When in Rome

We continued on the next morning towards Gran Sasso and were surprised to drive through a 10km tunnel. Italy has tunnels in spades but this was by far the longest we had driven. Made even more mysterious by a junction within the tunnel itself. As we passed this junction we saw it had a barrier which intrigued us further and we later found it that this was in fact an underground physics Laboratory which drew scientist from all round the world due to its radiation or something. When we got the national park we found our camperstop which was a massive car park where we were all by ourselves. We made our way towards the cable car to take us up the mountain which was of course closed until July. Nevertheless we made our way up the mountain by foot as far as we could before our legs gave out. The views were lovely but the incline was killer. We wanted to see the Observatory the next day and considered getting back onto the mountain by foot but after a little research we found that we could in fact take Pierre against his will up to the 2km peak. The road was actually very nice but we took it slow. The road was only open for a few months of the year with the snow making it impassable for most of the year. Plenty of  nice vistas on the way and once at the top we noticeably felt the drop in temperature as we were within walking distance of the remainder of last season’s snow. As we parked up an air ambulance greeted us as it flew overhead and landed just outside the observatory. A man near the tourist information was groaning in pain but we had no idea what had happened. We headed towards some snow taking some wrong terms and jumping back in Pierre to give us a quick lift to some easier snow a short way down the mountain. We both had are fair share of mountain walking by this time so decided to get Pierre off the mountain and on his way towards Rome staying overnight in L’Aquilla.

L’Aquillia appeared relatively normal when we parked our camper up just outside the town centre and we decided to have a quick wonder into the town to see a famous fountain called 99 heads. However it wasn’t a quick wander and took us a good 30-40 minutes. We soon discovered that L’aquilia was a bit of a ghost town and still all under construction since the earthquake in 2009. There were many abandoned buildings and many that looked like they were about to fall down or had major sections missing. There didn’t seem to be many houses left which were lived in and there weren’t that many people around at all. Anyway we marched on to the fountain and stayed there a little while before heading back which was uphill for a long while so we decided an ice cream was called for. We found the only ice cream shop still around and ate it in the main square of the town which was busier than the other parts of the town it was still quiet. After the ice cream we headed back to the van to prepare for our next road trip. 

The next morning we headed off to Rome, well a little camper stop just outside Rome. We got there early in the morning and headed straight out using the little shuttle (in reality it was the owner driving us) to the train station and we hopped on the train and headed to the city centre. The owner had helpfully given us directions to the various things to see but what we hadn’t expected was how long everything took. It was well after lunch before we arrived at our first destination – Vatican City. I really wanted to see the Sistine chapel ceiling, even though Rich had said he had already seen it. We arrived in Vatican city and were just trying to get our bearings when we saw a queue for the big church so we joined it, thinking it was the Sistine Chapel as let’s face it something as small as the Vatican City would only have one Church wouldn’t it. Well turns out no it didn’t and we actually queued for St Peters Basilica. We were lucky because the queue was only for 45 minutes and the basilica was actually very impressive to walk around and did contain many works of art. Following that we decided we had to try and find the Vatican city so off we marched again and after 10 minutes of walking (trying to avoid the hundreds of tours being marched around all the sites, led by somebody holding up an umbrella and speaking loudly) we found the Vatican museum which, it turns out, is the entrance for the Sistine Chapel. We then had to walk (slowly) through the museum with the hundreds of people to view all the different art, not that you could with all the people around you, and finally reached the Sistine chapel which was underwhelming. The guards kept blowing on their whistles and shouting at people to be quiet and to keep moving and that no photos were allowed. We didn’t stay looking at the ceiling too long and soon were back in the museum and trying to locate the exit. Once out we decided that we needed food as it was past 4 and we hadn’t eaten anything. A quick search online and we found a pizza place that was open and still serving so off we headed and once we felt normal again we headed to our next site, Torre del Argentina, which is where Julius Ceaser was killed but that was not the real reason we were there, we wanted to see what it had been turned into. Now it was a place where all the local stray cats were looked after, fed and treated by vets. It was great to see and we got to fuss some cats. After this we went back to the fully tourist stops and headed to the Trevi Fountain to look at it. Again it was very nice but somewhat ruined by the guards and their whistles and telling people not to sit on the wall of the fountain. It was very busy at the fountain but we managed to find somewhere to sit for a while and just relax after the long day of walking.

