More Tuscan culture - Florence/Pisa

We find Florence pretty easily, but have a bit more trouble finding the parking space we are looking for. First one has no water or electricity, so we programme the next one into sat nav, but it cuts us through some crazy, tiny, private roads...we reach a point (on single track with cars coming the other way) where an Italian lady in a car asks where we’re trying to get to and tells us there’s no way we’ll fit our van down there, so we have to try and wiggle out a different way...I even measure the road width to see if we’ll fit, we can just about make it and we finally ignore the sat nav and find the camp spot, basically a big field full on vans, but a really nice man shows us how to get to the city and they have electricity so we’re all good. We hop on the bus just outside the site and get off at what we think is the centre (limited maps again!), and have a wander through the beautiful city.

We come out in a big pasta with the most beautiful church - palace like in its beauty. We head to more of the attractions, and at his post we decide we’ve probably seen enough of the beauty of Italian cities - there are only so many churches, statues and artwork, however wonderful the architecture and construction, that we can take in such a short space of time. We see the beautiful statues in the outdoor museum and then chance across the highlight of this trip. A big queue and crowd has formed outside two little take away sandwich shops. We ask what’s going on and some Americans tell us that these are he best sandwiches in Florence. Well, you don’t have to tell Nic twice, we are straight in the queue, no idea what we’re ordering (due to my hideous Italian!) and come away with two of the most amazing ‘sandwiches’ we have ever eaten! I say sandwich, but this is definitely an Italian take on the classic, amazing focaccia, meats, cheese, truffle, and who knows what else, totally delicious, and worth the extra walk. We grab some take-away pasta (again, amazing) for the children and head back to the camp spot. We need to make an early start the next day to make it to Pisa, and we’re already late back...

We hit the road early and decide to park in the big supermarket in Pisa (this is closer than anywhere else we’re allowed to park in the motorhome. It’s a hot walk into the centre, and as we’re ‘cultured out’, we’ve decided we are just going to see the leaning tower and get back on the road. Sometimes there is just too much to try and see everything.

As we round the corner, Amelia’s reaction is brilliant, ‘oh my word, that really IS leaning, it might fall over!!’ It really is a beautiful piazza, with the tower, beautiful statue and large church too. Obviously the crowds here are pretty crazy, but we get the obligatory ‘holding the tower up’ pics, and then grab a (very bad and very slow) pizza on the way out and try not to melt as we get back to the car park. Luckily we are at a supermarket so can restock on the essentials - ice-cream and cold drinks! We hit the road to reach the Cinque Terra region before dinner...a long, tiring day!!Read more