Alessandria then Vho for the night - 21 September 2022

Well, we spent a very long time last night looking at both Park4Night, CamperContact and Agricamper. I think we both got to a stage where it was frustrating - lots of bad reviews, even for a basic carpark, no nice easy Aires like in France. Think physical access to a lot of parking places may be challenging too.

Anyway, last night it was dark, peaceful, and we both slept quite well. Back to normal temperatures so took off the fleece blankets.

This morning we went to find Alessandro, bought a couple of different bottles of red Asti to take with us, and paid €10 for Dave services - thought we’d better, as again, last night service places seemed few and far between, or broken! Should have taken a photo of their lovely little dog called Mocha, a right tart, on her back, wanting a tummy rub from strangers!

Me driving today, as we weren’t going far, decided against the autostrada. Drove for an hour to Alessandria, purely because we’d found a car park near a citadel, and thought we’d take a look. Roads were mainly quite good.

There were policemen adjacent to the carpark, stopping random cars, so Tintin just checked with them we were ok to park - si, si!

Colin (Co-pilot) was better on the change of settings, but still not right, but Tintin rectified this for our drive later on…

Tintin took Dean (the drone) up to get a good view of the citadel. Was at maximum height, but still couldn’t fit the whole view in!

Massive buildings, all in a state of disrepair, and couldn’t even walk out to the ‘star’ points.

Despite putting on insect repellent - yes before I went outside yesterday - I’ve been bitten on my legs quite a few times - grrr - only discovered them when chasing off the flies whilst Tintin was droning.

On foot, we crossed the river Tanaro via the Meier bridge which was built between 2012 -2016 to go into the city of Alessandria (Piedmont). Has a population of about 94,000.

We wandered around, and gravitated towards the Piazza Della Libertà, thought there might be something happening, as there were quite a few people around. No, just school kick out time with parents waiting!

The cathedral of San Pietro had lovely big doors, but couldn’t find an entrance!

Again huge impressive buildings, but for some reason, I wasn’t really impressed. The city just felt tired and a bit unloved. We did pop into the tourist information when it opened at 2pm for a bit of literature to read in English, as generally, so far, all information is just in Italian.

I liked the fish above the Japanese restaurant!

Decided we didn’t want to stay parked in Alessandria for the night, so looked for a better carpark for the night. We found one in Vho, with lovely views. However, the 45 minute drive here! I can honestly say I’ve never driven on such bad road surfaces, and for so long. Poor Dave. Also, the speed on most urban roads seems to be 50km, increasing to 70km - but even on the long straight Roman roads there is a solid white line, and no overtaking allowed - which people seem to respect. Is it all a sly way to slow down the Italian drivers? Rubbish worn away road surfaces, and presumably high fines for violating rules. There seems to be much more of a police presence in our few days in Italy, more than we’ve seen in France in total!

Anyway, after a few ‘I don’t know where I’m going’ moments, and one turn around, we arrived at our carpark with a view.

Had a lovely chat with our son Jamie and his wife Bel - Jack, our grandson busy at Forest school! They’ve taken the plunge and ordered electric bikes, much needed for their hilly terrain!

We had a little wander around Vho. Seems a more upmarket, well kept area. Well, apart from the empty falling down places!

Even though we’re in a tiny little village, there’s one little restaurant which had good reviews on Park4Night, so it’s about 12 minutes walk away, so we’ll venture out this evening and take a look…