Campsites in Italy

Camping La Futa, Passo della Futa, Firenzuola
A fantastic site, terraced and grassy with some hard-standing.  You can't really beat the beautiful views over the hills from all the pitches.  There are good hot showers and plenty of hot water in the clean facialities.  Free wifi is available at the bar.  Bread can be ordered, useful as its a long way to any shops and a few basic groceries are sold.  The owners are helpful and friendly.






Camping Boschetto di Piemma, San Gimignano
A well organised site with modern and clean facilities and plenty of hot water.  Some trees on the site provide shade.  Wifi is available at 3 euro per hour.  The site provides easy access to San Gimiignano, either by bus, bike or walking (15-20 minutes).  The site restaurant is excellent and is used by locals, as well as campers.


Camping Feniglia, Laguna di Orbetello
The pitches are marked, but very crowded.  The facilities are dated and scruffy and there is no hot water for washing up.  An extra charge is made for hot showers.


Valle Gaia Casale Marittimo, near Cecina
A large and well equipped site with very good sanitary facilities.  There is good shade for the majority of the pitches, but we stayed on a higher level pitch with less shade, but better views.  Wifi is available at 2 euro for three hours and can be accessed from some pitches or from the bar and pool areas.  The site has swimming pools, cafe, restaurant and shop.


River Village Camping, Ameglia
Lots of tree cover and a scruffy and unkempt looking site.  The toilets were clean.  Free wifi can be accessed around the bar.

Camping Sole Langhe, Vergne, near Barolo
A small green site in a village with a shop selling bread and groceries five minutes walk away.  The facilities are very clean and good.  Wifi costs 3 euro as a one off charge.  The pitches are marked and a good size.

Campeggio Valle Gesso, Entracque
This site is in a lovely position.  It is a large site with marked pitches and a lot of permanent caravans, but these are separate from the touring pitches.  The facilities are clean, but a little shabby and coins are needed for showers.  The owners are friendly and in high season they open more modern facilities.  It is about 15 minutes walk in to Entracque, which has some small shops; otherwise bread can be ordered at the camp site.

200th campsites

We didn't realise it until after the event, but our windy and cold night at Bron-Y-Wendon Holiday Park in Llanddulas was not only our first camping trip of 2012, it was also our 200th campsite in the Devon Sundowner.

Of course, we were snug and comfy in the van and the views of the Irish Sea were marvellous.

France September 2011

We spent just a week in France; not really long enough, but all we could manage with our holiday entitlement.

After sailing to St Malo, we drove over the Loire and on to the Cher valley, staying at Chatillon sur Cher, then moving on to Sancerre for three nights where we enjoyed cycling by the river and through the vineyards, waving to the grape pickers. The heady, slightly vinegary smell of the grapes at this time of year enthuses our senses and encourages us to enjoy a glass or two of the local wine.

We then drove back to the coast and camped on a idyllic site near Dieppe for a couple of nights; we watched a pair of kingfishers on one of the ponds one evening and we entertained by the goats as they played Three Billy Goats Gruff on the wooden bridge. Our last day was spent driving along the French coast to Zeebrugge and catching the ferry to Hull with seconds to spare!

Driving in France continues to be a joy, with quiet and open roads and pretty towns to stop for a coffee in. The other photographs show the vineyards near Sancerre and the pretty walled town of Mennetou-sur-Cher.

Total ferry costs £601 (including two outside cabins, evening meal on Zeebrugge to Hull - Britanny Ferries was about £350, P&O £250)

Total spending during the week 430 Euro

In summary

The above photographs for our French trip are from our time by the Loire.

We have come up with a number of things that could summarise the trip:

• Excellent cycling
• Driving on empty roads and getting the best miles per litre from the Blue Bus (8.1 miles per litre)
• One tick each and so excellent use of the tick lasso and the TBE jabs
• Three snakes
• Acquiring of nice tans - up to the start of our cycling shorts
• Lots of fun

Total costs £

Ferry: Portsmouth to Le Havre 161.48 (including inside cabin)

Ferry: Zeebrugge to Hull 209.60 (with outside premier cabin & dinner)

Campsites 183.60

Supermarkets / food 285.30

Cafes and restaurants 175.50

Diesel 260.00

Other 92.00 (wi-fi, tolls etc)

TOTAL 1,367.48 (for 18 nights)

Anyone paying attention will notice that this is loads cheaper than last year. Going out of season makes lots of sense; cheaper ferries and also cheaper camp sites, thanks to ASCI. Camp sites in France generally cost less than in Germany.

Does anyone know what this is?

We have now had over 15,000 visitors to our blog, which amazes us.

Do any of you know what the construction in the photograph was used for? We spotted it cycling around the Anjou region of the Loire.

We look forward to hearing your ideas!

The Loire: Wine and Chateau

Wine making and chateau are the two things that The Loire bring to mind. At the Camping Parc de Montsabert you can do both very easily. The site is within the grounds of the Montsabert Chateau, not one of the must-see ones the Rough Guide suggests, but we're not big on visiting posh houses and it is good enough for us.

We arrived at the campsite early on Friday afternoon and were in time for the wine tasting visit to the Vignoble des Forges (www.vignobledesforges.com), less than a kilometre away. Nathalie Pilery is an enthusiastic independent wine grower and seems to run this small enterprise almost single-handed, as well as look after her young family. She showed us around the buildings and described the work involved in making wine and then, of course, gave us different ones to taste; they all tasted very drinkable to us and we came away with more bottles than we really have room for in the Blue Bus.

Cycling in all the different parts of France we have visited has been wonderful and this has been no exception; empty lanes, pretty villages and wide open spaces are what we now come to expect. Many houses have a troglodyte dwellings in their grounds; these rooms carved into the local rock would have been lived in years ago and are now often used as a cool garage or garden shed.

Cycling heaven

It is Ascension Day in France and they are all on holiday; the Marais Poitevin is busy with holiday makers hiring boats on the canals, walking, fishing and mostly cycling. There are the groups of shiny lycra clad men charging through the wheat fields practicing for the Tour, elderly couples on sit up and beg bicycles with baskets; these baskets often have a small dog sitting precariously in them, but most of all there are family groups of many generations on bicycles of different sizes with numerous children on tag-alongs, asleep in trailers or sat in child seats on the back. Over-taking these family groups (obviously we never over-take the lycra groups) takes nerves of steel as they use all of the road in an erratic manner that is impossible to judge and are chatting to each other so loudly they never hear your bell. Worse still was meeting a group coming down a narrow track in the opposite direction, we felt we had inadvertently gone the wrong way in the Tour de France and were trying to cycle through the Peleton.

The bridges over the navigable canals are constructed steeply to enable the low punts to sail underneath. Coming down these bridges bought out the Lance Armstrong in Anthony, as he hurtled down as if on the starting ramp for the time trial.

We took some time out from cycling to walk through the Marais; giving us time to spot flowers and butterflies and watch the cows and sheep grazing in their shaded woodland fields. If we were ever tempted to buy a French holiday home, the Marais Poitevin would be a very strong contender.