Strolling around Ferrara

We travelled to Ferrara today with Marilena's sister and a friend. It's another medieval town with a grand palazzo in the centre. Well preserved are long narrow lanes lined with shops and the city walls - both of which run for kilometres. On a Sunday afternoon the whole town seemed to be out for a stroll - young families, elderly couples hand in hand and youngsters tearing round on push-bikes. I guess that's one of the advantages about having a well preserved city centre - it draws people into it (unlike many of our own town centres which are sadly lacking in interest).

My back is improving well so we're likely to be off again soon on our travels. We're thinking of heading north towards Bergamo to see some of the northern towns before it gets too cold to do so comfortably; already the early mornings here in Mirandola are quite fresh (rather like at home at this time of the year).

Walk around central Bologna

After a week resting at Luisella's to give my back a chance to recover, I took my first outing to Bologna - 40 minutes away on the train from Mirandola where we're staying. (Marilena, it should be said has been going out every day with her sister) ;-) What a marvellous jewel the city turned out to be! Not unlike Turin, Bologna is not a specially popular venue for those touring Italy; but they're missing a lot.

Garisenda and Asinelli towers. Towers are in evidence all over the centre of town.
The two in the photo are the best known - but others  (less dramatic) pop up all over.

Bologna is very old indeed and everywhere we went we found ourselves gaping at one extraordinary building after another. It's rather as if someone has laid a medieval town on top of a modern city (or should that be the other way round?). Extraordinary.
The city is famous for its porticoes and its towers. We walked around for around six hours or so - with a couple of breaks for lunch and a coffee. Much of that time was spent walking through porticoes - they go on and on. And of course they provided excellent shade on a sunny day. Most of the porticoes are lined with shops and unlike the UK there were few chain stores which made for more interesting window shopping.

We walked along kilometres of porticoes like these.

Bologna is situated in Emiglia Romagna, Italy's bread basket. And the shops
displayed plenty of examples of local produce.The photo shows Parma ham in a grocer's.

Breads are delicious here - we had flat bread with our lunch. Mmm.

As ever, wet fish over here is super fresh and most appealing.

We visited Bologna University - the oldest in Europe.

The town is flat, so unsurprisingly lots of people cycle.

Visiting Turin . . . and leaving in a hurry

John poses in front of the Porta Nuova station.

I'd sometimes heard by other Italians that Turin was a cold, foggy city dirty and full of heavy industry and certainly not worth visiting. It may well be dirty on the outskirts but the centre is outstandingly impressive. The streets are wide and built - unusually for Italy - to a grid system. The buildings are generally very smartly maintained and most are at a common height of around four floors. The result is a kind of architectural coherence which is very pleasing to the eye. Another striking feature of the architecture is the ubiquity of porticoes; very useful for keeping out of the hot sun in summer of course, but they must be equally helpful in the cold winters the city endures. Marilena and I were really impressed with the town.

There's a relaxed feeling to the place in the evening. We noticed this especially whilst strolling down the fashionable via Garibaldi. The locals were out in force: chatting with friends, window-shopping, eating ice creams or walking their tiny (appartment-size) dogs. And everyone seemed to be suntanned and wearing stylish clothes - even the students and children.
It was whilst Marilena and I were eating (delicious) ice-creams in the enormous Piazza del Castello at Turin's centre that unfortunately my back decided to have a seizure. I limped to a public bench and we both sat down and thought about our next move. Challenging, since I was barely mobile any longer. Marilena soon had measures in hand however.
A taxi picked me up at the bench and took us to where our camper was parked at a railway station 20km west of Turin. I climbed carefully into the (fortunately supportive) passenger seat and Marilena drove me to the campsite where she took everything down herself - including the awning - and loaded the van with all our stuff. Then she drove us to her sister's appartment near Bologna 350km away. All this in a matter of a few hours. I am now comfortably installed here at her sister's and starting my recovery. God bless the family; and my capable wife, too!

Food for free . . .

Marilena reaches for a fig.

