Today we drove along the Italian Riviera. The scenery is great, lots of things to see along the route right by the sea. But we passed beach, after beach, after beach. We drove for five hours wanting to stop to take a swim. But again it is completely impossible to find a parking spot. This is crazy! You are not supposed to have a car here. But they drive better than the French.

We also did a whole lot of shopping at Lidl. How are we going to fit all this in the car? Also at Lidl they have a bar over the entrance to the parking lot. We came under it by a hair.

Late in the afternoon we got tired of riding along the beautiful, but very slow road along the sea with lots of traffic jams. You don’t cover much distance in 30 km/h in average. We decided to take the highway instead. It is really expensive to drive the highways 100 kilometers coasted us 10 Euro.

Laundry day today, we don’t have much room for dirty laundry in the car. We found a launderette in town, and did two big loads, for 15 Euro. In this heat it dried quickly at the washing lines in the breeze. We were lucky to have found a perfect parking spot for 11 Euro per day, instead of the crowded campsite that took 35 Euro per day. Here we could hang all our laundry to dry. After all that work we went to the beach. Ohhhh, that was so nice to jump in the sea! Later in the afternoon when it was somewhat cooler, only like + 33 grader Celcius, we took a two hour walk along sea.

After a quick swim at the beach we headed for Pisa and the leaning tower. Not only the tower leaned, also some other buildings did not stand strait. After that we set off towards the tiny, tiny country San Marino. Now we plan to cross right over Italy to the east coast.

We stopped at a parking lot along the way to fix some lunch. At the same parking lot there was already a rundown camper. In that camper you could get other quick things done.

We have traveled across Italy and the Toscana area. On the way we visited the tiny country of San Marino, with a castle on top of the mountain and with a very old city inside. It felt like a film set. And this weekend they also had a Cos play event that added to that feeling. But it seems like there actually are people living there in the old houses.

After that we travelled north along the coast from Rimini. It is the same here. Crowded beaches, umbrellas in more lines then you can count. The French and the Italian Riviera is a great disappointment to us. We would never recommend anyone to go there, unless you fancy sharing your beach towel with people you don’t know. It is very crowded.

Sunday 28/8, Venice, Italy We skipped going in to Venice. Instead we decided to leave Italy for beach life in a better country and to find a campsite to stay for some days to relax. We have covered some distance on good roads today, without having to pay toll.

We filled our car up enough to get through the borders to Slovenia and Croatia. The petrol is cheeper there. Of course we have printed out a petrol index chart, so we know what coutries thart have the cheepest petrol price. It makes a big difference in the end.

When we passed the border to Slovenia by 200 meters, we instantly found a parking spot right by the beach. We had a pick nick lunch in the shadow of the trees and took a swim. This is unbelievable. We have travelled along the Riviera for days, without being able to do this. The most common traffic sign is a stop prohibited sign with a threat of towing your car way. In spite of that it has been completely impossible to find a place to park, not even at a stop prohibited area.

Twenty kilometers after passing the Slovenian border we crossed the border in to Croatia. We found a campsite with good rating, and went there. But it was like a campsite from hell, gigantic and like a mix Disney world and a Water world, but with sea weeds. So we moved on.