Just travelled both ways from Narbonne Plage (France) to Bologna (Italy) in snow. The roads were fine but traffic was deliberatly bunched behind snow clearing vehicles. One vehicle in each lane clearing snow and gritters following behind. There was no snow on the carrageways using this method as the artics and cars following spread the salt after it had been spread before it was washed away. In Italy they were using cement mixers as ploughs on the Autoroutes, not dedicated monsters that we have in the UK which stand for most of the year unused but still requiring servicings and maintenance. It reminded me of how it was in the 50s and 60s in the UK. The Autoroutes surfaces were very good compared to the UK. However in the towns they were in much poorer condition.
There was 2ft of snow in Bologna but everything just kept going on the ice roads. Most of the vehicles we saw in the town were fitted with snow chains. Even the Motorhome dealer was selling antifreeze for the gray and black tanks so this must not be just a rare incident.
When the snow got bad the Police just closed the road to any vehicle over 7.5 tonns and forced them into parking areas.
Another thing we noticed on this trip was that a lot of the service areas along the Med coast and in Italy has "Camper Dump" points clearly signed from the road. We guessed these were also used by coaches as they were mostly near the bus parking area. A lot of the Dump points were however closed by the freezing weather and snow but we still managed to use some. We wildcamped for a week in Motorway service areas and a couple of shopping centre car parks.
Parked back at Narbonne Plage Aire and setting off back to the UK tomorrow as our batteries seem to have all been taken out by a faulty
battery to
battery charger (not Stirling) which resulted in us having to use the breakdown cover (RAC commercial through Comfort) in Piacenza. Our starter
battery and Alternator were wiped out. We have now found our leisure batteries are also not holding a charge. So its back to the UK for us instead of wintering in southern France and possibly Spain.
John
