Travel Diary 14

Travel Diary 14

We arrived in Parma, in the Northern end of Tuscany, just as it was starting to get dark …. About 7.30pm. The Campsite was near the city centre and we followed the dulcet tones of Simon directing us to turn left in 300m and take the third exit from the next roundabout and so on. Along the main street of town we went and then he said turn left at the next street.

The next thing I know is Kerrie saying “We’ve past it!”. What? Hadn’t even seen it! There wasn’t a street there was there? Anyway, we drove around the block with Simon doing a bit of recalculating a few times and then he said turn right. Up this narrow lane we went, hoping like hell it was one way, reached the traffic lights at the intersection with the main drag again and waited till we got a green arrow.

Talk about getting stared at! It was either a case of no one had ever seen a campervan before or they were checking us out for two heads because we were definitely foreigners as NO ONE would ever drive a campervan up THAT street! Eventually we got a green arrow and turned. I did a quick check left to see what traffic was at the lights waiting for their turn to follow us. I suspected we may need to slow down to a crawl to check this upcoming laneway out, let alone find it in the first place! And I did not want to upset Parmerites having only just arrived! There was plenty of time for that!

We spotted the lane and carefully swung into it. It was one way, about 5 or 6 meters wide, with cars parked half on the footpath and half in the road on one side and buildings just under a meter from the road on the other. Good, plenty of room. I turned on the lights as with the high buildings and narrow laneways, precious little light gets in there at mid-day, let alone at dusk!

The lane veered left and then Simon tells us in 160 meters turn left into the street where the campsite was. At this point I thought, no way is there a campsite here. Not in the centre of the city here! Couldn’t be! But funnier things have happened and we turned left to check it out. Around another corner and Simon blithely announces “You have arrived at your destination”.

We search around for another lane or driveway or something, but nothing. Just tall buildings crowding the street and cars everywhere! Thanks for nothing Simon and Google Earth! I have no idea what the story was, but there was no campsite and we were in lanes getting smaller and smaller. I could see us in about one minute being jammed in a two-way street with cars to the back of us, cars to the front of us, nowhere to turn around and more Italians checking us out for two heads while waving their arms and gabbing on in Italiano at a rate of knots!  

I said to Kerrie “Turn Simon off” to avoid any further distraction while he did some more recalculating followed by a couple of unmentionable words and then “I’m out of here. I’ll find somewhere to park out of the city centre and find another campsite”.

We eventually pulled out into a road which had a whole bunch of lanes and cars whizzing back and forwards, overtaking each other, speeding, cutting each other off and tooting to their hearts content. Good I thought much easier to deal with this! Normal stuff! I started to accelerate and noticed some coppers setting up a speed camera on the side of the road. Thought they’ll be kept busy tonight and then wondered what the hell was the speed limit anyway? It would be probably either 30 or 50 kph, but we hadn’t seen a sign for ages and Simon’s advice about speed was nearly always wrong! So, decided to be cautious and punted for 30.

That turned out to be wrong as the locals quickly let us know! It was 50! So we sped up and after about 3kms were driving down a road with two lanes each way, us on the inside lane and following a car being driven by a bloke who was looking for a particular address or shop or whatever. 50kph had become 10 to 40kph as he slowed and sped up, reading signs and generally checking things out. There was a bunch of traffic behind us and no room to pull out to overtake due to the constant stream on my left hand side lane. After a couple pf blocks of doing this, he just stops. I stop and so do about 30 cars behind me. The tooting starts as he just puts on his emergency flashers, climbs out of the car, looks at me as if to say what’s the problem, when I raise my hands at him and walks off to a shop! Can you believe it? We had seen vehicles parked like this before, emergency lights flashing, blocking a whole lane, no one in the car, but never had been effected by it. The real problem was that no one behind could see what was happening and was thinking who’s this foreigner in a campervan stuffing things up!

So, I waited for the tiniest break in the traffic and pulled out. No one worried, just slowed down as I pulled out then we all sped up again and headed of. Amazing! Welcome to Parma! Or was it Italy!

What a day it had turned to be! A few days later we were chatting to a couple of policemen asking for directions and ended up talking about driving in Italy and Australia. He was amazed that people in Australia would get booked for stuff they just accept and think is normal! And they also thought that Genoese drivers are very good, can drive all sorts of ways, but Nepalese are mad! Go figure!

Eventually I found a closed service station with a big enough forecourt for us to park in while we searched for another campsite. By now it was nearly 8.45pm and the dark had arrived properly. So, after a bit of a stretch and walk around the car, I jumped onto Google and searched the Camping site books we had bought. About 20 minutes later I had found another one close by. Well about 15kms away and somewhat out of town. We just hoped it was near public transport.

Another 25 mins of following Simon’s directions and found it.

