Spoleto was a rare find, you don’t hear anything about it in travel magazines as it is overshadowed by Assisi and Cortona in the Umbrian guides, yet we spent 3 wonderful days wandering the tiny streets and climbing the million steps and stairs through art galleries and cafes while basking in the beauty of the town and the friendliness of the locals. There was a restaurant attached to the campground where no English was spoken, for a bit of a challenge we sent Cointha and Daniel to buy a pizza and they managed to return with exactly what we ordered, I don’t know what happened in there or what was discussed but they managed perfectly.
Pilgrimage is not the reason we travelled to Assisi, yet there is no need to be a devout Christian to appreciate Assisi. It is unique in its layout with the buildings and streets in pristine conditon and the gentle slopes make it a very easy stroll for young and old. Different to the many narrow streeted and steep stepped villages and towns we have encountered. Asisi is the home of Saint Frances burial chamber and his tomb can be viewed in the monastery. Monks were in abundance wandering the streets in there robes which was interesting especially to Daniel who thinks he can carve one out of a pine cone, I think we will put that challenge to him and see what transpires.
Back to Tuscany now and we are catching up with Maddy and Curl Haslem who are staying in Greve. It’s going to be great especially since they are restocking us with Vegemite which we have run out of and it is very rare in Italy, we can get it in France but at a huge cost and at any rate we might not be there for a while yet considering Italy has already taken up 3 weeks longer than we expected. At this rate we will see you all in 5 years.
Well we met Curl and Maddy, received the vegemite and Deb also got a few gossip magazines so that’s the end of her for a couple of days.
It was great to hear some news from home and we are still trying to figure out which two of you it was who got arrested down Allan street for getting too romantic.
Gail and Curl were having a bit of trouble with a well known hire car company in Australia, but thanks to Tanya and the gang at Boomerang Travel in Kyabram they seem to have it all sorted so well done to you Tanya and thanks again for the help planning our trip, it is well worth shopping local and when you have problems like this it is great to know that you know the person trying to help and they really do care.
While in Greve I showed Maddy and Curl a few of the local customs I have picked up. In Italy a pedestrian crossing is a guide only and cars are not legally required to stop for pedestrians so after observing what the Italians do, I now just stand on the road like a traffic cop putting up my hand up until the traffic stops then wave the family across, this skill is not for the faint hearted and you can expect to get a few horn blasts and quite a bit of abuse but as I do not understand Italian it means nothing so I just smile and go on our way, another custom I picked up was to just walk though doors and gates so we can enjoy the wonderful court yards and gardens that the locals have discreeted away for their own leisure, I picked up this idea from Sheena when we were in Lyon and I have run with it because it adds a new dimension to the cities and villages that were oblivious to us. To date I have not been asked to leave one yet and I think that everyone justs accepts that this is what the locals do when showing friends visiting the village it is like we are invisible, or maybe they are just happy that we appreciate these yards and they are happy to show them off.
Anyway, what is the worst thing that can happen?
By the way
If you don’t hear from us for a while please send some bail money.

