A motorhome trip to Italy: Tuscany and Rome

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Guest writers: Maria and Jöran

Here we continue our retrospective of the years with a motorhome. A trip to sunny Italy when the snow is white outside is very appropriate. One daughter had moved there and it was time to visit.

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This will not be a travel report with tips on Rome, Pisa, Florence, Verona etc. There are others who write about that, FREEDOMtravel for example! No, here we talk more about the memories that remain, the mishaps that are now told and laughed about, and yes, we can give some tips.

The Eagles start

After all the problems with Måsajävel, we wanted to change to a newer and more reliable and also more flexible motorhome. It became a Weinsberg CaraBus 600MQ, a so-called flatbed. Perfect when you intend to spend a lot of time on the road and in narrow Italian alleys.

I liked this because it was so easy to drive! It reminded me a bit of a more modern folk bus. I now understand the van-life living feeling. It has everything you need with bed, kitchen, toilet, storage and still easy to drive like a car. Cheaper with fees than larger motorhomes too. The name: The Eagle, white and black and flew more safely than the seagull.

Travelling to Italy

When driving down to Italy, you can take several different routes down. What you should keep in mind is that different countries have different requirements for what you need to bring, such as the vignette, i.e. the toll card that must be obtained before entering the country.

We had planned to go through Denmark, Germany and onwards via Austria and into Italy via Bolzano, so we had passports for these routes.

Now it doesn't always turn out as we intended ... Well, most of the time we haven't thought at all. We only realise afterwards where we ended up. Always fun to check the GPS tracker when you get home.

It started well with the Alps and small roads in Austria. Thought we were on the right track ... We had previously in Germany driven a little too much west so we entered Austria in a different place than intended. As long as we drive south it will be fine, we thought, as we are not so much into maps.

We avoided the major roads and took smaller roads. There were smaller roads too, along beautiful villages and snowy mountains. Along fields with cows and a customs station. Wait a minute! A customs station here? Where are we really? Guards stopped us and asked what we were doing and where we were going.

 "Where are we, we asked?" "Eh Liechtenstein" they replied. "We are going to Italy".
Strangely, they let us through. Ok we were in Liechtenstein, a nice little country. It was not long before it was time for new customs: Switzerland. Now it was urgent to find a new vingette or there will be a fine!

San Bernardino tunnels

Then we happened to drive into the San Bernardino tunnel in Switzerland. There was a flash from a camera. Damn! Were we driving too fast? No ... What was it then? Will there be submachine guns outside the tunnel?

No, it wasn't really that bad. Nothing happened, then. It was only a while after we got back home that a letter from the Swiss police arrived.

"You have been driving 8 km too fast. 100 euro fine." Their police were very friendly because we had the choice to pay or not! As a foreigner you can actually do that!

The only problem was that if you didn't do it and then came back to the country, the police would take you to customs... It would be much more expensive! We are now such that if we have made a mistake, we will of course pay, whether we want to go back or not.

Tuscany

How wonderful to see your child again! She also stayed in a fantastic place, Lido di Camaiore in Tuscany. It is about 20 minutes drive north of Pisa. The promenade a few blocks away from the house and behind it you could see the white sides of the Carrara mountain.

By the way, we can recommend a good friend's trattoria in Camaiore for those travelling in the area: La Piazzetta 1955 Trattoria Bar in Piazza Armando Diaz 5, Camaiore, on Instagram @la_piazzetta_camaiore. Finally, we also got Italian ice cream! There is no better! Lemon ...

Some unnecessary knowledge

We were shopping in a similar Coop store and the daughter wondered what we would have for coffee. No, by the way, she never said fika!!! It means something completely different in Italian! (imagine replacing k with tt) ...

No, she asked what we wanted for coffee! "Biscotti", I said, as I love it. She looked at me questioningly and I explained what I meant. What biscotti was in Sweden. How hard would it be?! It was Italian!

The daughter points to a whole long row of shelves full of biscuits and cakes, sighs and says: "This is biscotti." Biscotti is the same as biscuit, you might say. So it's not a special kind. So now you know it too.

Rome

The daughter had a weekend off so we decided to go to Rome. We could fit all three in the tin so it was perfect!

We can recommend camping outside Rome and taking a bus or train into the centre. We stayed at a good campsite north of Rome, Happy Camping.
They offered their residents a free taxi bus a few times a day to and from the train. You should NOT leave your car at the stations. Rarely are they full or left, we were told. It worked very well with their service.

Getting around Rome is relatively easy and there are sights everywhere it seemed. But we would not go into sights now. Yes, I want to recommend Pietrasanta - the artists' village, Vinchi- Leonardi da Vinchi's birthplace, Carrara- the marble mountains.

Home again

While we were travelling around, we landed at home in Skövde from time to time to continue clearing out and preparing to become fully mobile. We did not cancel The Eagle over the winter but continued to travel in Sweden and Denmark.

Great to have when we were in Dalarna on Christmas Eve and visited the parents! Tours in spring and autumn are really nice. Less people out and just the right temperature.

Now we're getting closer to moving out! We will tell you about this in the next post. Hope you want to follow along! / eMJi

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Jöran and Maria Selin

Jöran and Maria are the names behind the former blog Magnolia Magis. They sold the house and lived 3 years outside first in a motorhome then a caravan. Travelling mostly in Sweden and Europe. Today they have switched to a small cabin in the forest and a camping-equipped Land Rover Defender with which they hope for many nice trips.

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