Up early to return the hire bikes at 8:30. Another nice breakfast at the hotel - busy today - then we retrieved the car and headed off to San Marino. We fuelled up at EUR1.81 per litre which was 2 cents cheaper than Germany (but 10 cents more than we then found n San Marino!)
We drove to the bottom of the gondola which was to take us to the famous towers of San Marino. Parking was problematical and we finally found a space with car parked at a huge angle! The parking machine wasn’t working either…. trip for the 2 of us on the gondola was 9 euros - well spent!
We were there about 2 hours and explored the Government buildings and one of the towers. Fabulous views and a very interesting place, but busy with tourists of course.
We also visited a couple of the towers and the cathedral
One slightly interesting aspect of San Marino was the shopping - a Christmas Shop right next to a (plastic?) firearms and knife shop
We got back to the car about 12.10, kept the top up, AC on and hit the motorway to get as far south as we thought useful. Headed for Vasto. The maximin temp was 31 degrees. The motorway must have been put in at vast expenses - we crossed many bridges and went through many tunnels to flatten out the driving - many many deep valleys running from the mountains to the coast. The road into Vasto where we are staying the night didn’t look too interesting but we got an extremely warm welcome at the hotel, the room is super, and the lovely receptionist booked us dinner at a restaurant with a view. A drink on the way also produced the same, free, nibbles with the drinks as last night. Drinks in total were 10 euros! A nice meal on a high terrace and a walk home through the spectacular old town, full of life!
