After being made to wait an hour whilst they found said elusive car, we finally headed off in a bus to the car pick-up compound. It began to rain as we arrived, and we waited miserably to be seen. Finally it was our turn, only for us to be presented with a Fiat, after they had spent an hour looking for the Ford they had actually arranged for. At this point we gave up and just took it as it was five pm and we had expected to be off at two at the latest.
Horribly behind schedule, we spent our first day in Italy driving tiny mountains roads in the gathering dark (although the sunset was spectacular!) we finally arrived at our airbnb at the tiny village of Vagli Sotto deep in the mountains around 10pm at night, and went straight to bed, barely looking out our surrounds - the morning would be a nice surprise at least!
We awoke to a beautiful day and decided to make the most of it - first by enjoying a cup of coffee outside and admiring the lovely little village - and then by going on a hike around the lake that the village perched above.
Tuscany is a region I have always wanted to explore more, as my previous time was rushed and full of torrential rain and thunderstorms the entire time. Luck smiled on us this trip, as we had wonderful weather for most of it.
One thing I really loved about the village was that we were told every morning to go to the square around the corner, and fill up glass bottles of drinking water for the house from this tap - a source of clean fresh springwater that constantly flowed and has probably done so for many many years.
Lago di Vagli (the lake around the village) was very swimmable, unfortunately however, in the week leading up to our arrival it had apparently rained torrentially and the lake level was much higher than usual, covering all the little beaches and bays from which you would usually swim off.
We did find one spot however, and successfully swam there for a while until I saw something strange and black moving in the water near us. Thinking it was perhaps a branch but instantly feeling that it was a snake or an eel, I evicted myself from the water as quickly as possible, followed by a very befuddled Joy who didn't actually believe me until it came closer and we discovered it was indeed a rather terrifying metre-long black water snake. This situation was made worse by the fact that upon arriving back at the airbnb and casually asking if there were any poisonous snakes around (hoping to be reassured that there definitely weren't) the owner nonchalantly told us there were plenty and we had to be very careful (and she didn't tell us this before why!?) I noped out of swimming there for the rest of the day, and was rather excited for the beaches that I knew we would soon be visiting instead.
The owner of the airbnb had told us about some old shepherd's huts up the mountain, some abandoned and some still in use, so we decided to go check that out and have a picnic at the same time. The tiny village of Campocatino at the foot of the mountains was little more than a road, a collection of jumbled huts and houses, and one tiny bar/pizzeria (where we got paninis and sat in the sunshine on the mountainside)
Our next airbnb was more in the region of Umbria, as we were slowly heading for our longest stay in one place, a campsite in the region of Abruzzo. It too was deep in the countryside, with the nearest supermarket over thirty minutes drive away. However in return, we found ourselves in a beautifully quiet area, full of vineyards and surrounded by olive groves. Unfortunately getting there proved to be difficult as the owner's daughter had not quite perfected her English and had mixed up 'right' and 'left' in her instructions, leading us on a wild goose chase. Eventually we ended up at a strange farm at the top of the dirt road we were driving on, where a friendly Italian lady offered to call the owner as we knew his English would be limited. Amusingly enough halfway through their phone call, she exclaimed 'ohhhh Giorgi !?' upon realising she was actually speaking to her friend and neighbour. so we were close by after all!
Lago di Vagli (the lake around the village) was very swimmable, unfortunately however, in the week leading up to our arrival it had apparently rained torrentially and the lake level was much higher than usual, covering all the little beaches and bays from which you would usually swim off.
We did find one spot however, and successfully swam there for a while until I saw something strange and black moving in the water near us. Thinking it was perhaps a branch but instantly feeling that it was a snake or an eel, I evicted myself from the water as quickly as possible, followed by a very befuddled Joy who didn't actually believe me until it came closer and we discovered it was indeed a rather terrifying metre-long black water snake. This situation was made worse by the fact that upon arriving back at the airbnb and casually asking if there were any poisonous snakes around (hoping to be reassured that there definitely weren't) the owner nonchalantly told us there were plenty and we had to be very careful (and she didn't tell us this before why!?) I noped out of swimming there for the rest of the day, and was rather excited for the beaches that I knew we would soon be visiting instead.
The owner of the airbnb had told us about some old shepherd's huts up the mountain, some abandoned and some still in use, so we decided to go check that out and have a picnic at the same time. The tiny village of Campocatino at the foot of the mountains was little more than a road, a collection of jumbled huts and houses, and one tiny bar/pizzeria (where we got paninis and sat in the sunshine on the mountainside)
Our next airbnb was more in the region of Umbria, as we were slowly heading for our longest stay in one place, a campsite in the region of Abruzzo. It too was deep in the countryside, with the nearest supermarket over thirty minutes drive away. However in return, we found ourselves in a beautifully quiet area, full of vineyards and surrounded by olive groves. Unfortunately getting there proved to be difficult as the owner's daughter had not quite perfected her English and had mixed up 'right' and 'left' in her instructions, leading us on a wild goose chase. Eventually we ended up at a strange farm at the top of the dirt road we were driving on, where a friendly Italian lady offered to call the owner as we knew his English would be limited. Amusingly enough halfway through their phone call, she exclaimed 'ohhhh Giorgi !?' upon realising she was actually speaking to her friend and neighbour. so we were close by after all!
The owner turned out to be an older Italian man who had just enough English to be helpful, kind and hilarious. He was nice enough to give us some zucchini from his garden which we happily put in our homemade kebabs for dinner that night. However first we started with a relaxing sit down and sumptuous lunch.
The next morning, after a chat with Giorgi, we decided to take his advice and go to the local white-sand beach which he told us was called Cala Violina (violin beach) because of how when the atmospheric conditions were right, the sand apparently sang (or less poetically but perhaps more accurately, squeaked). Mysterious.
Alas upon our arrival we discovered the atmospheric conditions were not right (though who knows what the 'right' conditions would be!) and no squeaking could be produced. This however was not the biggest of our problems. Oh no. The pleasant walk through the bush that was meant to be about 1.5 km each way ended up being a total of about ten or more by the end of the day....because we took the wrong fork when there was a choice of three and all of them said beach, leaving us to pick one at random (how were we meant to know Italy?? How!?) and just...kept walking...(we did eventually make it, never fear).
The next morning, after a chat with Giorgi, we decided to take his advice and go to the local white-sand beach which he told us was called Cala Violina (violin beach) because of how when the atmospheric conditions were right, the sand apparently sang (or less poetically but perhaps more accurately, squeaked). Mysterious.
Alas upon our arrival we discovered the atmospheric conditions were not right (though who knows what the 'right' conditions would be!) and no squeaking could be produced. This however was not the biggest of our problems. Oh no. The pleasant walk through the bush that was meant to be about 1.5 km each way ended up being a total of about ten or more by the end of the day....because we took the wrong fork when there was a choice of three and all of them said beach, leaving us to pick one at random (how were we meant to know Italy?? How!?) and just...kept walking...(we did eventually make it, never fear).
Leaving the next day (extremely footsore from our mission day before) we headed for our camping spot a few hours further down into Italy. On our way however we stopped for something we had been wanting to see for a while, the leaning Tower of Pisa! Although not as horrifically touristy as I had prepared myself for, it was still teeming with people, so we took some photos and scarpered.
I have to say it was honestly smaller than I expected, and on a far greater lean than I had expected. Worth the quick detour, but I wouldn't stick around too long.
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