Top of todays list would be to go to San Marino to go on the cable car. No-one knew what to expect but we hadn’t predicted how narrow, windy and steep the roads would be, not quite as bad as the Austrian Alps but the crazy Italian / San Marinon drivers did not help.

Crossing from Italy into San Marino we gained another star on our map and fuel became cheaper 👍 The main and only road in led us straight to our free campervan parking right at the bottom of the cable car.

Amy seemed fine as we purchased the cable car tickets but as it pulled up and it came time to board she went very quiet and glum, as her face went white we knew she was not happy, her eyes closed and they stayed that way till we got to the top. As for the rest of us we loved it, Lucy stood at the front with her arms in the air trying to get the car to rock. The view was amazing, quite breath taking.

Once Amy had stopped shaking we discovered hundreds of tax free shops which sold everything from guns and tsasrs to frilly tea towels, tat, tat and more tat – I was in heaven. We wondered randomly in and out of shops mostly buying junk or being chased out as Lucy would knock over glass or china.

One of the best shops happened to be a crazy alcohol shop with a very friendly assistant who had well practiced his English speeches, unfortunately he could not be interrupted as if he was he had to start the whole sentence from the start. When he produced shot glasses and began handing out tasters I thought we’d never leave but he then scared us off with his absinth which he claimed was illegal in the UK, it was horrid.

I kept seeing shops with suits of armour and knights helmets, to my disappointment at €169 for the cheapest I could not have one, I think it may have proved heavy anyway.  Lucy somehow ended up leaving one of the stores armed with an actual cross bow, at this stage we knew the air must be thin up the mountain as Neil allowed this to happen and paid for it! Amy quickly declared that she didn’t think Lucy should be allowed to play with the cross bow whilst we drive, after all she does sit opposite her 😬

We could have carried on looking in the shops for hours but as our arms got longer and our feet got tired we decided to start prepping Amy for the cable car. Luckily the cart down was busier so Amy could not see out the windows, it seemed to go down quicker than it went up.

From San Marino we headed to the beach, a bit of seaside fun was needed whilst the sun was shining. Our stopover was in Rimini in a lovely marina with toilets, showers, laundry and the all important bars 🍻 while Neil checked us in with documents and security deposit Amy, Garf and I found a beachside bar so Lucy could build a sand castle which turned into a sandman.

Lucy could have spent hours in the sand and play park but due to the fact we hadn’t had dinner we thought it would not have been wise for us to sit drinking in the sun for much longer, Garf had begun turning red. We walked back to the van for dinner the long way round along the sand looking like proper British tourist – we even rolled our jeans up.

After dinner we strolled heading toward The Rimini Eye, smaller than The London Eye but bigger than a fair ground ferris wheel. To Lucy’s complete meltdown the wheel which looked only a few hundred feet away was actually the other side of the marina across a river, not walkable 😠 as a compromise to cheer her up she purchased a donkey space hopper from the nearest tat shop, another annoying toy to drive us all nuts.