Saturday 11 October 2014

The Caravan Club The Riviera Touch Grand Tour 2014 update

Its so hard to keep this blog up to date. Anyone who says that they have been bored on this Tour is a liar! I'm not even sure what day of the week it is never mind where the hell I am! I will have to get the itinerary to tell you where I've been and what we be been up to!
The Last time that I blogged we were at camping Roma Flash. A campsite that is one of my favourites overlooking Italy's eighth largest lakes. The water was still 26 degrees. The views are just to die for
This pic was taken from my caravan door watching the world wake up!

This  lovely bar area is the scene of our barbecue and sing song. What a way to start the day.
From here we visited Rome. Each time I visit Rome I get more and more disappointed. I find it ridiculously expensive,dirty and disappointing. 4 euros for a cup of coffee in a budget cafe! It isn't a working city. Its simply a tourist destination. I can't even say it has the wow factor. I can't help but compare it to York and I know which gets my vote any day as the most beautiful and well preserved Roman City.I failed to be impressed before with the Tivoli fountains but even worse this time as they were being renovated and all you could see was scaffolding but still the Japanese took pictures!
We left camping Roma Flash after we had a surprise meal out which was superb. None of us wanted to leave this site or area as it is simply stunning.
We arrived at Orbetello Camping Village and the site was very Italian with very small pitches. How could anywhere compare to Roma Flash though?!
The following day we had a boat trip to Giglio Island and..another meal! Wow what a day. As we approached Giglio we could see where the cruise ship the Concordia sank. What was that captain thinking of?! Quite sobering. 




We then went to the castle on the top of the island with our fantastic tour guides and then a meal in a restaurant before the boat back..



It all got too much for one of our group
What could possibly go wrong?.......



Our group was suddenly surrounded late at night by real Irish gypsies! This was shortly followed by a visit from the local Police! I was able to make a quick call to the Caravan Club and we all moved to the next site early. Its not the fact that they were there but they were up to no good,wandering around our pitches in the early hours, car alarms going off so off we went to the next site..ahh bliss!
Norcenni Girasole Club was just heaven when we got there. I was last away and somehow found a different route to everyone else. The road got narrower and steeper..I kept going..cyclists took pictures of each other ,each hill that they had successfully climbed but the best picture of all would have been when they saw us and our caravan..we had just successfully climbed a 15 in one! Yes ..in second gear at that! I must admit I don't recommend that route! Dave started laughing. I snapped 'I don't know why you're laughing. I'm poo pooling myself here and I'm driving!" The site is huge with everything that you could want set in the heart of Tuscany just please check the route! It has 9 swimming pools and superb restaurants, shops etc. I actually think its the biggest site in Europe.



The new Hull City football team or the Caravan Clubs star players?.....
Yes just for a change we gate crashed another party and showed the youngsters how to do it! I even managed 'the twist' and the 'moonwalk' I wasn't being shown up by some thirty something lass ( don't tell anyone that I couldn't walk the next day!)
From here we went wine tasting. ( doesn't the Club think we be tasted enough already?!) 
We were sorry to leave this site. Lovely but onward we must go to camping Rapallo.
I think this site wasn't helped by the rain and some members of the group forgetting that they weren't in the UK! This was in total contrast to some we had left and in my opinion was TRUE Italian. It was very rustic but very clean with a little bar. Land is scarce for building/camping in the Genoa area so to find a campsite at all was something of a miracle. We had a lovely meal in a restaurant within walking distance of the campsite as well as a supermarket but oh boy did it rain?! 1 metres worth in one day! Some of our group turned out for the trip to Genoa and showed the true camping spirit


I must admit they did look strange particularly when the sun came out! Anyhow Genoa was an interesting place 

It didn't even stop for us to eat our lunch!



It thundered and lightened all through the night. We were all awake since 3am. The Club made an excellent decision to move us ahead quicker than planned to the French Riviera. Oh boy was I frightened driving?! Even the tunnels were flooding! As we approached France it dried up and the sun came out! Hallelujah! I have just heard that 4 were killed in the Genoa region and there has been untold damage as the river broke its banks!

So we arrived near Antibes last night in sunshine but guess what it did this morning A storm but nothing like Italy's. Its drying up now so its time to visit some old haunts...how I am looking forward to Antibes. I think I might just join a boating club!










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