"Hot in the City" Italy by Kiwigirlie

2003 was our big camping trip through, France, Italy, Croatia & Austria. We drove 4000 miles and saw all sorts of amazing things! Italy being one of them. It's one of my favourite European countries and I knew that it was going to be just as good as the last time I visited in 1999.
Our first night was on the French/Swiss boarder near Geneva. We got lost in the mountains and found what appeared to be just somebodies back yard turned into a make shift camp ground! It was four Euros for the night (the cheapest place on the entire trip!) and that night we watched the most intense lightening storm! It was just awesome!

We parked up near Gambio

Some friends of ours suggested a road from Barcelonette to Nice, over what they said was the highest single road in the Alps. We went from 37 degrees at the bottom to 8 degrees at the top but we didn't realise was how long it would take to drive to Nice. It took us all day and we got to the coast at about 9pm. Looking for a camp ground on that coast at dark was totally impossible so we stopped on the coast road north of Nice, cooked our dinner and just stared at the cruise liners and massive houses on the cliffs. We then drove on to Monaco. Now Monaco is like the Hotel California - you can never leave the place. The roads are so confusing and it's not very well sign posted, so we spent about an hour trying to get out of the place. Finally we managed to get back onto the north road. We decided that that night we would spend in the car rather than trying to find a camp ground. So we drove up into the mountains, parked in a dark, quiet area and made a comfortable bed in the car! It was a very long day!

Our goal for the next day was to get to Cinque Terra on the coast south of Genova. We found a fantastic camp ground in Levanto, just north of the famous five! We went for our first swim that day too which was lovely! And we finally got to practice our Italian!
Cinque Terra is one of those places you only dream about or see on some movie.. Five villages perched on cliffs and over looking the med. You can walk between each village (which is what we did) or you can take the train - there are no roads! Well to link the five anyway. And to be honest it's better to be at sea level and seeing them up close rather than looking from a distance!