Close Encounters

A big rock, that’s why we travelled 50 miles of tight twisty roads and hairpin bends!

The drive up through the Cerreto Alpi required a slight tweak of driving style to avoid oncoming Italian drivers who have a penchant for straddling the centre white line (where there was one) as they come around bends towards us! More than a few times this old geezer had to quickly twitch the steering wheel to the right, but not so much as to hit anything on our side of the road like a rock face, Armco barrier or tree. This eventually drew the comment from Rachel “Do we need a narrower van”? My comment was “I’m getting a little uneasy about this”. There were far too many ‘close encounters’ for our liking, but we did eventually arrive unscathed at Pietra di Bismantova.

As soon as I saw a photo on the internet of this rock we just had to come here, another case of ‘Close Encounters’ I suppose, not that I’ve been making models of it in clay of course (for those who can remember back to the 1977 film).

Not only the rock, but the nature and scenery around here is fantastic, it’s just a shame we haven’t got clear weather to fully appreciate it all.

Notice the deer in the centre who took a particular interest during my walk

Internet photo

We lived in hope of clearer weather the next morning, but those hopes were dashed as we woke to fog and 10c.

The forecast wasn’t too good for up here in the mountains so the plan was to head in the direction of Lucca, a mere 37 miles as the crow flies, but 100 as the camper drives. The prospect of returning along 40 miles of the ‘hairpinned’ road we drove yesterday didn’t exactly fill us with joy, but we psyched ourselves up for it and with a positive attitude drove 80 miles in 4½ hours, stopping twice for coffee/stress breaks. The tell-tale signs of vans approaching with their mirrors taped up or hanging off was enough for Rachel’s door mirror to be folded in on the narrower roads. We are pleased to report a damage free drive, and only once was my mirror resting against a rock face as a van squeezed through the gap.

It was 24c when we arrived at the free sosta in the village 20 miles short of Lucca, we couldn’t change from our jeans to shorts quick enough! The town itself falls into the category of ‘a one horse town without the horse’, but on the plus side everything in the sosta is free: water, waste disposal and even electricity, which is truly the ‘piece de resistance’ in campervan circles. Also, with my extremely limited vocabulary of Italian, and with a hint of charades, I think I may have secured a seat in a bar for tonight’s United game!

The following photos are of village Verrucola which we stumbled across on today's drive.