The next day we headed back into Rome to do some of the sites we had missed the first day and started with the Colosseum. After a short queue we were in and we strolled around the two floors for a couple of hours marvelling at the high arches and large columns. We then headed out for a bit of a walk around several of the old sections and piazzas around. We saw many different ruins (too many to name) and as it was getting hot we stopped for some lunch then headed to another piazza (Piazza Neuvo) to try and see some street performances and things but nothing much was happening so we headed off to eat some Tiramisu and then walked through a local market and on to a statue where legend has it if you put your hand in and lie it will bite it off. After making Rich put his hand in the mouth for the photo opportunity we carried on walking, through the Jewish quarter and decided to head home as it had been another long day.

The following morning we were up early as always and were back on the road, this time to a village between Rome and Naples called Castro Dei Volsci. The idea was to spend the day there, do some washing at a laundrette and do some planning. Well there were a few issues with that plan.

1. It was the hottest day so far and you couldn’t move without sweating,

2. The village was on top of a hill with no shops or laundrette,

3. The village was on top of a hill with no data or wifi services.

We quickly decided that we should head down the hill and find somewhere air conditioned to relax and do our research and we managed to find a small shopping mall where we sat for a couple of hours and planned the next few days and booked our ferry to Sardinia for Tuesday. Once all the planning was done we headed back up the hill to the village to sleep. The views were beautiful from the hill and it was a nice place to stay for the evening but there was a fair amount of traffic which was surprising as nothing seemed to be there.

The following morning we got up early and headed to our next camper stop which was just outside Naples.

The drive was fairly short but the last 15 minutes was hell on earth. The sat nav decided to take us down a back ass country lane. Normally I would spot such roads early and avoid but the lane started out ok and progressively got narrower and unpaved. Made worse by oncoming cars it wasn’t long before it was all out chaos with 5 cars behind us and 5 trying to get past us and we left it to the Italians to decide who would have to concede and reverse. We finally got through but then came the onslaught of narrow lanes with branches hitting Piere left, right and centre. We made it to the campsite intact exhausted and annoyed that there was a much easier road we could have taken. Pierre suffered a few surface scratches on his side windows but nothing that won’t clean off.

The grumpy owner spoke no English but gave us a fair bit of detail on how to get the train to Naples and around. We therefore jumped on the train and headed to Naples for the afternoon. The city is very grim in places and while it doesn’t feel particular unsafe we kept our belongings under close watch. We walked through Montesanto which almost felt like Thailand with the crazy scooters and narrow streets. We picked up a Napoli famous fried pizza which is difficult to describe – it’s a little like fish batter but with cheese in the middle – was very nice. We headed to San Siro church which was unique as it had 2 skeletons on display which had all its veins intact which was very bizarre. It was an amazingly advance piece of anatomy and no one was sure how the veins were preserved or more impressing  whether they were handmade from other materials. The female skeleton used to have a foetus skeleton but this was stolen years ago. The same church also had the famous Veiled Christ sculpture which was very impressive for its silk like appearance. On our wonders we passed through a few more churches and stumbled across a bizarre 80’s inspired contemporary art exhibition. This consisted of mannequins dressed in various costumes with props all demonstrating difference 80s movements. After some more walking we became conscious of time knowing that the last train back was at 9pm so we headed for dinner at a local place famous for its Napoli pizza. We knew it was going to be good for 3 reasons.

1.       The menu consisted of only 2 choices

2.       It was cheap

3.       It had a huge queue outside and you had to get a ticket and wait.

4.       We even had to share a table with another couple.

The Napoli pizza is well known for being the best in Italy due to the unique ingredients used and the method of cooking. The heat of the wood burner is so intense that the edges char while the tomato in the middle is still soft. The dough however stays soft throughout the whole pizza – even at the charred edges. We ordered a Margarita pizza each and gave up after eating half each agreeing that it would be tomorrow’s lunch or dinner. To our amazement the guy sat next to us ordered 2 pizzas’s eating both there and then!

