Karen Wright: ​Panoramic views over Tuscan countryside

​As I mentioned last week, we started at a campsite near San Remo which is just over the border from France and right on the coast. After a couple of days there we moved down the leg of Italy to Tuscany. I have been keen to visit Tuscany ever since I had a can of Tuscan bean soup many years ago. It intrigued me then, where was Tuscany and why beans?

We travelled down to the coast but we went through so many tunnels we hardly caught a glimpse of the sea. It made me think how hard travelling must have been before the tunnels were built, I have new respect for the Romans marching their way up from Rome to create their empire.

We eventually arrived at our campsite that was right on the top of a very high hill. We had panoramic views from the infinity swimming pool. It was so glorious. We spent four nights at the campsite which enabled us to visit a couple of places. The first was to a very local town called Vinci. This was where Leonardo di Vinci grew up and the town is just full of museums dedicated to showing the world his many wonderful and totally awesome inventions. He was a genius, there’s no other word for it. We went into the church where he was baptized - a very special feeling being right there where he was starting his life all those centuries ago.

The following day we went to Florence on the train. It was magical, albeit roasting hot and very busy indeed. The buildings need to be seen to be believed, we had a wonderful day. Our last day in Tuscany was spent on the campsite. The restaurant has a weekly cooking demonstration and I was keen to attend. The chef made pasta, using five eggs, some flour and some water. Very simple but it was all about the technique, I had never seen pasta made this way before. We all had a go at kneading, rolling and cutting the pasta before we cooked and ate it. There was enough left over to take back to the motorhome to have for our tea.

We left Tuscany behind and headed over towards Venice. We stayed at a campsite just by the sea, we had direct access from the site and we could hear the lapping of the waves from our pitch. We spent a day in Venice that was unbelievably fantastic.