Welcomed to Ferrari Country, Fiorano Modenese
Zagan the motorhome is wondering at his good fortune. Last night we spent half the night wondering what the shouting and hooting was, as we lay awake in Reggio Emilia. Motorhomes and mini-buses shifted about into the wee hours for reasons unknown to us, and we awoke bleary-eyed. Tonight we’re in a free sosta one kilometre from Fiorano Modenese (N44.54096 E10.82703). We’ve had a right royal welcome, and it looks like we’re well set for a great kip before wandering Ferrari country tomorrow. Grazie mille to the Camper Club Fiorano Modenese (www.camperclubfioranomodenese.it)!
Free Sosta in Fiorano Modense
What was that all about? We woke up this morning, having not slept a great deal, wondering what happened last night. The car park we were in was a real multi-national set-up, with van registrations showing Ukraine, Italy, UK (us) and Croatia. Why we spent half the night awake listening to singing, shout, screeching and vehicles being shifted about, we don’t know why. Probably fair to say we’ll steer clear of Reggio Emilia’s freebie sosta on Friday nights in future. :-)
Not all motorhomes look like a fridge- freezer!
This morning I took Charlie for a walk and watched, with cricked neck, a Ukrainian van weighing in parcels and loading them into the back, some sort of unofficial postage service back home from Italy I guess. Once the pooch was sorted, we wasted no time in setting off. Although actually, we did waste some time.
Why? Well, 40% of Italy is mountainous. And whatever else they are, mountains make for interesting scenery. However, the Po Valley, which we’ve spent most of our time in since leaving Valle d’Aosta, is flat. Flat as. Between towns nothing but the odd farmhouse and tree pokes up above the vertical. Plains like this have a universally soulless feel to me. Maybe Ju too, since we entered into an unexpected debate this morning: should we just swing south, and cross the Apennines to the Med, or carry on east to the Adriatic. I know, life is hard in Team Zagan, so many decisions. The end result was we’d carry on east, mainly due to the fact we know the coastline to the south of La Spezia’s nothing special, especially in winter. Let’s head for the East coast and see some new stuff.
And here we are. Why here exactly? Ah, well, technically I guess we should have headed for Modena. But cities are starting to tire us out. We’d a vague notion Ferrari have something going on around here, and with a bit of research we found their factory and museum in Maranello, a couple of miles to our east. The sosta there was €5, the one here is free, decision made.
Arriving here, we knew we’d need to call an Italian number to get a barrier code to get in. Gulp. Ju drew the short straw, since I opted not to draw a straw at all, and she made the call. Since our knowledge of Italian is close to non-existent, this didn’t work too well, but shortly after the failed call a gentleman arrived in his car. Donning a lanyard and picking up an array of leaflets, he walked over to us and very gently explained everything. All the local attractions, how the services work, the code for the gate (kept guarded to keep out undesirables) and the WiFi code. Oh yeah man, we have unlimited free WiFi, for the first time in a LONG TIME! We’ve finally been able to upload some videos to our YouTube channel – there are a couple more to come, and are in the process of trying to update our satnav – TomTom seemingly doesn’t want to play today.
After taking a walk into the nearby town, a second chap arrived. Again very gentle and welcoming, he explained he was the guy Ju’d spoken with but was unable to help us and was some distance away at the time. Seriously? Do these guys provide this service to everyone who comes here, for free? It would seem they do. They’re clearly very proud of their area, and want to promote it at the expense of their own time. Good for them. We’re thinking we’ll use tomorrow to nip out and see some of the local sights, and come back here tomorrow night for another (fingers crossed) good night’s kip.
Fiorano Modenese
Po Valley to the left, start of the Apennines to the right. End of the flatness is in sight
So close to the Ferrari factory, but this is the only evidence we’ve seen so far. Certainly no Ferrari cars on the roads, the expensive cars here are all Range Rovers
Fiorano Modenese
Fiorano Modenese
Fiorano Modenese
This afternoon we were able to watch the England v Wales rugby match using the WiFi – satellite can’t find a signal at the moment. Well done England on the Triple Crown, fingers crossed for the Grand Slam next week (we’d better not mention the Italy score!!). After a couple of beers while watching the match Ju cooked up some of the fresh pasta we got from the local supermarket yesterday. Stuffed with pumpkin it also had a dash of a familiar flavour to it, almonds, yes there was some Amaretto in there. If that isn’t an excuse to crack open our bottle of Amaretto, I don’t know what is!
Sat TV’s not working, but we managed to watch the Six Nations Wales England game on our motorhomewifi.com unidirectional antenna, woo hoo!
Cheers, Jay
Hi Jason and Jules
We have been following your travels along with Joannas and Craig’s Our Bumble. We live in NZ and have taken the plunge and ordered a new motorhome from a dealer in Essex. It is supposed to be ready for pick up mid May. I have added a couple of weeks for good measure however. Stuart was made redundant in Sept 15, to his delight, and I have told my employers I wont be here after 1 june. I treat myself every afternoon at work to catch up with your news, it is hard to keep even vaguely interested in the activities at work!
We will be travelling through France and Spain as starters after Stuart has equipped the van to his satisfaction. We are looking to use aires and free camps as much as poss. We have to ship the van back to N Z before a year is up, but if we really like the life, who knows we could be back or try the US of A?
Anyhow thought I would share this as we enjoy reading your blog, it must take some discipline to do it every day.
Regards Jane and Stuart
Thanks guys, appreciate you taking the time to drop us a line. France and Spain sound like perfect starting points. France in particular is very motorhome friendly, rivalled only by Germany for the number of aires available. When equipping the van, consider a refillable LPG set up by the way, as gas bottles vary from country to country in Europe (apologies if you already knew this). Take it easy, don’t work too hard! Jay
hi Julie & Jason , to let you know weve arrived back in uk now no probs, It was realy great to meet you both in Ivrea. We will follow your travels and blogs we were thrilled to read your blogg about our meeting, regretting that we dident stop another night to continue our conversations with some wine added, anyhow best regards to you both and hope you have some great journeys to come, bon voyage, keith & jackie
Thanks guys, was great to meet you too. The boating life may well pull us in one day, we’ll see! Still heading south we are, but the turn-around point has to come soon or we’ll never make it to the Arctic. Cheers, Jay
Hi Guys We are Aussies, We are arriving in Germany in June & have hired an RV for 5 months. We will be travelling thru Germany & France before going to the UK for most of the trip. Then returning to Germany to return the RV. We did it this way as hire ex Germany was much cheaper.
We are experienced at caravans in Australia (retired & sold the house 12 months ago )we spend 6 months in Aus & the 6 other overseas, however this will be our first RV adventure. I love your blogs as I have only just discovered them in our prep for this tour. If you have a must take or do list I would appreciate your experienced advice. Also… GPS which is best for Europe & UK we have Garmin & will need maps etc.
Regards
Kel & Lyn