The bottom of the big gumboot is much easier to travel as the roads are much wider and there is a lot less traffic is decreased significantly. The beaches are much cleaner yet there seems to be a lot less facilities for tourists.We met an Italian bloke who spoke no English yet with the usual hand gestures and a few common phrases we worked out that he had driven 40000 kms traveling through Russia, China and back through Kazakhstan before returning to Italy and is now planning to drive to Turkey and Iran, good luck with that adventure, I don’t think our old van would like the roads in those countries very much at all.We reach the heel of the gumboot and cut inland to Arborobello, home of over 1000 Trulli. Houses..The Trulli houses are homes built with a stone conical roof in the 15th century, there were several reasons for this design, the original Trulli were built in conical shape from the ground up as they needed no timber for rafters with this design and timber was scarce in this region.As we approach Arborobello Deb nearly has conniptions pointing out the houses to the kids, (I was not aloud to look ) saying look look look, the kids found this hilarious and accused Deb of sounding like a magpie.They were also able to build these stone homes with no mortar which was very useful when the tax collector for the king of Naples arrived to collect the housing tax, they would with the aid of a lever or drawstring remove a keystone which would instantly collapse there home and they now giving them the loophole to avoid paying the tax.It is now a matter of just rebuilding your home which requires labour only as they already have all there building materials.It sounds a bit extreme and I don’t think Campaspe Shire would accept this excuse.We leave Arborobello and head north along the Adriatic spending a few days on the beach near Foggia before turning what we thought to be inland but was in fact over a mountain range, so here we were in the morning on the beach and by lunch we were under a foot of snow as the sky closed in and I was starting to think that maybe a set of snow chains would have been a worthwhile purchase. Fortunately the snow ploughs were along the road way before us so we were able to enjoy the snow and magnificent vistas, although we had to reroute the journey as the GPS in it’s wisdom thought it was a wonderful idea to head north of the main highway along a secondary road which went higher than the 1200 meters we were already at and a road I am sure would not have ploughed as well as the road we were on.After an extra 150 kms and an extra 3 hours we arrive at Mamore only to find that the caravan park was not open, we have now realised that the Italians, along with not opening caravan parks when there signs say they are open and don’t’ come back from siesta when they say they will. It is starting to get late so we push north and get totally lost in Terni thanks to roadworks and bad signage the GPS was totally confused and tried to push us over another mountain. Sorry but that was not about to happen at this time of night, so we reevaluated and negotiated our way back to Terni and managed to arrive in Spoleto in the dark which was quite nice as the fort and the Roman aquaduct were under lights which looked magnificent.

A little mishap with the toilet leads me to some more hand gesturing with the locals in order to find a caravan service dealer to get some spare parts, The woman on the reception who Debbie believes was flirting with me has kindly offered to drive me to the service yard as the roads through the village are very difficult to navigate. Fortunately the repairman had actually come to the caravan park to do another job and had a look at it while he was there. (I don’t know how Deb organised this) Unfortunately he could not fix it on the spot so I had to quickly pack up camp and follow him to his yard, as Deb had just put a load of washing in the machine I left her and the kids at the park. As we drove out it began to rain leaving them stranded, this is where your faith in human nature is restored. A Swiss couple, (Philippe and Kirsten) noticed Deb and the kids still there and kindly offered up their van as they were going out for the day and said that they could just help themselves. Forcing the key into Debbie’s hand amid protests, Debbie finally relented and graciously accepted just as I arrived back. We were so thankful to their generosity and invited them over that night and had a wonderful time discussing travel and cultures while enjoying the local Vino and some Averna. As for the toilet situation well unfortunately the parts were not available in Sicily so we will make do until we get back to the mainland. After mucking around for about 30 minutes putting things back together and the guy would take no money for his troubles.I also had to get Daniels Bike welded a week ago as it had snapped in half, I found a guy building a fence and with hand gestures was able to learn that yes he did have a welder and yes he would get it out and he would even weld it for us and noooooooooo noooooo noooo no moola is ok big smile and a wave ciao (chow/goodbye)
Driving like an Italian takes a little bit of skill, understanding, patience and creativity, at first I was frustrated by all these Latin lunatics blowing their horns as they overtook me on the imaginary overtaking lane created by my moving to the right and oncoming traffic slowing and moving to there right. After a week or so you begin to understand these unwritten laws and become accustomed to allowing people to overtake wherever they want. As a matter of fact I have become quite adept at this skill myself and regardless of oncoming traffic we just overtake slower vehicles by blowing my horn to let them know I am passing and like Moses parting the sea the traffic parts and the imaginary overtaking lane opens for us to pass.We also blow our horns at cars about to turn onto the road incase they don’t see you, pedestrians who might walk out in front of us, bicycles we are about to pass and as soon as the traffic light is about to turn green.I don’t think this would be appreciated in Australia so I will have to retrain before our return.We have boarded the Ferry and returned to the mainland and are now traveling along the South coast of Italy, along the sole of the boot. The roads here are much flatter and wider and the motor home is enjoying the easier roads for a while. The weather is warming up again so we are looking for a nice beach to bed down for the weekend before we hit theAdriatic coast.