Italy

It really is an extraordinary country! The Italians have given us amazing support. They say we are ' ill in the head' or we must have 'diesel in our legs'

 Sal was rescued in the town of Lodi the other day. She was cycling on her own as i had done the route the day before. She was caught in a torrential storm with thunder and lightning and a car stopped. Inside was a family of four, two children sound asleep in the back and their parents. Sal could not find her way out of the town and the couple insisted she got in, bike and all, so they could take her to the right place. The bike sat between the children ( who never woke) and sal was crouched in the boot! That was an extreme example, but we have had people walking the length of a street with us to get us on to the right road and lorry drivers stop on roundabouts if they see us floundering (we don't do that often i promise !!!) Signposting and cartography is a big weakness in this part of the world. Only a few signs have road numbers on them, village names vary from map to map. Yesterday we cycled to a village with a river we had to cross. My map (Michelin) showed no bridge and Sals (AA) showed it did have one. Guess which one was right! Good old Rob had to come to our rescue but had to do a 90 mile round trip!!