When we left we were greeted by a thunderstorm and streets flowing with water. Feeling very unprepared in shorts and flip flops we navigated to the nearest train station. Soaked to the bone we tried to figure out the route back and when we finally got on the 2^nd or 3^rd train which was taking us home we realised it was on the wrong line. Long story short we got off at a place called Pozzulio which was only 6km away and got a taxi. All in all a very long day!

So for the second day we decided to risk it and leave the site again, this time for Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius. After figuring out that it was a Sunday which meant not as many trains ran as usual we finally managed to get a train into Naples from a rather run down, single track station about 1km from our campsite. We then miraculously managed to get a train out to Pompeii although until we were there we were not 100% sure it was going to stop there. We got off the train and tried to figure out how to get the public bus up to Mount Vesuvius. We soon realised we needed to walk to the Pompeii ruins and then get the bus from there so off we walked, trying to ignore the touts, although one set did manage to get our attention for a couple of minutes before we continued our walk. Once there we found our bus stop and as we had a 30 minute wait for the bus we decided to get another fried pizza (this time cheese and tomato and a cheese and ham one) and once the bus arrived we started the 1 hour assent up the mountain. The bus dropped at the start of the national park where we bought our tickets and started the 40 minute climb up to the crater. It was hot, windy and dusty but we managed to climb it without any incidents. Once there we had more than enough time to walk around the huge crater and try to spot Pompeii (which we couldn’t). We then headed back down the mountain and caught the bus back to Pompeii. We then walked around Pompeii for a couple of hours stopping to see the famous whore house, the main square, the amphitheatre and millions of ruins. We also learnt that Pink Floyd had recorded a film/album in the amphitheatre with no audience in 1971 and there was a large display showing clips and detailing the behind the scenes information which was interesting. After too many hours walking we decided it was time to risk the trains again (we didn’t want to risk missing the last train or getting it wrong again) so of we headed home. We managed to get all the right trains but it did take over an hour and a half to get home and the last train seemed to take forever.

The following day we had planned to head out to an island but when we woke up we decided against it and instead stayed in to try and fix a few things on the van (including the fridge which was playing up) and get some washing done. After realising that there wasn’t a laundrette on site and google not finding one in the town or even the next town it was agreed (albeit reluctantly on my part) to do it all by hand....and there was a lot of it. A couple of hours later Rich had rigged up a makeshift washing line around the van and the clothes were drying. In the meantime we spent the day planning the first day in Sardinia and working out how to get the ferry ect. The ferry was due to leave Naples tomorrow evening (Tuesday) but we needed to be out of the campsite at 10 so we found a local shopping mall where we could park for the day and where we could relax and do a bit of shopping before leaving on the 13 hour ferry.         

Italy Part 2 - The week of Punctures

The week that didn’t go to plan!

So as all of you know we don’t plan much for the trip but we try and have a few plans, ie where we are going to sleep and what towns we are going to visit and the many outdoor activities we are going to try and fit in. But this week it seems that every plan we made we had to change for one reason or another. 

So our plan for the Tuesday was to head to a camperstop about 15km outside of Florence and cycle into the heart of the city for an explore, similar (although further) to what we did in Pisa. So we headed to Sesta Fiorentino which was essentially a car park but what we quickly discovered that the car park backed onto the train station so we decided to save our legs and get the train into Florence (especially as it was only 1.50 each per journey). We arrived in Florence 20 minutes later and started our tour of the city, first heading to the large food market where we got some lunch (freshly made pasta), an arancini (an Italian rice ball) and a smoothie. We also bought some local biscotti for later in the day. Then we headed off for the Duomo which was a large cathedral in the centre of the city which we had to queue to enter. As it is a cathedral there are restrictions on what you can wear to enter it and several people were turned away at the entrance but luckily enough we were covered up just enough to be allowed in. The cathedral was large but from the impressive outside i did expect a grander interior. Also in the basement of the cathedral was a museum and gift shop which did ruin it slightly for us. Next stop on our tour was an international second-hand bookshop as Rich needed some new books, this also gave us a great excuse to be indoors when a quick rain shower happened. Once it dried up we headed to the museum “Galeria De Academia” which required queuing again to enter and see the David statue. The statue was large (in most areas) and impressive but the rest of the museum just contained religious paintings, mostly of Jesus on the cross, and there are only so many of those you can look at. After this we headed back to the food market and got some little bits to go with dinner and headed for the train back to our little car park. 

