Neither of us slept well last night, not only from the trains running by, but also from a fleet of fishing boats motoring along the shore from 03:00 to 04:00 complete with their VHF radios turned up full. We get up early desperate to get a good start on the day and plan ahead. We leave at 10:45, after Ali has made a temporary repair to a split in the waste water drain pipe [probably caused by the rough roads], and head north towards Rimini on the coast road. W...

The day starts well enough and we're in no particular hurry. We look at some maps and books and decide to head for the coast in the general direction of Ancona. Anna, the owner, is in a fret this morning. One lot of grapes turned up 2 hours late last evening meaning they had to work through the night. While Ali tastes and buys some wine, Anna's mother takes a couple of bunches of grapes off the trailer and gives to Nick in the van. They are sweet and juicy, ...

We leave 10:15 and drive 3 miles to the Abbey Abbazia di Sant'Antimo, near Castelnuovo del'Abate. It's an imposing 12th Century Romanesque church built in travertine stone, on the site of a monastery founded by Charlemagne in 781AD but parking is on a slope and access doesn't look easy. We head back to Montalcino, but despite our and Snoopy's best efforts we cannot find the camper parking. There is an aire/sosta 0.6 miles away, which we do find but its at the t...

We get up late and spend some time looking at routes for the next few days. Siena was an option but we've had three days of cities so we go for something less hectic. We service the van and leave site at 12.50. This site, which looks quite new, has been good generally; large fully serviced pitches, friendly helpful staff with good English and very good washblocks. It is a bit pricey at €28 but wi-fi is included and it's close enough to an all-day bus rout...

This morning Ali uses the site laundry while Nick uses the free wi-fi, uploads a few photos etc. Once the washing is hung out under the awning we set off for another afternoon in Florence and we approach the bus stop just in time to watch the bus pull away, but they run every 15 minutes and soon we're on No.14 to Palazza San Marco. Now, don't tell anyone, but yesterday we forgot to validate our ticket for which there can be a spot-fine of €45. Anyway, today ...