Time has flown by in Terni & Rome. We’ve had a great time as a family with all our friends and we’re very grateful for their friendship. Today I will drive to Lucca on my own – my family wants to spend less time on the road – rather a long and relaxing lunch at the sea somewhere en-route. Me, however, am looking forward to the trip. Today will be a very hot day and I’ve planned to take TW560 up some hills to get a reprieve from the heat. TW560 was charged slowly at 0.02C to allow the […]
TDI2020 – Terni & Rome
After arriving in Terni, we’re ready for a week of time-off, Italian-style! We live with our friends whilst our kids live distributed across town with their grown-up children or stay with the extended family. Most of our days consist of sitting at long tables and eating fabulous food or visiting other parts of the family – very relaxing. With Covid Lockdown1 over, most of public services are back – with the hot weather we’re loving the fact that we have a swimming pool just around the corner from where we live! We spent a few afternoons here. Our kids, however, […]
TDI2020 – Southwards along the Adriatic Sea
After our two days with our friends, it’s time for us as a family to spend some time at the sea on our own. We’re all looking forward to 3 days in Lido di Dante – it’s a trip down memory lane: as a young family we came here a few times when the kids were all in their single digits and it was just perfect – kid-friendly Italian restaurants – pizza and pasta universally loved by our children, beach fronts with playgrounds and shallow water…and tons of other kids. Our new vacation setup sees us parents getting up and […]
TDI2020 – Two Days On My Own
A new TWIKE adventure! Post-Lockdown1 relaxation of travel restrictions to Italy meant that we – at short notice – arranged to visit various of our Italian friends and stay a few days at the sea, both on the Adriatic and Tyrrheanean side of the Italian peninsula. The first two days will see me driving on my own to Brescia and staying there with friends and their family before my own family joins me on late Sunday. I really need the time-off and two days on my own as I’ve been extremely busy lately. As always, it doesn’t take me long […]
TDI2019 Day 12 – Brescia -> Switzerland
After a very nice evening with my friends in Brescia, it’s time to head back home. Instead of choosing another selection of small road across the Alps, for today I chose to try a recently-built stretch of Autostrada that will take me to Milan quicker and with less traffic…and with a much better road surface. We say our good-bye’s and off I go, promising to be back soon! The motorway is as free as expected. I get TW560 into a truck’s slipstream and settle into a 1h20 drive to Milan. The road surface and the Pianura being flat brings my […]
TDI2019 Day 11 – La Spezia -> Brescia
Today’s trip to Brescia is going to be a full mix of landscapes – saying goodbye to the sea, crossing the Apennines and onward across the Pianura. For this I get up very early as I’ve planned to drive along some very small and interesting single-lane roads, exploring rural Italy away from any main roads. From La Spezia, driving northwards, I immediately start climbing towards the Apennine. And the views to be seen are really worth the never-ending hair-pin bends on less-than-ideal road surfaces. The further back the valley I get, the less tarmac the road surface is made of. […]
TDI2019 Day 10 – Terni -> La Spezia
Time flies – as always in Terni – and I’ve got to start making my way back home. I’ve decided to drive to La Spezia today, 410km further north. With the currently very moderate temperatures and the additional weight of my luggage, I believe this will be a near-full cycle for my batteries today. As per an unwritten tradition, we all congregate at the same bar we’ve been saying our goodbyes for the last 20 years and have a farewell espresso and cornetto 🙂 Today’s route will take me across a rolling landscape before meeting up with the sea and […]
TDI2019 Day 9 – Rasiglia
Welcome to a quick TDI2019 entry – a day-trip to Rasiglia. Gabriella and I start early as the little village can get crowded very quickly. Rasiglia is an easy 70 km drive from Terni and a true gem. It is also a testament to the steadfastness of a village to survive and use modern technology to attract visitors to their unique feature: A stream flowing right though it, previously powering mills and other textile-related machinery. More on that later. But first, we enter the Valnerina, the valley of the Nera river. A very nice road winds along the narrow valley, […]