Alessandria to Deiva Marina

Alessandria to Deiva Marina - 96 miles

After the fireworks, things quietened down very quickly and we had a relatively undisturbed night – unfortunately we were parked next to quite a busy road and there was traffic most of the night. But Sunday was again bright and sunny and the car-park was empty! But not for long, it seems that there was a Sunday market just along the road, but we didn't indulge.

We just got on our way but then one of the tyre sensors gave out a warning of low pressure, although the usual “pre-flight” inspection had looked okay. Also Jamie started creating so a quick diversion into a Centre Commercial to sort him out and a proper investigation of the tyre. It looked like a sensor problem so the battery was changed and it was okay then for the rest of the day.

Back on the autostrada we had set TomTom to go to a motorhome parking place in Genoa, mainly to get us out of Alessandria, but he then decided to go a different way to our pre-programmed route in Nellie – not that it really mattered so we went along with it. Sunday and the roads were very quiet so we thought we'd let the satnav have it's way and have a drive into Genoa.

Just as well it was Sunday because it was quite a complicated trip but it did give us the opportunity of viewing this fine city and we even arrived at the parking place too. Which was a bit of luck really as TomTom decided to play silly whatsits just as we left the autostrada into the city itself! Fortunately Bren was following our progress on Nellie so we muddled our way through. However we decided not to stay as it was a little way from the centre and thought it would make more sense to return by train. We'll see how our trip progresses.

Quick shot of ferry terminal passing through Genoa. Too busy for more, sorry!

Our pre-planning had set the town of Chiavari as our jumping off point in Italy but we wanted a few days stop so the nearest ACSI campsites were a little further down the road. A choice of three at Deiva Marina sort of pointed us there so with the satnav programmed for the nearest we once more joined the motorway – which was a shame really as this is a beautiful coastline and we only managed a glance or two as we popped out of one of the many tunnels along the road then back in again. Planning had showed us, however, that taking the coastal road would have taken us all afternoon but our destination was close to the Cinque Terre, a group of fishing villages clinging to the coast and said to be very attractive. More about this later.

All three campsites were very close together so we had a look at the first, which looked very reasonable. We checked in for 5 nights and selected an open pitch quite close to the amenities. There were other, more shady but smaller pitches however they had bookings already – we didn't mind.

We had not travelled a great distance today so we got set up then settled down to a late lunch. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, as well as chatting to a couple of other Brit motor-homers. 

We're not actually in the village itself, but a couple of kilometres away – the site provides a free shuttle bus to the station – so we'll leave exploring for now.