| Mileage | 515 km (320 miles) | |
| Diesel Costs | €1.059 | |
| Toll Fees | €73.40 !!!! | Going through the Mont Blanc tunnel and using the toll roads in Italy is EXPENSIVE! |
| Stopover Montignoso |
Annarosa's family |
4 countries, 4 days. I think we need to slow down now!!
...and we intend to. It's been a big push to get here and quite opposite to the route we had originally intended. We were going to head down to the south of France for some sunshine and then cut across to Italy along the coast. Instead we went through Switzerland, through snow and mountains and then on to Italy. But this is what the trip's all about for us... changing on a whim depending on what there is to see and do - NOTHING is out of bounds - at least to consider.
Although the temperature dropped dramatically in the night, we had a most comfortable sleep. We've learnt our lessons from Peterborough. I'm happy to report that we didn't use electricity or heating to keep warm, but relied on wearing thermals and a hot water bottle. Oh yes, and we've swapped our duvet for some cold climate sleeping bags that we zip together and use as a duvet. All of these compress and pack up much better then the duvet ever did. Problem 42 resolved and closed :o) This also means now that we don't have to rule out visiting the Ethiopian Highlands which we were going to do because of the cold issue.
The drive from Lake Geneva through the Mont Blanc tunnel and into Italy is spectacular and, although also spectacularly expensive, we think well worth the effort. We only have 1 outstanding question to ask. "Italy, what's with all the tunnels - did you get bored?". We can officially report that we have now traversed more tunnels in one day than we have ever done collectively in our live's - we didn't count, but estimate that we went through in excess of 50 tunnels getting to Montignoso. phew!
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| A last view of Geneva | Driving towards the alps | Mont Blanc tunnel | Inside Mont Blanc tunnel |
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| Mont Blanc exit | View of the pass down to Aosta, Italy | Inside an Italian tunnel | Inside another Italian tunnel |
Trevor has done most of the driving so far and I am providing backup for when he's tired. We are both happy to do it this way as he loves driving and, well, I don't! I am getting in some driving most days though but tend to concentrate more on route planning and navigation. Sully, despite her weight, is behaving well and her stability on the road is great. We are still travelling in a back-down attitude and are thinking that we may upgrade the shocks to put dual Koni's on the back (single at the moment) but we are still trying to decide how, where and when to do this and if we can afford it - nothing definite yet. The alternative is to ditch some weight but that is proving difficult to decide exactly how we'd do that. We're thinking on this for a bit.
On the down side, Sully is still experiencing a wheel balancing problem. The wobble window has grown and now exists anywhere between 50 and 70 mph (80 and 110kph for those on "new money" Note from Ed: For those worrying about the speed, we only tried 70mph on a straight road to see where the wobble disappears, our regular speed is about 60mph/95kph!!). When we say "anywhere between", it means exactly that: the wobble is intermittent and for the life of us we are unable to determine what circumstances create it. Believe us when we say, it's kept us in riveting conversation for hours! Today we removed the locking wheel nuts (they are heavy duty and large) and although we imagine they might have made a slight difference, in reality the wobble is still there as frustrating as ever. We are going to try and have the wheels re-balanced now that we done some miles on them but if anyone out there can give us some clue as to what might be going on, we'd be forever grateful.
So onto other things. We are really looking forward to Tim and Annarosa's wedding on Sunday and are madly preparing. A discussion with Don Jo (the priest and a lovely man!) yesterday has seen me be negotiated/gently persuaded/bullied (in the nicest possible way, of course!) into singing not 1 song but 3! Negotiations lasted well into the afternoon interspersed with much talking, laughter and loads of food and wine. Our Italian is coming along and each hour sees us learn a new word. Sono pieno (I'm full) was our first. Annarosa is still spending time in her schizophrenic world listening to 2 different conversations in Italian and English and translating both ways. We knew she'd had a busy day yesterday when she almost translated something Tim said in English to us.... in English! LOL.
So while we are here, surrounded by family (and we have well and truly been taken in by the family!), we probably won't post for a couple of days - at least not until next week again. So, ciao, ti amore and we'll chat to you in a couple of days.
