Saturday 24 April

It rained last night and it wasn't terribly warm this morning, but at least it wasn't raining. We continued north on Via Aurelia through the busy industrial town of Civitavecchia, where shortly after we escaped onto a quieter side-road that ran between Via Aurelia and the coast. The road was surrounded by fields of wheat - I wonder if this was semolina for making pasta?

The road didn't go through any towns so we didn't have any food on the way, and then a few k's before Montalto di Castro we had to turn back onto Via Aurelia, which was a double lane now but with a nice shoulder. In Montalto di Castro we found a supermarket where we bought our lunch and supper ingredients, before we headed off to the coast to Montalto Marina where we located Camping Pioneer Etrusco. Quite a big campsite but pretty empty apart from a few Italians in their motorhomes.

The weather has cheered up a bit so we decide to do some washing, hopefully it will dry by tomorrow. Showers after the laundry, and somehow Nicole chose the wrong one and ended up having a cold shower - she wasn't very cheerful after that.

After some lunch we took a slow stroll along the beach promenade. We heard music coming from the forest just behind the beach road (sounded like a concert being set up), so we headed into the forest to discover a craft market where all of the artists where actually making their stuff while you watched. Some very interesting metal sculpture. The music noise was indeed a concert being set-up which was going to involve several bands playing tonight.

Supper consisted of packet risotto (one of the best campsite meals you'll find anywhere) with some salad and a box of cheap wine. The washing was still damp when we headed to sleep.

I was awoken by the sound of rain at some point in the middle of the night so I had to make a mad dash to recover the washing and dump it in the corner of the tent. Not having any luck with the weather!! Late April is supposed to be sunny?!!