We had planned to spend two days in Florence but as we appeared to have seen most things in one day we decided to head to our next destination a day earlier than planned. So off we headed early in the morning to Lake Trasimeno. We parked up at a new camperstop and as we were paying for this we got electricity for the first time in a while. This was very exciting as it meant we would be having hot showers in the evening (I would like to reassure you all we could have hot showers without electricity but given that a- it takes an age to heat the water, b- its very hot over here, c- the cold showers aren’t that cold as the heat of the sun seems to warm the water during the day, we usually have cold/cool showers to cool us down after a hot day). So first we made sure we were full with water and let the heater do its thing while we went out for the day... but what to do. We knew we wanted to kayak on the lake and do some cycling around the area so we decided to get on the bikes and go for a little bike ride today and kayak the following day. I joked and told Rich the whole lake had a cycle route and that it was 75km – BIG MISTAKE – cue us riding the whole lake and me wanting to kill Rich. We did make a couple of stops – I told him they were mandatory (one for lunch, one for ice cream ect). It took us about 5/6 hours to get around the whole lake and while some of the route was nice cycle lanes, there was also bits that were main roads so we were being overtaken by articulated lorries which wasn’t pleasant. Following my well deserved hot shower I cooked dinner and we sat outside to eat along it along with the well deserved Prosecco. Our campervan had been surrounded while we were out by a French group who were singing some cult like songs and even provided us some of their poison – to be fair it was really nice lemoncello. 

The following day we decided to drive around the lake a little to the town we had eaten lunch at (as it looked like the perfect place to kayak in the lake (and rich wanted to try and get to one of the islands – after yesterdays mission, I wasn’t that keen on the idea). Anyway after carrying the kayak to the harbour we inflated all the relevant section just to discover that there was not one but three punctures in it, obviously from our less than graceful landings on Cinque Terre. So we needed to fix these and this took time, so about an hour later we had someone fixed them but decided that it probably wasn’t best to take it on the lake as the patches needed to dry fully (and I wasn’t sure how well they would hold – I needed proof before I was going anywhere near water)

Instead we headed back to the van to re-plan what we were going to do. We decided to leave the lake behind and start heading in land to Perugia as I had seen a chocolate factory that you could do a tour around (just like being at home and going around Cadburys). Off we headed and an hour before the factory closed we turned up and the security had to phone to see if we were allowed to enter as we hadn’t book (whoops) anyway we managed to get a tour of the factory (not fully working as its low production season). However they did explain the history of these famous baci chocolates (we had never heard of them) and gave us lots of them to try (the best bit of the tour). Our personal tour guide spoke very good English with a TV taught American accent but she did throw us a little with her pronunciation of the word ‘Hazelnut’ which sounded like ‘Hazle-nut’ – a key ingredient on their famous Baci Choclate. After an hour we headed out to the local camperstop but it turns out it was on a main road and very expensive so we had a quick bit of research on the side of the road and decided to head to the next town where there was a free one which looked quieter. Sure enough the next one seems nice as it was behind to a community centre which looked quiet and there was a short walk into town. As i had cooked for a couple of nights we decided to splurge and head out for dinner, we even decided to try as the Italians do and have more than one course. This was a mistake of course and I struggled with my first course of spaghetti carbonara let alone my cod in a tomato sauce, while rich flew through his pasta and pork but started to struggle with the wild boar stew (and the litre of wine we had ordered) but we did really enjoy it. 

