Day 8 – Wednesday 23 July

Maserno (Montese) to Modena

Campsite

International Camping Modena (http://www.internationalcamping.org/)

Notes

It was cloudy again in the morning and after an almost completely silent night on this delightful campsite I had a really good breakfast with a pot of real tea. Today was going to be all down hill for a change. From the campsite down to the Panaro river was pretty steep in parts and turned and twisted. At Montespecchio I came across a pirate ship parked outside a roadside restaurant, but nothing was open so I took a photograph and carried on. I crossed the river and joined a bigger road going gently down the valley. At Marano sul Panaro I came out of the valley into the flat land of Lombardia. I avoided major roads and followed small lanes going dead straight through vineyards and other crops heading towards Modena.

I knew this campsight was going to be difficult to find in the centre of a motorway cloverleaf interchange with an approach through a tunnel under the motorway. Fortunately my satnav saved the day again and I got there in one piece without having to brave any dual carriage-ways. It was hot when I arrived and I hunted round for some shade, eventually pitching at the edge of the site under some trees. Later I realised they were plum trees and the fruit had mostly dropped and had clogged up the soles of my cycling shoes. It took quite a time to scrape out the sweet smelling pulp. Yes, there were mosquitos and very noisy Italian families. One particular family was made up of three generations and while I was having a pizza, at the next table the grandmother was having her hair dyed by her daughter while the grandchildren screamed over a lolly that was eventually thrown away by the frustrated grandmother. It landed in the dust and when one child was not allowed to pick it up all hell let loose.

Eventually I escaped and zipped myself into the fly-proof tent-inner and lay as still as I could, oozing sweat. Perhaps I should have stayed in the hills “in paradise”.