting that at the moment.
  All this meant it was all rather late in the day, so we are moored up in a “Centre Commercial”, i.e. a concrete and tarmac wasteland surrounded by roads.
  Not a high point!
• And then it got worse….
  Went to get the laptop computer out of its cupboard, and it wasn’t there. After being accused of putting it in the wrong place, had to finally admit it had gone. And, whilst looking for it, found that a purse we use to put items we don’t need – english money, some credit and debit cards – had also gone. A check round the vehicle showed no signs of damage or a breakin.
  And then, a check on our bank account showed half a dozen small value transactions, all pending.
  Spent most of the morning stopping credit and debit cards, and whilst doing this realised the enormity of losing the laptop, especially our accounts, kept on a system from the 1990s. So, no cloudy backup. Manually backed up before we left Brighton.
  Decided we just have to return to Brighton, and sort things out.
  Hopefully.
  And, just as we had arrived far enough south to find a warm sunny day.
  Will be back in a few days, lots of driving.
  Worrying end to a much anticipated, but now truncated holiday.
  We think the most likely thing that happened, is when we went into the mobile phone shop yesterday, we forgot to lock the vehicle, and some chancers got lucky. Unfortunately for us, they opened the right cupboards, pity they didn’t make off with my underpants.
• Snow
  Tea break, near Grenoble.

  

• Snow
  Tea break, near Grenoble.

  

• Nevers Cathedral
  

  

  

  Disappointing inside, although of 50% blocked off, presumably restoration work.

  The Ducal Palace, not open to the public, but offices.
  

2026 Italy

Click HERE to jump to LAST post

• Mon 29th Dec
  Left Brighton last night, and spent the night in a pub car park, The Farriers Arms, at Ashford. Very early start this morning to the Chunnell, and found it absolutely packed. Couldn’t get an earlier train than the 9.20 we had booked, and the trains were over an hour late. Finally arrived in France at 11.00 am, (12.00 French time). Decided that we no longer had time for our planned drive to Chatres, so stopped at Pont de L’Arche, a free aire at this time of the year, in an attractive medieval village. The delights of Chatres bio shop put off until tomorrow!
• Tue 30th Dec
  Completed our drive to Chartres, via filling up the mysterious AdBlue, and the very necessary autogas. After raiding the Bio shop, decided to spend the night here.
  On a cold but sunny afternoon, walked into the town centre, which boasts an enormous church, and a huge cathedral, just a few minutes walk from each other.
  The church, with a fine array of flying buttresses.
  

  

  The inside was cavernous and a little dilapidated.
  

• The Cathedral
  One of the many entrances.
  

  The inside was dominated by a huge rood screen, quite magnificently carved in stone.
  

  

  And, many stained glass windows, showed off well in the low January sunlight.
  

  

• Wed 31st Dec
  Another cold cloudless day. A day of driving south, directly into the very low, very bright, sun. Temperature started at minus three degrees this morning, and by midday rose to one degree. Writing this in the evening, as the temperature drops again.
  Drove to a “CamplngCarPark” site, an extensive chain of sites throughout France, unmanned but reasonably priced, open all year, and has basic services, water, emptying, and electricity. We are now at Sancoins, just SW of Nevers. I was hoping to make a scenic crossing over the Alps, and although the forecast is for clear sunny weather, the forecast temperatures are really low, so we will be boring and cross into Italy along the mediterranean coast. Too built up, and too difficult to park near anything interesting. But considerably warmer.

  

  Our parking for the night, adjacent to a canal. We thought the water looked very still, and a handy stone confirmed it is frozen over, and that was at 3.00pm!

• Thu 1st Jan
  Minus 6 degrees this morning, and another drive south directly into the low sun. I selected an aire not too far from Grenoble. Once we reached Grenoble, with 14 kms to go, the road turned vertiginously upwards, and just kept going up. Now parked up, large parking area, and at an altitude of 3,300 feet.
  Surrounded by impressive snow capped mountains, unfortunately obscured by hills at our parking.

  

• Fri 2nd Jan
  Minus 10 degrees this morning. But windless and sunny. In fact, have hardly seen a cloud since we started, and no rain. Hope I’m not tempting fate…….
  Drove to Briançon along a dramatic valley, with towering mountains either side of us.
  A scenic lunch stop just before Briançon.

  

  Have become very confused over names of passes over the Alps. Twice we have crossed from Italy to France via Coll de Madelaine, but when we have asked google if it is open, we get somewhere well away from the border. Our Mitchelin map has it firmly shown where we expect it to be. We are now parked up in a tiny village called Guillestre, to head for an Alpine pass of uncertain name, possibly “Ouvert”.

  

• Sat 3rd Jan
  Another remarkably clear day, perfect for the Alps crossing. A long steep drive to the Coll de Larche.
  

  The view from the summit. A lot of walkers and skiers around. From there, very down until steep climb to Coll de Vars. We well remembered this from our previous crossings, which we had always known as Coll de Madelaine. Very confused by these names, but a very enjoyable drive, from which we descended to Cuneo in Italy.
  Sue felt tired, so Josie and I went for a walk into “Centro Historico”, although google search had suggested a not very interesting town, and so it turned out.
  Very wide main street, car free, with covered walkways either side, and lots of shops. Display boards (Italian only) indicated one section constructed in 1710, and further on constructed in 1760.
  The road led to a very large square.

