Drive home

After settling up, we hit the road for Pisa. Neither of us had been, and since it is basically on the way back we decided to go. Unfortunately, a torrential rain started after about fifteen minutes of driving, and the thought of carrying the kids around under those conditions made us rethink the Pisa connection. Instead, we continued North for home. Along the way, we passed the port that serves up huge blocks of Carrara marble to go into the bathrooms and kitchens of the 1% and the peninsula beyond which is the Cinqueterre. We had hoped to visit the Cinqueterre or one of the nearby towns like Tellaro during this trip, but they were recently devastated by strong rains an mudslides.
The Autostrada Azzura is pretty fabulous, and takes you through some dramatic landscape, even if it does require a bit more attention than your usual autoroute! I'd really like to spend some more time in this area at some point. I noticed that Range Rover Sport HSEs with heavily tinted windows seem to be the car of choice for this part of the world… no idea why.

From the A12, we continued on past Torino and encountered savage head and crosswinds. Not so fun, but the wind was kicking spindrift off the peaks which was beautiful