The next day we headed to another national park, this was on a mountain – Monte Cucco – where we wanted to go caving but we had to until the following day as we knew that they only took large group bookings in the week but anyone could go on the weekend. So to fill the day we found some parking and decided to go for a couple of walks (getting lost a little along the way as normal) but at we did stumble across some beautiful horses on the walk before turning around and heading back to the camper. As there was only one camper stop at the top of this mountain and it didn’t look very appealing we decided to be naughty and wild camp (which means to camp outside of the designated areas and is technically illegal but mostly overlooked as long as you do not leave any mess and are considerate of others. The only thing police would do is move you on to a designated area, there are no fines or anything for wild camping). We found a car park with great views and settled in for the night by cooking and eating dinner in the van (as no camp behaviour is allowed with wild camping) and as there was not much entertainment we decided to settle in and watch a bit of TV. However this was short lived as the horses we had seen early appeared out of no-where and headed up to the hills around us. Then as we started to watch the TV again a car pulled up and a man and dog got out, after some surveillance we realised that he was going to free camp as well. Anyway we started to watch TV again and then suddenly the man and dog were back in the car and we could hear some bells... Well when we looked out of our other window we soon realised why! There were about 30 cows/bulls (well cows with horns!) surrounding the car park. We did chuckle when the cows seemed to be interested in the other cars warm bonnet. We thought they would head up to the fields shortly so we tried to hang on, even when they were centimetres outside the window looking in (thank god for our blinds so we couldn’t see how close they all were). However they started to rub up against the van (horns and all) and started interfering with the bikes on the rack so we (and the other car) decided to hot foot it out of there and find somewhere else to sleep. We ended up in a (non flat) lay-by which did not make for the most comfortable sleep ever.  

The following morning we headed back to the cow car park (they were now on the hill above the car park) and had breakfast while waiting for the caving place to open. In the mean time there was plenty going on, people were arriving with hand gliders and paragliders and throwing themselves off the hill which was terrifying to watch. Once 10am hit we were off to the cave which first entailed a 45 minute climb up the mountain and then a serious set of ladders to climb into the cave (which did my fear of heights no good). We then walked in the cave for about 1km looking in various holes and at various rock formations but our tour guide did not have great English so mainly spoke in Italian. On our way back down we had to participate in the mandatory group photos and then got back to the van in time for lunch and more planning as I had put my foot down and said I want a real stop for the following night. 

We decided to head to Fabriano which was on our way to the next national park. As we got here at a reasonable time we were able to spend some time fixing the kayak properly this time and fix my bike which seemed to have received a puncture at some point during the 75km  bike ride.  After this we explored the town, bought some essentials, had some street food and had an early night.

Now we have left Fabriano and headed to the next national park “Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga” where we plan to do some exploring tomorrow. For tonight we are in another free camperstop in Tossicia where we are being serenaded by some truly terrible karaoke in the community centre. As its a Sunday not much is open in the town (there is only one bar and a pharmacy in the whole town that we can see) so we are just going relax and enjoy some nice views until the morning.  

Italy Part 2 Photos

Very early picture on our 70km Bike ride around Lake Tursimo

A little further on but still a long way to go

A restbite on the ride.

Mount Cuccoo

Was actually trying to get a Butterfly before this one bullied its way infront of the camera

Some semi wild horses on our walking trail around mount cuccoo

They were actually quite scary when then run at you

This time an actual Butterfly

This didnt help Catherines fear of heights

Inside the mount cuccoo cave

Florance or Frieze as the Italians call it - Pisa was prettier.

Just Caving

A little Statue within a rock in the cave

The Cave Troll

The tour was in Italian so this is more of the cave (Thats all I know)

Our walk back from the cave near the top of Mount Cuccoo

The cows that greeted us at night pushing us and Piere onwards

Didnt appreciate brute using my motorhome as a scratching post

Bigger than miss Daisy in the UK

One of the many nutters who threw themself of the mountain

The handgliders

Cool Statue by the gliders

Some guy with a small penis but I bet he had a fast car to compensate!

Davids ARSE

The best picture I got in Florance!

The Dumo of Florance

Jesus on a cross (of course where else would he be!)

