Yesterday was not a good day: a combination of car charging problems and losing my way.
I decided to stop in Genoa to recharge my car. Bad idea. The traffic was horrific, the one way road systems and road signing incomprehensible, Italian drivers more aggressive than I remembered and trying to drive and use the GPS on my phone continued to be impossible.
This problem of GPS has been ongoing since I sold my Smart (which had my preferred TomTom system). Nissan GPS does not have a very good reputation, polus mine is not up to date because of the continuing ’discussion’ with Nissan about getting my car into their database. I hate Googlemaps on my phone because, first, it is on a phone which I have not yet got round to fixing to the dashboard somewhere, and the voice instructions are awful. Apart from not pronouncing a singhle non-English word correctly, why give instructions which refer to the points of the compass or to street names (which in Italy, like France, are hard to find or non-existent)? TomTom says things like :At the next roundabout in 200 metres take the third exit.
Of course I am also juggling the Nissan/GoogleMaps instructions withthose on the various electric vehicle (ev) apps – which is why I actually missed the intended exit for charging just before Genoa. Anyhow, I headed for the one at the Airport, thinking this would be easy to find. Huh! Apart from the non-existent signs (amazing), there was a deviation which seemed to take me down narrow back lanes – to nowhere.
That’s another thing about Italy: there seem to be an incredible number of roadworks – or roads needing them. The journey from Monte Carlo to Genoa took me all morning because of constant reductions to one lane and consequent traffic jams.
Was I relieved to see the Airport ev charging station? I was down to 25% – lower than I like to be. Then the troubles continued: I discovered that the station (run by Enel X – which I now know is a major player in Italy and Austria) was one of the few not to accept my ChargeMap card. I downloaded their App (sweltering temperatures because 30 degrees plus very high humidity and no shade) but could not get it to work. It wanted my ’tax fiscal number’.
Finally a delightful young man from one of the car hire firms came to my rescue. He suggested that I just typed in 0000 until the tax number was the accepted length. It worked! He then helped me set up my account with Juicebox (the stupid name for the Enel app) and my car was charged. I thanked him effusively, and set about leaving Genoa as quickly as possible. Such a shame; I had a lovely visit there a few backs with Charles and Pierre.
Somehow I managed to get onto the right motorway (I remember failing, years ago with Chris) and headed down the road to Livorno. I decided to charge and possible spend the night at La Spezia, just beyond the Cinque Terra which I so enjoyed visiting on my last Genoa trip. Another Bad Idea.
La Spezia turned out to be huge and I spent ages finding the one rapid charge in town. I have decided I cant cope with big cities any more unless I have worked out a better gps strategy. So I gave up, escaped the town and headed south towards Lucca/Pisa, hoping to find one of the places recommended by my app Park4night, designed for camper vans.
Brief: I ended up driving all the way to Lucca, got there at midnight and spent an hour negotiating a one-way system to the place recommended by Park4night. I was exhausted but it is worth it: it is large, safe and within walking distance (apparently) of the old town. There are two huge campervans next to me. One is three times the size of my van and I see this morning has tinted windows all along one side. (And there was I thinking that nobody could see me as there was a blank van next to me).
My charging problems continue: I have discovered that my leisure battery, which charges fridge, water and devices, is completely flat. The connection to the car batteries, via a cigarette socket, which Richard ’fixed’ last week, is not working. Worse: I could not get my E|nel X app to work with the charger 50 metres from where I am sitting.
I may have to abandon Lucca today, go to Pisa where there is an all mod cons campsite close to the Piazza del Domo, and use this as my base for two days to visit Lucca and Pisa – and catch up on charging and washing!
