Overnight torrential rain in Verona. Drove about 200 kms to Ravenna. Stopped for a walk in a nature sanctuary. I was stalked for a little while but then he gave up. Now it was hot and sunny. Tried to find tourist office in Ravenna. The first place turned out to be a museum that was closed. I was wrongly directed to another place and then the third was down narrow alleys and nowhere to park. So I gave up and drove on to San Marino.
I had considered stopping at one of the many campsites along the way but I found the many advertisements for sex shops off putting.
Now it turned to be one of the worst and dangerous drives that I have ever experienced. First you could see the blackest of clouds ahead. Then flashes of lightening and thunder. Then to add to this were hailstones the size of golf balls. I thought the windscreen would break so I pulled over thinking that this could not go on for very long. It was amazingly noisy. it went on with only slightly smaller hailstones. The expressway was covered in hailstones which looked like snow and was as slippery.
I decided to go on if only to get out of this storm. With hazard lights flashing and in 1st gear I went on but now the road was flooded in parts where there were junctions and it was like driving through a river. I really can't believe I got through it all. It went on for nearly an hour. The other strange thing was that there was a mist created by warm temperature and the frozen hailstones.
Anyway am now in a fancy campsite in San Marino. Unfortunately there is a large group of Italian kids shrieking and shouting at 10.30pm. Luckily it has started to pour with rain again so they have had to run for shelter.
Looking forward to exploring San Marino, the oldest republic in the world.