Italy the story so far

We set off the next day to the portinfino region to a place called San Rocco. After checking the TomTom we realised that we were in for a 4 hour drive unless we took the toll which would halve the journey. We had been reluctant previously to use tolls, mainly to save money but also we wanted to make sure we actually saw as much as we could and motorways can be very anonymous. However the toll in this case would almost pay for itself in extra diesel and after the last couple of days driving through the small Italian towns I couldn’t stomach another 4 hours of fighting the traffic. The toll road was a nice relief and even offered some decent views. We ran into troubles when we tried to exit the toll road only for our ticket to get rejected at the automatic toll booth. The assistance over the telecom was of little assistance rambling in Italian which is worse than our French. After a couple of minute’s confusion the barrier opened and we claimed victory as we thought we had worn down the Italian toll booth attendant to letting us ride the toll for free. However the machine produced a ticket to us of 80 Euros which was for essentially a lost ticket. After a quick email to Autostrada later that day the situation was resolved and I was allowed to pay the 13 Euros for the actually toll road. Lesson learnt was to press the English button before inserting the ticket into the machine!

We walked a few miles to a place called Punta Chippa which was a good undiscovered rocky outcrop. We carried our snorkelling gear (Fins and all) down what was a very much downhill hike which only meant one thing on our return and my god we underestimated how high we would have to climb back up! Punta Chippa was a very nice little hideaway however – a few locals sunbathing and worryingly no one in the water. After some surveying of the sea and the area we felt it was safe enough to get in. As I was gearing up we both witnesses what till this day we can’t decide was a Dolphin or a Tuna explode out of the water after some Sardines a couple of meters where I was about to jump in. This put me slightly on edge for no good reason as I would have given an arm to have been in the water with the go pro filming to witness it. The water was warm but I will wetsuited up as I get cold fairly quickly snorkelling. While there was no Coral or tropical fish there were hundreds of Sardines and some other fish to keep us entertained.

The next day we went to the town of Santa Margherita Ligure  to catch a boat to some of the other areas of the marine park not accessible by walking. We tagged along with a diving group and after the staff could see we were well prepared with our own gear we were left to our own devices. The captain of the boat spoke good English and kindly told us more about the area, we also discovered he had also been at Punta Chippa the day before when we were there. We snorkelled for a good 45 minutes. The water was much choppier than Punta but was still good. A few bigger fish came to say hello. Once the divers had finished we were taken to snorkel over the statue of Jesus which was sunken 15 feet underwater. The visibility allowed us to just see the top of the statue and with a few duck dives you could see a little more. We spent the rest of the day exploring the town and ate out.

Our next venture was to spend the next couple of days at Cinque Terre which translates as the 5 Terraces or 5 Lands. This was 5 remote village carved into the rockface. The lack of accessibility to the area made it unique and less tampered with however the tourists were there in their thousands. Especially the Americans which we haven’t seen much of were there by the bucket fall. The villages were lovely though with the range of colours of the buildings it was one of the great wonders of Italy. We gained access by train and explored 4 out of the 5 villages on day one enjoying lunchtime Pizzas which kept us full for the rest of the day. We did another killer walk between 2 of the villages which according to the guidebook was for novice hikers which made us feel very much like Novices. We decided to spend a 2^nd day at Cinque Terre but we wanted to get onto the water so we decided to drag the kayak across town and onto the train. This gave us a completely tourist free perspective of the villages and to our amazement we were able to Kayak the whole 8 miles across the sea from the first to last village. We didn’t get in the water much through fear of not being able to get back into the kayak without flooding it. We did however meet a jellyfish which we were able to capture a video of. We arrived at the last village to be greeted by a bored lifeguard who said we couldn’t dock at his private beach. I told him it’s too late and that we have now arrived and I got out despite his lame attempts to turn the kayak back in the sea. He retreated with his tail between his legs as we picked up our kayak and joined the rest of our poor lot who can’t afford to pay for their private beach!.

We headed to Pisa the next day to provide some assistance to a structurally unsound building. We were on our bikes most of the day as the town is very accommodating to its 2 wheeled friends. We enjoyed ducking and diving through the streets trying to see as much as we could. We enjoyed yet another Foccacia which had quickly become our Italian version of the Baguettes we were eating in France. 

Exhausted from a full on 1^st week in Italy we have now driven inland to a Free Camperstop just below an medieval town called Certaldo. The town was actually a little gem of find and we explored a couple of Museums and took some awesome pictures. We spent the rest of our time here chilling out, catching up with this blog, getting some clothes washed and reorganising Pierre! Next stop is Florence.