Day 14, the final day of leg 2, brings a trip from the East coast of Northern Italy to the West. My destination is the small commune of Casola in Lunigiana where my friends Mick and Yvonne live.  I’ll be staying in their house for three nights, and quite looking forward to catching up with them as they are mostly based in Italy these days.

The trip involves a morning on the Italian motorways which are all toll based. I’ve got a feeling the toll charges are coming to nearly as much as the cost of the petrol which makes this an expensive country to get around in.

At least I had a good run with no jams and it wasn’t long before I was in Aulla, the nearest town to the commune of Casola in Lunigiana. A trip to Lidl to top up with beers and bottles of mineral water was followed by the last 15 miles or so to the village.

Parking round here is scarce to put it mildly. When this mountainside village was built in the 1300’s, there probably wasn’t too much of a need for car parking.

Luckily there is a small campsite behind the walled village and a deal has been struck to leave the Bambi parked there on an electric hookup for €7 per night so everyone’s happy.

After a good afternoon of chit chat, mostly me and Mick putting the world to rights, we headed up the hill to the only restaurant in the village for a nice Italian meal and vino. We sat outside until quite late, indeed all the staff had long gone home by the time we left.