  

  The square.

• Sun 4th Jan
  Started well enough, decided to drive to Savona, on the coast, avoiding the paege toll road. About 20 kms away, the satnav took us on a narrow twisting and very slow road, not interesting, and I’m sure not the best way.
  As expected, very busy, very built up, very difficult in such a big vehicle. The sosta camper was a fenced concreted plot adjacent to the main road, not at all attractive. We had thought of exploring Savona, but decided against. The whole stretch of coast from the French border to beyond Genoa has very few opportunities for motorhomes, so we decided to move on. Took the motorway to beyond Genoa, and it must be a contender for the worlds must unpleasant motorway.
  I had selected an Agritourisme site, a farm, which looked rural, and convenient. Some way away, we were shunted onto a narrow and very steep twisting road, which had Sue squealing. Finally made it to within a few hundred yards of our destination, to be met with a makeshift barrier. What a fiasco!

  Fortunately, there is a parking area.
  

  So, here we are for the night. Certainly quiet, if not very salubrious.
  Having trouble with internet since entering Italy, in house router not working, so having to hotspot, frustratingly slow. Also, google maps and organic maps fail to locate us, I’m sure they use GPS, but fortunately satnav doesn’t have a problem. I don’t understand.
  And, the altitude app, which definitely does use GPS, also doesn’t work.
  Maybe its Russian sabotage.
  Tomorrow is the hunt for autogas, which is a problem in northern Italy, often refused, but not a problem further south. Tuesday is a public holiday in Italy, so autogas will not be available, and we rely on it for heating. Last filled up just before we left France.

• Mon 5th Jan
  Left our impromptu parking, fortunately by a less hair raising road than the one there, but still wound slowly round many tree covered crags, with a constant backdrop of snow covered mountains, the Apennines I presume. Eventually dropped down to lower level, and the first garage we encountered filled up with autogas. Now below the Italian silly belt, so hopefully will no longer be a problem. So, to celebrate, we found a launderette, and did the washing.
  Now parked up in Lucca.
• Tue 6th Jan
  As today is a public holiday, decided to continue pushing south, so a long drive to Massa Marittima, a surprisingly large hilltop town.
  Found on the news that just north of us had a heavy snow fall, and Rome, south of us, had torrential rain. We were blissfully oblivious of this, just rather cold.
  We walked, rather upply, to the Cathedral di San Cerbone, and the nearby Fonti Dell’Abbondanze. (Fountain of abundance).
  The cathedral was built in the early 1200’s, and looked little altered since.
  

  The Fonti, a well supplying water for the town, has a fresco painted around 1265, depicting the tree of fertility.
  

  The information board rather demurely describes the tree as having fertility symbols hanging from its branches. A detailed close up of said fertility symbols.
  

  A view across the main piazza, taken from the cathedral steps.
  

  An interesting looking facade on one of the buildings, now a museum and tourist office.
  

  No information about these plaques and heraldic symbols.

• A downhill day.
  Another long drive to just south of Rome, Pomezia. Had a text message telling me my EU data on my sim was about to expire. We use 1p, and buy a data only “bundle”, which lasts 30 days, but it seems that in the last year, the amount of data allowable has been restricted to 14mb, so that purchase was a waste of money. All because of that despicable Farrage, and brexit.
  So, we found a sim selling shop, and some very helpful English speaking staff, and bought an Italian sim. Which didn’t work. Back to the shop, and the pooled resources of four of the shop workers, and two hours later it is working. And I thought computer ineptitude was unique to me. And Sue.
  But have now found, something I have heard about, that it will not allow hotspotting, and routering, so can only be used on one device, so only half useful. Seems I need to get a sim as well, and my new ipad will only take an e-sim.
  Cannot face attempting that at the moment.
  All this meant it was all rather late in the day, so we are moored up in a “Centre Commercial”, i.e. a concrete and tarmac wasteland surrounded by roads.
  Not a high point!
• And then it got worse….
  Went to get the laptop computer out of its cupboard, and it wasn’t there. After being accused of putting it in the wrong place, had to finally admit it had gone. And, whilst looking for it, found that a purse we use to put items we don’t need – english money, some credit and debit cards – had also gone. A check round the vehicle showed no signs of damage or a breakin.
  And then, a check on our bank account showed half a dozen small value transactions, all pending.
  Spent most of the morning stopping credit and debit cards, and whilst doing this realised the enormity of losing the laptop, especially our accounts, kept on a system from the 1990s. So, no cloudy backup. Manually backed up before we left Brighton.
  Decided we just have to return to Brighton, and sort things out.
  Hopefully.
  And, just as we had arrived far enough south to find a warm sunny day.
  Will be back in a few days, lots of driving.
  Worrying end to a much anticipated, but now truncated holiday.
  We think the most likely thing that happened, is when we went into the mobile phone shop yesterday, we forgot to lock the vehicle, and some chancers got lucky. Unfortunately for us, they opened the right cupboards, pity they didn’t make off with my underpants.
• Snow
  Tea break, near Grenoble.

  

• Snow
  Tea break, near Grenoble.

  

• Nevers Cathedral
  

  

  

  Disappointing inside, although of 50% blocked off, presumably restoration work.

  The Ducal Palace, not open to the public, but offices.