We camped close to Turin yesterday. And would you believe it, there was a large fig tree right beside us? And it was full of fruit. Wow! We'd to stretch a bit to get at the ripe ones but the effort was well worth it.
During the night we had a couple of wild dry wind 'storms.' They pushed the camper about and threatened to blow down the awning. I'd to go out with a lantern and knock in the holding pegs more securely. Fortunately the awning stayed put and our stuff inside was fine. But I've never encountered such a fierce wind without it being accompanied by sheets of rain; on balance I think I prefer these dry Italian storms. :-)

Mirabelles picked at the side of the road

We've been coming across fruit trees in the mountains from time to time. At the moment these small plums or damsons (mirabelles) are in season. They make a tasty addition to the dessert. I must say, I'm warming to this idea of foraging - it's fun, as well as being delicious.

Good air and a typical French reception

A lively stream runs down beside our camp site.

In our present location we are surrounded by mountains  high up in the Alps not far from Besançon. The sun is shining and the air is warm and velvety. An absolute delight to breathe in.  We explored the local village this morning; the architecture reflects the weather of the place with broad overhanging roofs to deal effectively with the snow in winter.
There's an air of purpose about the place. We see people dressed for cycling, hiking, rafting and so on. And from time to time minibuses pull up at the entrance to the camp site and groups get in to be wafted somewhere else (for a mountain experience of some kind, I guess). We, on the other hand, leisurely go about our sightseeing - although Marilena took a risky dip in the adjacent outdoor pool this afternoon, despite the thunder and approach of very threatening-looking clouds.
This evening everyone was invited to an aperitif  and a nibble. Very French - and very effective in getting folk talking to each other. We met an interesting couple from Marseille.
Tonight and  tomorrow heavy rain is forecast. We are well protected from the wet. However at the end of the packing the awning will have to come down finally and be packed away - in the pouring rain. Just as well Marilena did the washing today . . .

Mountain driving

For the last few days we've been driving though gorgeous mountains: the departements of la Drome and Hautes-Alpes. The scenery is just getting better and better and the air is like velvet here. Not at all like that shit that passes for air in polluted London. And of course it didn't need to be that way in the capital. Ken Livingstone - for all his faults - wanted to implement a clean air strategy 10 years ago.  But then we had Boris as mayor for 8 years - and we all know what he did about air pollution. Whatever. We're making the best of the clean air - and my asthma is currently in remission. Great!

On the mountain roads we saw lots of fast-flowing rivers and people bathing or paddling in them. Marilena thought they looked most appealing and nothing would do but she had to have her own paddle in a mountain stream Happily we soon found one, pulled over and we had a paddle-a-deux in the bright sunshine. Herself was well pleased.

Coping with unexpected visitors

I hadn't given a thought to insect life before we set off but I suppose that just goes to show how infrequently I spend time out in the natural world. Two days into the trip we began to make the acquaintance of wasps - lots and lots of wasps. At the wasp site we couldn't eat out-of-doors without being surrounded by the pests so we were reduced to eating in the awning. We coped however but had to forgo the pleasures of alfresco dining.

At the next camp site it was beetles - big ones! They entered through floor of the awning at the edges which are not secured. And boy, were they fast runners - we couldn't get near them. Again we'd to adopt a defensive strategy. This time we ate outside the tent And I stacked the crates of our belongings inside the van so they wouldn't become beetle-ridden.

Yesterday our latest infestation was jumping clags (or horse flies) They preferred to scuttle along the awning ground sheet but if I came near they jumped (like fleas) to get out of the way. The whole awning floor was full of them. We'd to move all the crates into the van and stack them on the front seats to avoid infesting our stuff. Again, we ate outside - happily the weather was fine. But before we left the site, I'd to go through every item and shake it to ensure we didn't carry the blighters with us. Phew!

I'm tempted to buy a large shaker of insecticide to use underneath the awning but Marilena won't have it. "The camp site authorities won't allow it," she says. However if this state of affairs carries on . . .