Riding out a storm in Fano, Italy

Zagan the motorhome has battened down his hatches with his fellow Italian campers at the free aire just outside the old city walls of Fano, on the Adriatic coast (N43.84567, E13.01059).

I woke this morning to the sound of a road sweeper going around us, figuring it must be time to get up I crawled out of bed only to find it was just after 7am – which is only time to get up for us if we have a ferry to catch. Wide awake, I grabbed a sleeping bag off the bed (in winter we have a duvet and two unzipped sleeping bags over us) and wrapped up in it. The rain was coming down much harder than yesterday, the temperature had dropped and the wind had picked up, the perfect time to crack open one of our treasured packs of British bacon for a breakfast bacon cob.

We decided to head back to the coast so we could actually see something, as Urbino was now covered in low cloud. As we left the town people were battling with umbrellas turning inside out and we saw a little dog whose winter coat had been blown back over his head – not a happy puppy. This caused me to change our destination from the parking place on the beach to one in the town, as we didn’t fancy being battered.

Sorry to any vegetarians, but this is food porn to us – you just can’t get ‘proper bacon’ here.

Despite being on a dual carriageway most of the way, the drive through heavy rain wasn’t a pleasant one, the rain had filled the ruts and pot holes in the road disguising them as tarmac, spray filled the air, and random roadworks sent us all over the road. We were both relieved when we reached our parking spot, and even more so when we saw several other vans in it – safety in numbers.

Several more vans have arrived now, we’re taking over!

Jay went for a stroll around the town, returning soaked through but glad of the leg stretch, so the rest of the day was spent listening to the rain on the roof and being rocked by the wind.  I’ve been reading some of our old blog posts from when we were around Slovenia and Italy a few years ago, we seemed to relish coming back to rule-ignoring Italy after strict Slovenia. I read the posts to Jay and we looked at the map; if this happens again on this trip we can always nip back into Italy and go north through here instead. I don’t know what it is about this country (apart from the gelato) but we just love it and hate it, but slightly more love it!

We got a wonderful offer today too from the people who make CoPilot satnav apps. They have just launched a caravan and motorhome version and wanted us to test it. As a thank you they have offered a copy for us to give away on our blog – The competition is now closed.

As dusk fell the rain eased and the wind dropped a little so we took Charlie for a walk down to the beach. Normally you have to drag him everywhere, but once we got a whiff of sea in his nostrils he was dragging me along.

Storm clouds over Fano beach

The fishing fleet won’t be going out today

Released from his lead he set about barking instructions for sticks to be thrown. All signs of the hobble he has had following his mammoth stick chase in Rimini have gone, but we limited him to just a few this time.

Sometimes he gets ideas above his station – that stick is just too big for you pooch!

On our way back I nipped and grabbed us a couple of gelato, the shop was unsurprisingly empty in this weather. Jay had chocolate and nutella while I let the lady serving decide. After a couple of moments of thought she proudly handed me the cone, letting me know it was her favourites. I can’t fault her, pistachio and raspberry ripple, but with while raspberries in it – perfect.

As we walked to the beach we passed the church, a group of old ladies stood reading the ‘Morti’ notice board, no doubt knowing everyone on it.

Ju x