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Cortona to Genoa22 May 2009
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| Fri 22nd May---Weather:-Overcast/24 at destination Cortona to Genoa (350km) (3:20h) A funny night was had by us last night. We now realize that the residents of Via il Guelfa, the little street that we were living in, in Cortona do not have to go and visit each other. We had noticed them during the day time hanging out of windows and talking to each other but last night because it was so hot everybody including us had every window and door open to try to pick up any little breeze that was about. All the windows are double glazed and the walls are also very thick so up to last night we had no idea about what went on at night time for we slept peacefully through all. I think that you may have noticed but the street is only about 4 ½ meters wide, any cars that are parked by the residents are parked about 6 inches away from the side wall to allow any other traffic (locals and delivery trucks) room to get up the hill. If there is a car parked anywhere and another one is trying to pass it the pedestrian have to squeeze against doorways to give them room. I think most people around there could get a doctorate in parking. Back to last night, we had everything open including out little hatch to the rooftop patio to get some relief from the humidity then went to bed. At 11:30pm the talking to and fro from one apartment to another was still going on; with a quarter of the city listening in. When they finally gave in and went to sleep we had motorbikes et all. Our friends know that we are heavy sleepers and nothing much worries us but Herman and I were killing ourselves laughing and glad that today we were moving on to air-conditioning. Our little drive today went smoothly except for a few new roundabouts that Tom-Tom did not pick up and it sent us around in circles for a little while. Obviously they have been installed recently as the maps on our chip are about 3 years old. We left Cortona at 8:20am and arrived at our hotel at about 1:30pm so with a coffee and sandwich stop at the halfway point (so Herman could stretch his legs for a while) we did it in good time. We have been making our own sandwiches and coffee at home for we have not struck any of the good Auto Grills at the side of the roads not the same foods as we found last time—maybe they are mainly in France, Germany and North/Western Europe? Once we skirted past Florence the hills had higher points to them and in some cases there was still some signs of snow. Also the further north we drove the silver haze that we see everywhere on the horizon steadily turned into a light shade of beige. Apart from that 80% of the country side seems to be covered with thick forests with trees of different hues of green; it all looks lush and beautiful. We again skimmed over the roads carried by viaducts and drove through endless tunnels—Herman’s comment “these people do not muck around here—if there is a mountain in the way they just bore out a tunnel and go straight through it” my observation is that “if the pollution is that bad already, with this much greenery battling against it, they have no option but to build efficient roads to get these cars to their destinations as soon as possible. News flash: - as I am typing Herman is watching CNN on the TV in our room and we are finally catching up on everything that has been happening in the world there is even a story about the floods in Queensland, Australia. Mick has been alluding as to what is going on in the world but we had not been able to decipher the news on TV Our ‘Novotel Genoa West’ has a lot of bad comments on ‘tripadvisor’ a site that gives peoples’ revues of the hotels after they have stayed there. Fortunately I did not pick that up until after booking our first nights’ stay (Sunday night). There was always someone waiting to get on the internet at the internet point in Cortona so I was always in a hurry to get off to give someone else a chance. When trying to book for these two nights (Friday and Saturday) and finding most places booked out--unless we wanted to pay $300 and upwards per night-- we got desperate and said to each other “just book in to the Novotel in Genoa and we will make the best of it--all worries were unfounded--we have a lovely room on the sixth floor, fantastic bathroom and shower, staff that up to now have been very polite and helpful and to top it off a TV that tells us the news in English. The hotel is not in the city center for parking was important for us but we have found out that there are 3 busses that will take us there. We are about a ten minute walk away from the ferry terminal which also houses a shopping mall with a COOP Super-Supermarket; the double super is because it is a giant of a supermarket, we spent some time there this afternoon to see what it stocks. The restaurant in our motel is quite expensive so we bought some salad cheese and proscuito and had a picnic in our room. I just looked out of the window while Herman was doing a proof read and I thought for a minute that we are staying in the Oaks Apartments in Darling Harbour, Sydney only the ships are a little bigger, there are lights everywhere, it is Ohhh so pretty----Goodnight All |
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