On our way out of St Margherita Ligure... A beautiful 37 degrees! (Ros did not think it was such great weather though!) (check out the 3 wheel - car/bike!!!?) Toll road time: (Toll roads - they are raised highways (at some points) where you can see the surrounding scenery below - not so bad for travelling...plus the roads are well sealed and maintained. Ros at the wheel with 220k's to go on the toll road! Italian toll roads are also easier to use than the ones we've come across so far..but more expensive - at 20Euros for one crossing - that is a tank of fuel!!) (Pol drying clothes that did not finish drying from the night before!) The roads in Italy are slightly more crazier than what we've experienced - cars sitting between both lanes and trucks/buses/caravans all overtaking each other in a 130km/hr speed zone. We had to keep our senses sharp on these roads!! (There looked to be snow on the peaks) FUEL STOP! There are petrol stations here in Italy that are not self service - so at this one; we stayed on the bike while the guy filled the bike up before we paid via EFTPOS - without having to get off!! We have found it difficult to find petrol stations with air to pump our tyres up though. This is the petrol station cafeteria / restaurant - it was absolutely packed for lunch. Self serve from various counters - entre, main, dessert etc and then take the tray of food to the counter where they ask if you want coffee with lunch.. and if you do; you get a ticket to take to another counter where you wait for your espresso (Pol ordered coffee without specifying 'cuppucino' and got espresso....like jet fuel!). Very smooth and quick operation there! They even had wine! Ros checking out what Pol bought On the road again: (Glad Ros is looking at the road ahead!) Toll road - we managed this one fine - lucky! On the way into Piombino... (The hotel is just around the corner...but we had a slight GPS (or GPS user glitch) and so we ended up going the long way around back to the Hotel through one way narrow and windy roads with a lot of dead ends. In the end, Ros had to stop and ask locals for directions. It turned out that the street the Hotel is on was closed for the day due to road works. We drove around the town for around 20 mins, ending up at dead ends etc. Pol cracked it with the GPS and was threatening it's life, saying it may be chucked in the bin (amongst other words!!). Ros burst out laughing - it was a user error :-P (The streets got narrower than this one too!) (FINALLY we found it. Ros carrying some luggage in) (We didn't think elevators could get any smaller on us... this is the first time we've had to split up to go up the elevator. Pol first with the two panniers then Ros on the next elevator run..soon we'll be having to only load our luggage on the elevators if they get any smaller!) Ros - making herself at home in our Hotel room! (No aircon...but there is a ceiling fan...which makes a lot of noise when turned up to the max...the switch to turn it up looks ancient so we decided to leave it on medium for a while) (Kinder surprise! Ros bought Pol a kinder...which Pol couldn't recognise as kinder surprise eggs in Aus usually are a chocolate egg...not a plastic one..! BUT! There was a toy so Pol was happy) Pol had managed to find and utilise Trip Advisor and found a beachside restaurant - Calamoresca Beach 2 wheel parking only...lucky because this section is cordoned off and there weren't many car bays available! This reminded us of Greece - stray cats - except, apparently there is an organisation which feeds and houses them. We noted some cats with cut ears (signifying being splayed). Dinner..: (bobcat bringing the small boats in!) (This dude had found a deep fried pineapple ring somewhere and tried to find a decent spot to eat it in - away from his swooping mates) Sunset on the beach First cocktails... then...about to order dinner... after this it got a little blurry as we had 2 cocktails and half a bottle of wine each!