A lot of snow fell last night on the car park in Sulmona where we are staying and it continued to snow all day. There were some other vans parked here last night and some of their people were making more or less desperate efforts to leave during the morning. Here someone is trying to fit snow chains in a blizzard.

Eventually I decided to venture out. Here's our van pictured about mid day.

Driving conditions were very difficult on the road going past the car park - I don't think the driver of this car intended to end up sideways across the road.

My feet got incredibly cold when I went outside in the snow as the snow was getting inside my shoes and melting. The shops are closed round here from about 1.00 till 4.00 for "lunch". So I ventured out again about 3.30 to seek advice on a few matters at the town tourist office. Following their advice I managed to find a shop where I could buy a pair of "moon boots" for each of us and another shop where I bought snow chains for the van. It was fantastic to have warm dry feet!

Unfortunately the moon boots I had bought for Ann did not fit her so we went back to the shop I'd got them from together to try to change them for ones that would fit.

We saw this snowy public art a on the way.

Unfortunately we couldn't find any moon boots to fit Ann. The shop kindly refunded the cost of her boots.

There were plenty of people out and about in town despite the difficult conditions. When we got back to the van at about 6.30 the snow was approximately 50 centimetres deep in the car park - deeper in places due to drifting in the strong gusts of wind. I don't think we have much gas left but we must try to keep ourselves and the van warm. Also our leisure battery is very low and we have had to run the van engine at times today to keep some charge in it. We will have to leave here tomorrow one way on another. If we can get out of the car park and get the snow chains on we should be able to get onto a big road and head for the Adriatic coast where it will probably be warmer. If we can't get out of the car park we will have to try to drain the van's water system to prevent frost damage and go to stay in a hotel.