Northwards to Milan, including San Marino

After leaving the Amalfie we needed to move quite quickly to Milan, so we used highways (which is not usual for us, we prefer the byways and minor roads). But we couldn't resist going off the highways from time to time....

This is the area known as "Italy's little Tibet" and us an unexpectedly flat area in the mountains in central Italy. 

These white sheep dogs (possibly Marimos?) which roam with flocks of sheep, and are very common on the roads, often chasing cars. It was unusual to see so many together, obviously neglecting their sheep to chase cars. This area has wolves so the dogs have a very important role. 

3June 2016

And then there is San Marino. This is an independent country completely surrounded by Italy. It is perched on the top of a mountain with great views and is quite a tourist attraction. We camped in San Mrino's only camp ground and took a bus up to the top of the mountain to the old city. This the castle right at the top. 

Archery is a traditional sport here -for protection from invading Italians in the past?

The campground is only 2km from the top of San Marino. A taxi flag fall is €15, and the fare to the campground is €25! We felt that was a tourist rip-off and got out of taxi! The instructions for getting the bus back to the campground, given by the campground were most inadequate resulting in missed busses. We know one couple who walked back rather than take the rip-off taxi. We managed to find the correct bus at the last minute and got back OK. So make sure you gave good instructions about the return bus before you leave the campground! 

Nevertheless we did enjoy this quaint little country. 

12June 2016

We managed to have our vehicle safety checked in Milan. We have left Matilda with our friends at Axel Camper in Milano. Manuel us going to fix a list of little things which go wrong with any camper -like leaking taps.... We are confident she will be well cared for until we return early next year. 

So that is the last blog for now.

 Subscribe to the blog and like the Facebook page (Waltzing Matilda -our Earthcruiser Journey around the World) to be notified when we start up again in the new year. The current plan is to visit Spain, Portugal, Morrocco and the UK next year, and to move Matilde to the U.S. at the end of that time. But that is only a plan..... And you know what happens to those! 😅

Webasto repairs

4 April 2016

The priority in Italy so far is our visit to Webasto to have our stove fixed. The stove stopped working last time we were in Europe. It simply shuts down after running for about 10mins. There is no error code, just the shut down sequence. So we had an appointment in Milan with the Webasto service centre (Axel Camper). 

However a week or so ago the heater also failed. It started blowing fuses and giving off an aroma! 

So here we are at Axel Camper where the owners Manuel and Ida are working on our Webasto appliances. 

It turns out that Manuel's brother Alessandro is the actual inventor of the Webasto Dual Top water and air heater! So what better hands could we be in! And Manuel and Alessandro both speak English and explain things very well!

Alessandro told us that there were problems with the installation of our devices. The main problem which actually was the cause of our heater failure, is that the exhaust system needs a silencer, which also acts to provide a back pressure to the heater. This keeps the flame burning correctly without overheating in a localised area. In our case, without the required back pressure the flame burned at one end of the system, melting the insulation, and causing the smell. 

In addition there was no combustion-air intake from outside the vehicle. This is neither legal nor safe. So Manuel has added both a silencer and an air intake via the engine snorkel. You can see the new intake hose in this picture, the silver hose going into the engine -air pipe (white).

And the new silencer....

The problem with the stove was dust! The stove compartment was thick with Cape York red dust. We worked out that this entered via the exhaust pipe cooling section. 

The heater compartment was also full of dust but not causing the problem in this case. 

There it came via penetrations to the floor of the camper where seals were in place but were overwhelmed by the fine Cape York dust. Any Australians reading this will be familiar with "bull dust" and how it gets in anywhere!

Alessandro said that he has had discussions with Earthcruiser about these installation problems and he believes that they have been solved in later models. 

We certainly recommend Axel Camper in Milan for anyone with Webasto appliances.  What better expertise and services could you expect? 

5 April 2016

While Matilda is in the workshop we had other business in Milan. Firstly we needed our carnet extended. Thanks to the preparatory work of Louise in the AAA (Australian Automobile Association) liasing with the automobile Association in Milan, from Canberra, this went like clockwork! They were expecting us, knew exactly what to do and we were finished within 30 mins! Whew! After our disastrous Japanese experience we certainly felt relieved!

And our friend Sally arrived today. We picked her up from the airport. But I'm afraid she is not a good influence on us, soon finding a great way to while away the time while Matilda is being fixed. 

Yes that is a 2 litre plastic bottle of wine, sold in the bottle shops here!

But we did see a bit of Milan. The Duomo is not to be missed. 

This is a gothic cathedral not unlike the Cologne cathedral. It took over 600 years to build, finally being finished in 1965. It has capacity for 40,000 people. While I admire the monumental achievement in building it I question the drain on the community for so long, taking money from the church goers, most of whom would never see the final product. In that way it seems obscene to me. 

Sally is thinking of buying a house here, and saw a good way of making contacts today....

How embarrassing! It turned out to be a curtains and blinds outlet. 😉