We turned into the side street and there was massive trailer park for trucks, caravans, campervans and so on. But all were permanently parked. They were homes for people! No office, no security, no designated areas, nothing! We slowly drove through wondering if Simon had played another trick on us, when we spotted a sign with a picture of campervans on it. Then a gateway and an office on the other side. Closed of course!

We parked and walked over to check things out. Eventually we worked it out. One lines the van up with the entry gates, and then goes to a machine and presses a button to get a ticket. The boom bar raises and one drives in and parks wherever one like. One pays when you leave. Quite good really as the exit boom bar will not raise until you enter a receipted ticket into another machine. In we went, parked and then walked around for a check of facilities which consisted of two toilets, two showers, Wi-Fi when the office was open at 8.00am to 12.00 in the morning and an outside tub to wash dishes in. No dumps!

Never mind, it was good enough for us. The red oil light was still flashing and I knew the next day I’d have to get that sorted. Then Kerrie said “Yeah, but tomorrow’s Sunday! Nothing open. And then there is Monday, when no one opens anyway!” Ohh dear, this will stuff up our schedule well and truly because we only have a limited amount of days before we have to be in Rome for pre-paid tours.

The next morning, I get onto the internet and fire off an email to McRent (the van hire people in Frankfurt) explaining the red light and oil message situation. This message keeps appearing on the dashboard but is written in German and I had no idea what it meant. Fortunately, a German guy in the van next door came to the rescue. He said it meant the van was due for an oil change and service.

Great, just what we needed, another day off the road and who knows how long or where it can get booked in for a service! All we can do is wait for McRent to get back to us and advise us. As there was nothing left to do, we decided to visit Parma.

We checked the bus situation out with the nice bloke in the office who spoke good English and wants to go to Australia, but can’t because his girlfriend has a good Italian job with some Chemical company, and found out that a bus leaves every hour about 200m down the road, turn right and there is a machine where you buy your tickets.

So we walked down, turned right and reached the bus stop. No machine to be seen anywhere. Not on either side of the road. But on the good side, we did see a large Fiat Agency with service facilities. Could be very handy! Our luck had turned! We had also been advised that there was Vodaphone shop a few bus stops down the road. Even better news as Vodaphone had decided I had used about 5.75G of our 5G pre-paid limit and we only had McDonald’s and campsite Wi-Fi to use. Both of which can be a bit iffy. Particular when McDonald’s Wi-Fi has different login passwords for every store and some do not work! On one occasion we had to use the Store Manager’s Password. Besides, how does one get an SMS’d Password when one’s phone is not working?

After some walking to and fro, Kerrie saw a bus turn into the road to the campsite. We checked out what was happening, and there were a couple of bus stops there. Not ours as the office bloke had said to turn right into the main road. But on checking the timetable, we saw that these were the correct bus stops, but the bus number was different and we didn’t know where that one went. A girl cycling by told us “No Bus Dimanchia” meaning there are no busses on a Sunday. But we had just seen one! Confusion reigned supreme.

After some more toing and froing, we decided to wait at the second bus stop and ask the driver if he went to Parma central that we had worked out was called Piazza Mizzia or something like that. When it came we piled on board and yes he did go there. We sat down, he hadn’t wanted tickets or money and we had no idea how the system worked anyway.

We got off at the Piazza Mizzia or near there and sighed in relief having achieved this major feat after taking an hour and a half to find a bus and get a free ride into town some 8 kms away!

In Italy, riding busses is very much an honour affair thing. Tickets are purchased from ticket dispensers before getting on the bus. One then validates the ticket on the bus by pushing it into a small machine somewhere in the aisle of the bus where it gets stamped. Occasionally a driver will sell you a ticket, but if you haven’t got one, they just wave you down the back. They’re a driver. Not their responsibility to worry about the profitability of the bus company!

We have never seen an inspector, although we have been told they exist. But we have seen a few people just get on and ride without validating any tickets. More freebies like us I suppose!

Prices are cheap and one can buy an all-day ticket for around 1.50 to 2 euros. Buses are clean and usually on time and frequent. Not a lot of seats on them, so standing room is at a premium. But by and large, no complaints about the system. Just takes a bit of working out.

Anyway, here we were in Parma at last! Along with some more Piazzas, churches, a Baptista or two and some Museums. Fantastic! We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon till about 2.00pm wandering around taking photos and seeing some beautiful sights. I cannot get over the fact that Italy produced so many brilliant artists and sculptures, builders and designers during the late middle ages and early Renaissance periods. No other country I am aware of has the like or the same quantity. When doing later research, I realised that nearly every little town and village and city has a church worth seeing, a museum and paintings and sculptures in squares that are outstanding. Some are done by people like da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio and so on who travelled around Italy picking up contracts here and there and others by local artists who are not well known due to the massive exposure of the well-known names. But the amount of work and its quality make up a huge list.

