184 – Wednesday 21st October 2015:  Ospedale Rimini and San Marino

We had googled that to invoke the power of the EHIC we needed to present ourselves at a state hospital who would refer us to a state dentist.  We had had a superb experience of the power of the EHIC in Slovenia and assumed that we would have a lesser experience in Italy.  A 40 min walk to the very large and modern hospital.  Found Pronto Soccorso aka A&E and presented ourselves.  The receptionist had a few words of English and asked us to wait.  A translator arrived!!!  She did the initial registration and then we were through to waiting room number 2.  A lot of people with much more serious injuries and obviously in pain arrived, so we expected a long wait.  James was called in just under an hour :).  The Dr spoke English and referred him to the the onsite dentist.  Being so vast we were guided part of the way to the green corridor and then asked for help, only to discover we had missed the dentist by about 10 mins … he shut up shop at 12.00 and would not be back till 9.00 on Friday.  Our helper who spoke OKish English became very animated when the subject of football and Liverpool came up … funny that!

A few Rimini Pix, I meant to upload on the last blog … blame the slow wifi … as not a drop of alcohol in me!

A Rimini fountain … not often you see horses snorting from their nostrils!

James looking dead cool

But then less cool, in dodgy geezer mode, with my hand bag! In front of the Fish Market, built in the main square to pay homage to the importance of fishing.

Tiberius Bridge  – one of my fav pix

A typical frontage along the beach … imagine hundreds of these … does not make for an attractive stroll along the shore.

We walked back to our Rimini parking and had lunch.  The original plan had been to go to  San Marino (RSM on number plates), so we did.  San Marino is the oldest and smallest republic.  It boasts a football team, the F1 used to happen here but the motor racing championships still do.  An older Italian chap we met today described the San Marinese as criminals and rich!  It is a tax haven and very wealthy … a government surplus.  Apparently a law exists to protect the rich elderly male inhabitants from scheming female money grabbers … all female domestic staff have to be over 50!  I’d just qualify, but don’t want a job thanks!!!  Plus, I already have my older man, thanks.  Shame about the rich part!

The Parking I had identified was a) free and b) 5 mins up a path to the bottom of the cable car that goes up to San Marino historic centre.  We had thought we would go up tomorrow, but we were told that it only took about 2 hours to go around and so it proved.   Monte Titano is striking in that it is very rocky, steep and sticks out like a sore thumb in the otherwise rolling landscape.  Whichever angle you view the Monte from, you can see the fortresses and town walls.  The cable car was only EUR4.5 return and a short hop, compared to some we’ve been on, so J did not suffer having to study the cable car floor!

Pretty to walk around and you can see the Adriatic.  A castle, churches, walls, fortress towers and an open air theatre which used to be a quarry.  BUT full of restaurants, cafes and tourist shops selling leather, guns, and knock off designer brands.

This young man is not catching a bird but an airborne camera. It flew off, up and around one of San Marino’s towers. Talking to the upper crust young Englishmen it can fly 2 km away and compensates for wind etc.

San Marino art? What are these dragonfly up to?

J unimpressed … lots of guns for sale.

I had to bribe him to sit on this ledge …

View from the top as the sun went down.

And a superb sunset from our terraced overnight parking.

185 – Thursday 22 October 2015:  Borgomaggiore and Sort-Of-Sorting a Door Locking Problem

We knew we had to return to to Rimini tonight to see the dentist early on the morrow, so we decided not to stray too far.  We walked from our Parking into the largest town, Borgomaggiore, which really was not very large.  It had a market so we bought some veggies; I plan to do the unctuous veggie sauce I did on the cooking course in Tuscany in August again.

Lunch at the parking and finally found the motorhome services, which were on a lower terrace to us.

We had spotted a motorhome sales garage on our way up to San Marino and decided to stop off there on the return.  We have a few niggles that could be sorted or could wait, but the problem with the habitation door lock cannot wait.  One of the locks is stuck in lock mode which means the door will not quite fully close and of course is potentially easier to break into.  We had to wait 20 mins for the staff to return from their 3.5 hour (!!!) lunch.  As Chardonnay is a Bessacarr i.e. English made and not known in Italy, they could not help.  However, the owner rang a company who may be able to help.  It took us about 40 mins to get to the industrial area environs and then about another 40 mins to find the place … grrr!  Helpful chap again, but no, he did not have the part either, but fiddled and showed us a trick to unlock it.  We will have to check its position each time we close the door, but at least we are back to full security.

Back to our parking in Rimini … other than the CamperStop in Ljubljana which we returned to 3 times, this is the only other time we have been, stayed away one night, and returned to the same place.  Dentist tomorrow … fingers crossed.

A few pictorial Italy observations:

Made us chuckle … on a small Fiat … is there room inside? P’raps we should have this on the back of Chard?

Some interesting roadside advertising … we thought of Route 66 and the giant plastics.

Every town has one. A pawn brokers; they take silver, gold, diamonds and dental gold! Our Tuscany tour guide told us the Italians are all about making sure they have the latest and could not possibly admit to having no money. I wonder how many of Granny’s jewels have gone this way?

Health and Safety: we watched as this rubbish was thrown down into the street. There was a spotter at ground level, but the rubbish landed and remained nicely balanced on the wall mounted lamp … for now!