After spending 6 months in West Wales, Patty and I have started our travels again, this time in a Renault Master based camper van. We are currently near Rome having spent the last week preparing Lady Cindy for sale.
Patty and I will both contribute to this blog, this is just a quick update on whats happening now. In due course, we will blog more about our time in Wales, the van and our future plans.
Yesterday’s sail to Fiumicino was quite emotional. I knew it was the last big sail I’m going to do for a while. I am going to a marina in the Fiumicino canal later today where Lady Cindy will stay for up to three years while I complete a work contract in the UK. This is a pause in the journey not an end. That Atlantic ocean will still be there in three years waiting to be crossed.
The weather is definitely starting to turn, its been windier and cloudy the last two days. Its still warm though.
I will spend the next two weeks working on Lady Cindy. There are a few jobs i have put off needing parts or a non moving boat. On the 27th I start an epic journey to Southampton across Europe by train. More on that in a future post.
Patty is still in Argentina with family, the boat is quiet without her, and not as clean🤭 She returns to Italy at the beginning of November and after a brief visit to her apartment in Barletta, she will fly to the UK to join me in Wales.
Last week we hired a car, drove from Fiumicino, through Rome, across Italy to Barletta around Barletta and Trani and eventually back to Fiumicino.
As an ex driving instructor, I feel I am qualified to have an opinion, not just on Italian drivers but also the road system. For those who want a summary… it’s madness 😳… here’s why.
First of all let’s point fingers at the beaurocrats. Apart from the motorways, most roads are in dire need of maintenance being full of pot holes, raised by tree roots and no or worn out road markings and signs. The last one explains a lot of the Italian driver’s behaviour.
It’s difficult to keep to a speed limit if you don’t know what it is, giving way at a junction is optional when there are no stop or give way lines and pedestrian crossings? Good luck with that one. On that topic, Patty and I were harassed by a driver scowling at us and reving his engine. He was stopped on the crossing held up by traffic ahead. We started to cross in front of him and the traffic ahead of him started to move, he was angry we were holding him up more. Bear in mind Patty was limping with an ankle injury 😳.
On one section of road there was a speed limit that kept changing between 50kph and 80kph. This was a very straight, wide road in a rural area. The safe speed could easily be 100kph along the whole stretch. There were half a dozen speed cameras on that road.
Hi, everyone. This is Patty. There was some doubt (mostly on FB) as to whether I’d return to John and Lady Cindy (and Dotty 😁); but I made it back, as planned, and very happy to have done so.
As John mentioned on a previous post, we hired a car to drive to Barletta. On the way out of Rome we thought we would explore some of the famous sites. First stop was the Coliseum.
Right after refilling Dotty’s water bottle I turned around and slipped on the marble floor.
Ouch!! It’s not the first time I hurt an ankle, as sprains go, this was a bad one. So, we spent the week in Barletta hiding from the 40+ weather in the air-conditioned apartment (not so conveniently located on the 3rd floor, no elevator 😬) . John has been an absolute treasure😍, taking care of me and keeping busy working on his app.
Thankfully, the ankle has been improving daily. I can hobble around quite well. Sunday we returned to Rome and Lady Cindy. Last night we left the marina, and boy it was eventful. We had to wait for two bridges to be raised to go out onto the open water. The second bridge was a challenge as it only opened partially and we were already having difficulty with the river current and navigating at such low speeds. Once we got to open water we got hit with 20 knots winds, so we spent the 20 minutes trip to the anchorage in an intricate and forceful dance with the sea. The reward was that we slept with a cool breeze and zero mosquitoes!!
We are now waiting for another set of strong winds to pass by before we start heading toward Sicily. Today we got some swimming done and we are slowly making progress on turning Lady Cindy from a bachelor’s pad to a love nest🥰.
John will be writing about his driving experience in Italy. 😜 Initially we planned on sharing driving duties, but that’s one more thing I couldn’t do with my damaged ankle. I’m really looking forward to reading that post!!