Friendly Friday road tripping

• Manja Maksimovič

Long time, no Friendly Fridays, but today Sandy took me along on her road trip and I couldn’t refuse. Here is a memory of my last solo mini road trip from this April.

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Ahh, road trips, the stuff of life. First THE song that almost tears me up a little.

So many road trip memories are lining up, eager to be mentioned: The time when three barely 20-year-old girls in a Renault 5 drove around France from Côte d’Azur via the Loire castles to Paris. My only time in the USA when we drove on the coastal highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. How I drove a Japanese jeep from Bucharest to Sibiu in Romania for four hours just so that I could drive it back the same day. How we needed three days to reach the island of Cres in Croatia because the other car to our Peugeots, and it was a Rover, kept breaking down, blew two tires, and finally the owner locked the keys in. Not to mention two mega Greek adventures: two weeks driving around the Peloponnese, and a month on the island of Crete with my own Peugeot 504 next year, the wickedmost month of my life.

And now? I have a big problem. When I’m alone, I find it hard to simply pack my dog, sit in the car and drive. Call it laziness or comfort or refusal or waiting for visitors or what you will. And yet whenever I do, I always have a most wonderful time and views. This was the last time I did it.

It was in the middle of my poetry month, the quarantine was in its orange stage, which meant that I was not to leave my municipality, and so I decided to explore its southern border which is also the border of Tuscany. When you cross it, you are in Lazio, the province of Rome.

There are no signs to tell you when you did it though, so I had to be careful. I spotted a couple of white vans parked by the road and call me suspicious, or maybe it’s because I’ve been watching too many cop shows, but I played it safe just in case.

The colour palette was my favourite, greens and blues with some yellow blooms. It’s still much the same, except more wildflowers have been added.

I post these photos as a reminder to myself: This is what you get when you get out. Do it, why don’t you.

  • First stop: Lake Burano with the sea behind.
  • Next, I stopped by the road only to capture Capalbio on the hill, the largest town in our municipality.
  • The third time I stopped just because it was pretty.
  • I decided to walk across this meadow and regretted it when I looked at my shoes. The mud!
  • But I really wanted to see this little structure. Doors are where you find them.
  • Nothing but also everything.
  • There was nobody around. We had this marvellous thriving world to ourselves.
  • The trees seemed magical. What does this colour imply? I hope it’s not sick.
  • Just what I needed. Lazio starts on the right.
  • Ford Fusion. After Peugeots the next best thing.
  • A happy sight.
  • Bestia was happy too.
  • This blooming tree was gorgeous.
  • Let’s move on.
  • Passing the Tarot Garden by Niki de Saint Phalle. I assumed it was closed but I’d visited it many times before.
  • Another stop just to snoop around.
  • More blooms.
  • The view towards where we live.
  • Not much of municipality left. Time to go home.
  • As in the future, so in the past.

For Friendly Friday Photo Challenge hosted by The Sandy Chronicles: Road trip

This day in my blogging history

37 thoughts on “Friendly Friday road tripping”

  2. Sounds like you’ve had lots of adventures on road trips Manja 🙂 Thanks for taking us on your trip through the Italian country-side. The Tarot Garden took me by surprise – is it a scupture or an amusement park? Also liked your On-this-day-blogging-history timeline … you’ve been experimenting with the new block editor! Good for you.

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    1. Thank you, Sandy, to spur me into action. 🙂 The idea to look back in this way came yesterday and I decided to look at the block types to see what could work. I think it’s quite effective in this way. The Tarot Garden is a sculpture park, Niki de Saint Phalle used to live in it and create the world around here. I have many posts from there, for example this one: https://manjamaksimovic.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/sl-week-36-women-of-nikis-tarot-garden/

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  6. Marvelous! And I’m so glad you and your bestia got out! The views are stunning. Thank you for taking us along with you on your road trip. I’m intrigued by all your other clamoring road trip stories. When we are 51, we have so many stories. I’m sorry your shoes got muddy but I am so grateful for the shot back to the car: just beautiful. I didn’t know Capalbio had such a tall hill! It’s so romantic. I will see it soon. ❤

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    1. Hi, Crystal! You will!! September is more yellow than green, though. And it’s still hot. But this year the heat is slow in coming. This morning amore said that it was 3 degrees C which is just above freezing! This trip was in April but the past Sunday I had my birthday road trip, yihhhaaa! And for this Sunday the tour of three gardens booked! Happy!

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  14. Love your mini-road trip. We’re still not allowed to leave our ‘health’ region (since Nov 7), and since our health region is mostly city we haven’t really gone anywhere and, after not driving for so long, I’m almost afraid to drive. You have inspired me to get out again as soon as we are allowed – probably July 5th…

    Ford Fusions are great cars – we had one in France. We weren’t too happy when we were given it as Fords have a terrible reputation at home : ‘Found On Road Dead’ , ‘Fix Or Repair Daily’ are two sayings using its initial letters – however, we loved the Ford Fusion and decided that it was the best car we ever rented.

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    1. Ahh, I’m really glad that I have inspired you to move, Elizabeth. I find this kind of kicks in my behind extremely useful. Since this trip I spent two Sundays on day trips and it’s been really a welcoming change. You will see. Driving is also something one doesn’t just forget. I’m so glad that you had a good Ford Fusion experience. 🙂 Amore tells me that European Ford Fusion has a Peugeot engine. I don’t know how true this is but his father is a mechanic… Thank you!

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  16. What a wonderful road trip Manja. I love a good road trip too though I’ve never been fortunate enough to take one across Europe.
    I enjoyed your lockdown trip. These lockdowns have made us look at our own localities with fresh eyes. Some of those trees you saw are really wonderful. Thanks for linking this to my blog. 🙂

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      1. I know what you mean. Not being able to get out during lockdown was very crazy making. I’m loving getting to know you better through this tree theme. Thanks so much for joining in. 🙂

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