We researched the route better for this journey. Getting to La Spezia we had a couple of brown trouser moments including ending up in a 2.5-tonne limited road, a narrow backstreet while looking for the motorway from the SS1 and going under a low bridge (3.5 meters – where T has measured us at 3.4).
So we thought we knew what we were doing at the La Spezia end and we checked the route into Pisa including street view for the roads to the camping stop. All good we thought…
…And to be fair it was not too bad. We got directed down two roads with height limits that the satnav didn’t know about and the campsite was down a one-way road with a 3.2-meter viaduct at the start. But it worked out fine, the viaduct had 3.2-meter signage but was closer to 3.5 so we *just* fitted!
So, we are learning to ignore the satnav warnings in Italy. Our satnav is a special motorhome one – basically, it is a modified truck satnav. It supposedly has all the road widths and length/weight limits programmed in as well as all the bridge heights. So it’s smart enough not to send us down roads where we can’t – or shouldn’t – fit. But it’s been a nightmare in Italy. So from now on, we are navigating best as we can the night before each journey to make sure the route seems safe!
Anyway, the aire at Pisa was quiet – it has space for 60 vans, but there are only four others here when we show up. It’s 12€ for the night and we save a few euros by not having the electric hooked up.
Straight out for the afternoon to the tower, there are other things to do in Pisa, but we only had half a day, so to cathedral square it was!
Around Cathedral Square there are a number of attractions. The tower itself was 18 euros each (trying to recoup the £200 million spend reducing the lean!), so we decided that was too rich for us. The Cathedral was free and it was 16€ to do all the other attractions for both of us.
So we wandered around the Cathedral, the Baptistry, the Composanto and the museum.
The next morning and we met up with a lovely brit lady – we had seen her van before in St Tropez – it stands out as it’s an ambulance conversion and we chewed the cud for half an hour. Then a reasonably early start towards Rome – We have a couple of overnight stops on the way.
