Agricamper Ristorante Casalta - 27 September 2022

Our stadium carpark was quite busy last night, football was being played nearby, but it quietened down and we both slept well.

Today has been a take a break day. Tintin was driving today - about 45 minutes in total.

On our way out of Florence just happened upon the Piazzale Michelangelo, there was space for Dave, so stopped off, amongst the coachloads of people being dropped off! Lovely views all over Florence, plus the other statue of David which I’d wanted to see.

Along the way we topped up with another prepay of €50 for diesel - just don’t want to get low and have to find somewhere quickly, usually at more expense! At €1.67, €50 is half a tank.

Likewise, we didn’t really need to service Dave, but found one nearly on our route, not a brilliant design, but worked and was free. We’ve leant from previous experience, take the opportunity when it presents itself!

We’re staying on another Agricamper (Tenuta Casalta di Branchi) which produces it’s own olive oil and wine, and has a restaurant.

When we arrived one of the kitchen staff came out and pointed down a very steep slope to the parking. We went down, scraping past olive trees as it was quite narrow. There had been complaints on the app about the olive trees, I naively thought they would have rectified an easy win - but no! Anyway, had a cup of tea, the heavens opened, and we decided we really weren’t happy about being down in the uneven, not even tarmac carpark in view of heavy rain being forecast. We have history with Dave on really steep slopes - he doesn’t do too well, don’t want to waste good tyres! We asked a lady from the restaurant whether we could move to the top carpark, which is flat, overlooking the lovely scenery - but probably for cars. She was just trying to tell us the restaurant wouldn’t be open until midday, but yes we could. Much happier up here! For some random place in the middle of nowhere, there have been loads of cars and vans coming here for lunch.

Went for a little wander, haven’t been greeted yet by anyone - not great!

Not sure the photos show quite how steep the little slope was.

Lovely to see what I consider the typical Tuscan landscape of olive trees, vines and cypress trees.

Had a FaceTime catch-up with both our children - which is always good when we’re away.

We’re off to try the restaurant tonight - opens at 7.30pm - um - along with Tuscan food, has a fish menu - will be interesting!

So, all afternoon here, read about lots of places to visit in Tuscany, but haven’t decided where we’re going tomorrow - and still haven’t read my book! Time just goes so quickly!

When we were at the previous (friendly!) Agricamper, Marco said that in France, they have France Passion, they have over 2,000 places to stay the night. In Italy it only started about 2 years ago, and only 200 places. Also, some of the reviews I’ve seen are so bad, can’t imagine anyone bothering to try some of the places.

Forecast for tomorrow rain wise isn’t brilliant…