South to Florence

David at sunset at Piazzale Michelangelo

As we reach the South of France we start to see the higher prices, all of a sudden we are paying between 30 euro and 45 euro ($50 $75) for a camping spot per night opposed to the 10 Euro ($17) we were paying in the north and the Alps.We leave France and wind our way along the coast through Monaco and into Italy trying to imagine just how much busier it must be in the middle of summer, it is hard to describe the chaos involved on the roads as everyone battles to push there way through the traffic towards there destination. The pavements are filled with cafes and restaurants that are not open this time of year and empty apartments and hotels tower towards the hills on the north side of the road. There must be an awful lot of casual labour running these coastal cities in summer. Diano Marino seemed at first glance to be a bit of a shabby old village as we pulled into Oassi Motor Home Park. Oassi was 1 of many parks we have discovered that are filled with campervans and motor homes squeezed in like sardines, they offer a very minimal service, parking, electricity and a dumping station, the more up market ones like Oassi even have a toilet and warm shower for extra cost. So we paid our overnight fee of 8 euro plus 2 euro for electricity and take a wander into the village for the evening which had all of a sudden come to life at about 7 pm so we had a pleasant time strolling around the shops enjoying the charms of the local community and eating gelato.Gelato by the way is not like the gelato we eat in Australia. The texture is much creamier and the flavours more natural and delicious, I am going to make a point of badgering our Australian/Italian friends to source this product in Australia.Our next destination is Cinque Terre a cliff face that houses 5 villages accessible only foot unless you are a local then you have very limited access to drive your car to the outskirts of town where they can park their car and walk 3 or 4 hundred meters with their shopping. The lack of an open camp ground means we will return to this area later on and walk the cliff face between the villages and enjoy the magnificent scenery.The motor home pushes further south and we reach Pisa finding our selves in a, how can I describe this, a shopping centre car park with pot plants dividing us from the rest of the car park. It is a down market version of Oassi but more expensive at 12 euro for 18 hours, you pay by putting your money in a parking meter, But it is 800 meters from the leaning tower so we stay the night and have a great time watching as the illegal immigrants pedal there souvenirs, belts, fake Ray Bans and leather handbags to the tourists as they get of their buses in the car park next to us.At the leaning tower the kids have a ball with the camera trying to achieve a photo of themselves holding up the tower along with the other 500 tourists, it is like being in the land of Marcel Marseau with people pushing against the wind as far as the eye can see.We get up early and head 60 kilometers east to Florence or Firenze as the locals call it. We book into Michelangelo camp ground situated next to Piazzale Michelangelo which has the best views of the city. Is a pleasant experience after our previous few nights, the showers are hot, the staff friendly with great tourist advice and the views from the park are glorious. Strolling the streets of Florence on a Sunday morning is very enjoyable; every body seems to dress like they are just heading out to a nightclub, wedding, or a formal function except us meager tourists who probably look more like gypsies.The kids enjoy a Puppet show in the Piazza S.Croce and we enjoy watching local artists painting in the streets and the kids were fascinated by a woman doing a chalk drawing on the pavement. Try as we might we could not find an affordable piece of jeweler in the gold shops on Ponte Vecchio so we will be looking for a Big W to find Debbie’s birthday present on the 15th.Inspired by all the artists the kids wanted to do some drawing so we spent the sunset on Piazzle Michelangelo enjoying the city views while Debbie, Cointha and Daniel sketched the Duomo, Deb gave up early embarrassed as people kept looking over shoulder thinking she was a professional.It was a wonderful setting where we managed to get some brilliant photos and finish off a fantastic day.