Contented-Campers.com

Before getting to the March budget …

We are parked 5 meters from a sandy beach in the not-yet-open town of Silvi, heading southwards towards the ferry terminal at Bari. Another town waiting for an episode of ‘The Walking Dead, the town seems incredibly empty. A beachfront lined with (closed) apartments and hotels face an attempt at a beachfront arcade (falling down or going up, difficult to tell). We had a free spot marked on our app, Park4Night (brilliant app, thank you!) which turned out to be slap bang between two verrrry busy roads, on a hillside. With the prospect of strained Fiat engines screaming through the night we decided to look for alternatives along the beachside. Parked in a free (really – free parking in Europe?) parking area next to the railway line, which would have worked – but we took a walk towards the beachfront, find an amazing, open, free site 100 meters from the beach. Into the van, off we drive, turn right to the beach … and just as an opening in the central road island opened up I saw a bridge sign indicating 2.6 meters of clearance.  Hmmm, we are 2.8m high! Came to a halt, went through the island, took the next road … and 2.2m clearance. Eventually found a bridge with 2.9m clearance and, gingerly, crept through. As there was a pedestrian walkway through the tunnel I stopped midway (holding up traffic in both directions) and waved at a pedestrian, indicating ‘How much clearance do we have?’ Not sure why I did this as I’m awful at charades – true to form our Italian pedestrian waved back and kept walking … All’s well now, though, with the beach a step away, the calm blue Adriatic going all pastel in the setting sun. Now if only there’s not another 9:00pm knock on the door by the police …

March budget: We’ve done pretty well seeing as we had to fill up with diesel on arrival back in Europe, together with replenishing a very empty pantry. We’ve been helped by cheap food and diesel in Germany and loads of free camping. Italy will be interesting, with food remaining cheap but diesel Much more expensive (€1.50 in Italy, €1.18 in Germany) as well as campsites being more expensive – and more needed. Overall we are €400 to the good this month which is great news and I’m hopeful the trend continues through Greece & Sardinia. I can see our Eating Out budget continuing to climb … Nothing like cheaper food to entice you to eat out more often 🙂