Kevnjan's big adventure.

Tues. 28th. Feb. After a night of listening to the wind howling around the marina and rattling the van we awoke to another cloudless morning and the prospect of a gentle drive up the coast. The wind, thank goodness had dropped at last and we took a walk along the harbour wall before setting out. Vieste is a pleasant enough town but no show stopper. The beach north of town however is stunning. Must be wonderful in summer. As we left town the road began to climb again and before long we were negotiating another morning of tortuous, winding roads. We put up with it until lunch time which we spent in another perfect spot with the sea on one side and a lake on the other. On the basis that too much of a good thing is not necessarily good for you we made a decision to get on the Autostrada and put in some serious miles. Three hours later we found ourselves back in Martinsicuro at a farm/campeggio where we spent 8 days in October. We were welcomed back by Rita and her husband like long lost family. After the customary cup of tepid, sweet expresso we parked up and were presented with a large plate of home cured proscuitto. Fabulous. We had to make a difficult decision today, either to miss the west coast and Turin and Milan or cancel our return visit to Venice on the way home. I'm afraid Venice got the thumbs down. I know that Jan was looking forward to re-visiting Venice but it really is out of our way. We'll see if we have any time after we've done the rest. It's beginning to look like 8 months isn't going to be long enough. Might have to come back. On the way up the coast this afternoon it was noticeable that the higher mountain ranges still have a considerable covering of snow to quite low levels. Hope that's not a sign of what we can expect going up through Umbria to Tuscany in the next couple of weeks. Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Rewarded myself with a bottle of Scotch today, first in 10 days. Cheers!!