Well, it rained continuously and hard for 18 hours, not stopping until 10:30. Being right in the centre of Cremona, we had parked on the far side of the car park away from the roads that might be noisy during the night. As luck would have it, the rain had the advantage of masking any traffic noise and, being constant, the rain didn't keep us awake.
At 10:45 the rain started again, admittedly lighter than before but still enough to make us decide not to see the sights of Cremona but to head slowly on to our our next stop. Jane had cleverly spotted an 'agroturism' site in the wine producing area of Piedmont, not far from Asti of Asti Spumante fame. The Agroturism sites in the Camperstop Europe book normally provide cheap or even free camping with the hope that you will purchase some of their produce. In this case the cost was €10 (£7 ish) but this was not charged if you had a meal in their restaurant. This sounded like a very good deal and, being in the countryside, we hoped that we could experience some good traditional local cuisine.
If we have time, we always prefer to avoid motorways and major roads, enjoying the relaxed and more interesting rural routes. We did that today and, although it took longer it was a very interesting journey. We nicknamed it the 'day of cemeteries' as we must have passed twenty large cemeteries, which, it was interesting to note, all conformed to the ancient Roman standards, being outside the boundaries of the village or town. They are often very large structures with multi-storey charnel houses storing the bones of the deceased in cupboards similar to left luggage lockers at airports or railway stations. The more wealthy or important (in their own view?) families have family vaults either in the ground or in one of those high-rise blocks.
At the end, the Garmin satnav took us on rather a strange route but, given that it was very dim, raining and the low cloud was almost on the ground, we decided to follow its instructions. At one point we had to go between two enormous barns with a clearance of no more than 15 cm each side, but we arrived safely in the village of Castiglione Tinella. We had entered the exact address into the Garmin and were rather surprised when it directed us down a very small unsurfaced track with no signs to the campsite. At this point we lost confidence and decided to drive on. We eventually found a sign to 'Ai Ciuvin' pointing back in the direction that we had come and turned around. We arrived back at the unsurfaced track without any other signs and at this point we gave up hope and decided to head for another Camperstop a few miles away. However, I kept my eyes open and a mile later, on a different road to the one on which we had entered the village, I suddenly saw the entrance to 'Ai Ciuvin'. We rang the bell and were directed to the parking places just above the main building where five motorhomes were already parked, with another two following close behind us. The site had toilets, showers, water and electricity (3 amps only).
When we enquired about dinner, we were told that Saturday evening was fully booked but we could have Sunday lunch the next day at 13:00. We were glad to be able to be able to stop and decided to book Sunday lunch and stay for two nights. We saw huge numbers of vineyards on the way and judged from the hills that the scenery was dramatic but, given the conditions we were unable to see any of it. We hoped that the weather and the views would be better in the morning.
The restaurant was obviously popular and many cars appeared in the evening. The weather improved slightly during the evening with the rain becoming more sporadic.
Photos: Henrietta at Ai Cuvin.
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