When one first travels like this, one feels one has got to see items like The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and so on. These are well known to any student of history and highly publicised. But the copies of these are very very good and the amount of other work by lessor known and unknown artists is just huge and well worth while seeing. Besides, getting to see the originals can be difficult if not nigh on impossible as they are not always on display and then if you do not have pre purchased tickets, you can just about forget it unless you are happy to spend half your holiday waiting in queues. Which means you lose time and miss out on other things and places to go.

No wonder people make repetitive visits to Europe. No wonder the Europeans themselves make multiple visits to the same places. The sheer quantity of good things to visit is breath taking. I am not amazed any longer about the fact that wealthy families used to send their children to either finishing schools in Europe or to do a year or two just travelling around. This gives one an entirely different outlook on history, social mores and just the interaction with people of different nationalities is an education in itself.

What was it about this country and this time in history that caused this to happen? Does visiting it “round one off one’s education” as used to be the expression? I don’t know, but it certainly expands ones thinking and appreciation. As Kerrie said to me, “Imagine what Leonardo da Vinci could have done today with computers and modern technology!”. Some of the stuff he invented during the late 1400’s related to pullies, screws, gears and cogs are still in use today! The modern gearbox in every car for example.  

What a thought!

We had lunch mid-afternoon in a piazza that had a market going. Lots of clothes, jewellery, food and nick knacks and paintings. The usual thing one would see at any market anywhere in Australia. We watched a man carve roosters from small sticks and have three or children paint them. We saw a man paint pictures using spray paints. We listened to a lady dressed in cheap dowdy clothes with Eastern European appearance play a small electric guitar covering songs consisting of gypsy music, Viennese waltzes, Beatles and Bacharach and ones I had never heard before. We sat and ate some antipasto and Panini filled with soft, white Mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and Pancetta, occasionally sipping our Café Americana’s topped up with hot water followed by some local vin, bianco secco! And an hour or so later, after half an hour of searching, found the right bus stop and caught the correct bus back to the van. This time buying and validating our tickets!

It was a great day and we had tomorrow to look forward to.

We never got a reply from McRent until the next day. Monday! So, while we waited for the email, we decided to go and see if the Vodaphone shop was opened and get our internet access sorted. Upon arriving, we found a lady whose English was about the same amount as my Italian. That is, worse than useless! But between demonstrating with my computer and her searching Vodaphones records, we discovered we still had a Gig to use on our pre-paid. So, why couldn’t we get access. She indicated it was the computer’s fault. But I showed her that it wasn’t as I could connect to the internet using their stores Wi-Fi. She had no idea.

She also had a never-ending stream of other customers arriving and I suggested she serve them as they and she were beginning to panic a bit or at the very least show signs of impatience. So in between her serving these people and then trying to help us over the next hour or so, we realised that we weren’t going to get anywhere. She was still quite positive that it was my computer’s fault and would not be budged from that. Despite the proof otherwise!

In the end, I gave up and we left saying “Gracias” as we left although I felt like saying something else! The service had reminded me of Telstra! Hard to imagine that isn’t it. Someone else like Telstra?

We decided to walk back to McDonalds and check if the email had arrived from McRent. It had along with instructions to get the oil changed at a Fiat Dealer and pay for it. They would reimburse us when we returned the van. Good!

I should mention that on the walk to McDonalds we had seen a shop selling phones and telecommunications stuff called “Tim”. We had walked in, found a man who spoke good English, explained about the Vodaphone system and our lack of internet access. Half an hour later, we had signed up for 19Gigs of data and 500 minutes of phone calls for 30 euros, lasting up to 3 months, but only in Italy. This was a special they were running. The normal plan was 5 Gig for 18 euros of data and no telephone calls. We took the special but had to wait until about 3.00pm for the set up to be completed. Hence back to McDonalds.

ON reaching the Fiat Dealer, everything was shut. We checked out the time and sure enough it was 1.00pm. Lunchtime and siesta time! Italy shuts down in a lot of businesses between 12.30pm and 2.30pm or later. Nothing to do but wait. So back to McDonalds for lunch.

At 2.35pm we were back at the Dealers with the van and met Francisco. A lovely young man who spoke good English as he had worked in England for a time. He sold Alpha Romeos. New ones and very sporty looking ones!! He introduced us to Luka, the Service Manager and translated for us. We showed him the message and ownership documents and our Passports and email that explained what was to happened and after all of that we he decided we could get the van serviced and have it back by 5.30pm. Fantastic!

And we did! All well, and in no small way to Francisco, so he got a Kiwi keyring for which he was all smiles and happy!

Then off to La Spezia.