01 November 2001 - Wine!
Today was to be officially the beginning of the end of our holiday..... After a pretty heavy night, we woke reluctantly to check out of the hotel. We were to drive all the way to Nice on the French Riviera, and we soon realised that most people had already left the hotel, as it is a very long way!

Not letting our late rise spoil our plans, our first stop would be a local wine museum and cellar, recommended to us by one of the event organisers. After a lengthy search around the village of Dozza, we finally found the museum. It was located in a small and picturesque castle, right next to where we parked the car..... not sure how we missed it in the first place - must have been the throbbing hangovers!

The wine cellar was fantastic, with a huge selection of locally produced wines. We wandered around trying to look as though we knew what we were doing, whereas in fact we were just choosing the bottles with the most ornate labels.... but I think we got away with it! We left the cellar with 24 bottles of finest Italian red, strangely enough exactly the amount of wine bottles that will fit in the boot of a mini! (at a squeeze)

The significant extra weight meant that progress was a little slower than usual. Our lunch stop was Genoa, on the west coast of Italy. Dan's navigating once again led through some wonderful countryside. Whats the betting that as soon as Dan gets back behind the wheel the roads go flat again! Alex did extremely well to keep up with the Fiat missile van that guided us down the twisting Autostrada running into Genoa. We're still in awe of the skill of the driver in managing to keep the van on the autostrada, with only three wheels in contact with the road at any one time.

On arriving in Genoa we headed for the harbour area, where we hoped to find a restaurant to satisfy our, by now, ravenous hunger. We weren't disappointed, tasting some of the best food (and coffee) so far on our trip. A quick stroll around the harbour (the water was so clear we could even see the little fishies being eaten by the sharks) and we were back on the road for Dan's leg of the journey down the coast to Nice.

As was now becoming typical (this definitely isn't coincidence!) the roads were nowhere near as exciting as the morning. The first 20 miles or so was spent in an Italian traffic jam (its is definitely right to say Italians are deadly behind the wheel or even on a scooter), which required some skill to negotiate without incident! Two hours later, a packet of 20 cigarrettes and some really close shaves, we decided to hop onto the Autostrada which would safely take us all the way down the coast to Nice.

Nice was very nice (sorry!), and we had a lovely evening.

More soon....




Finally, thanks for your words of encouragement over the email today. We've had everything from recommended routes to take home (thanks Ian), through to suggestions on how we can finance our stay here for longer (apparently all we have to do is rob a bank!). We've even had one email suggesting that we should start a fight with some Italians, just to make the daily email updates more interesting!! Thanks for that one Johnnie!?!

Keep the emails coming, they're keeping us both entertained on the long journey home! Just reply to this email and let us know you care.....!

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