Now to La Spezia, chosen purely on price. How low can you go and get a decent en-suite room with air-con. Tonight was going to cost 33 Euros.

Today was also the biggest Road incident of the trip. On the 2 lane Autostrada, an Audi going way to fast tried to overtake an articulated lorry just as it was pulling out to overtake another lorry. The Audi realized he was not going to make it and hit the brakes. At least one of his wheels locked, with lots of smoke ( you don't see that a lot these days ), and he was all over the road. I and a couple of Cars in front of me did full emergency stops with a bit of swerving, we were fine. However the Sat-nav on the dashboard went flying ( during all the 'spirited' driving in the alps it had never moved ) . It shutdown and would not restart.

I Pulled into a Service Area, spent 20 mins trying to get the Sat-Nav working. No Joy. So use plan B, the Smart Phone. Launched Google Maps and input the Destination. Everything seemed to be fine apart from the Tunnels which give the Smart phone / Google maps problems re-locating after a tunnel. The main problem was there are a lot of Tunnels and Smart phone / Google maps was a bit slow.

Once I arrived at La Spezia, the problems got worse. Late directions, signal problems / jumping locations. Made me give up using the Smart-phone. I parked somewhere near my hotel ( I hoped ) and went to find the Hotel on foot.

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Found My hotel, it was a Pizza takeaway!

Thought I had screwed up the location, but no. The guy at the counter had my details, he confirmed them while still taking Pizza orders over the phone. So it looked like I would be spending the night above a Pizza takeaway. Turns out the Hotel is round the corner on the main road in La Spezia, he just takes the bookings at the Pizza takeaway, and also serves the breakfast at a small Restaurant at the back of the Pizza takeaway.

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The Hotel , like many in Italian towns / cities, is on the Third floor. The Ground floor are shops, the Second floor is usually offices and the Third floor and above is for apartments , family homes or hotels. The Lift is tiny, It was barely shoulder wide.

The room was small, but clean. The shower worked well. But the Air-con only worked after 6pm until 12. You could open the windows, but this was over the main street and the Trolley buses were noisy and had that strange 'electric' smell that drifted up to the room.

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A typical view of the back of residential buildings in the town.

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Like most Italian towns and cities, there are lots of Statues.

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I thought La Spezia would be a seaside town. Its not, its a major port and military base. Many large cruise liners visit.

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As La Spezia was not my kind of seaside resort, I drove down to Calata Doriat. Guess what I found, a Chinese / Japanese wedding photoshoot ( Could have been for a advert ).

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Happy faces.

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In the sea were several water polo areas.

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This Guy seems to have visited everywhere.

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People cooling off in the Sea.

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Back in La Spezia that evening, the locals watch an event.

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Late night adverts in Italy.

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Late night adverts in Italy.

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I can be contacted at smf@smfpics.com