Tuesday 2nd January 2018

Today was sunny but quite windy. We travelled north passing the city of Pisa (famous for its' leaning tower) and though some beautiful Tuscan countryside.

We passed through some small villages.

We stopped for the day at the Aire in the city of Lucca (pictured here). The Aire has an automatic entry barrier which goes up and lets you in after you've taken a ticket. We came in just behind another Camper van and when it had gone through the barrier stayed open and would not give us a ticket. When we went through the barrier closed and I realised that we could never get out unless we could get hold of a ticket! There was an emergency number to ring but try as I might I couldn't get through to it on my mobile. The access code for Italy is +39 which could be interpreted at 0039 or 039 leaving out or not leaving out the first 0 of the local number. Luckily there was a phone box at the Aire and I managed to get it to work by putting in a few Euro coppers. Even more luckily the person at the other end spoke English and he advised me to take our van to the exit barrier and he would open it remotely so we could drive out and then drive in through the entry barrier and pick up a ticket.

Later this evening a lone British woman vanner knocked on the side of our van. We sat her down and had a good chat. We enthused her about the idea going to Scandinavia in her van

Today we travelled 96 miles (155 kilometres). We are at N43.84037 E10.48848

Lucca   Street view