Tuesday 16th:
We woke up about 5 am and then went and sat out on the deck which was rather nice with the early morning light. While we waiting to dock we met a group from New Zealand. Three of whom were living and working in England and they gave us some suggestions of places to visit for our first few days in the south of Italy. After driving off the ferry we decided to head straight out of town and down the coast towards Monopoli, and after finding a campsite that was very expensive decided to look elsewhere. We drove in to town and parked the van in a side street and headed off to find some bread and other supplies. We found a market and some police who we managed to ask, even though they didn’t understand English and soon found a bakery. After purchasing some bread we headed back to the market and bought some salad vegies and some fresh mussels. ooh!(We cooked them for tea in a chilli/garlic sauce with the wok of the bbq and they were delicious.) After leaving town we found a nice park by a bay and sat and had some lunch. We then went for a swim and when we came back, a couple from France said hello and we started talking. They were there looking for somewhere to sit and have their lunch. As there was no where and no shade we offered them some from our awning and ended up getting out the table and chairs for them as well. They seemed very happy to sit with us and we had a nice time chatting to them, (in English) with a bit of joking and exchanging of travel stories. They stayed for a while and when left were leaving offered us a place to come with our camper on our way back to Martin’s. Very nice couple. We found another campsite near Monopoli to stay for the night.
Wednesday 17th: Fine and very warm:
Drove to visit a town called Alberobello, where they have some very unusual houses called Trullis. They are white painted round houses with conical roofs which look to be interlocked without any cement. They are all in much of the area around Alberobello but in the town there is an area where they are quite closely grouped together and are quite picturesque. It was quite hot walking around town so we decided it was enough and headed back on the road where we found a place to stop in the shade for lunch. While doing this we made plans to visit another of the suggested sites that we had been told which was Matera. Another very old and interesting town built onto and into the rocky hills. This place had until quite recent history (1960’s ) been a peasant culture with no running water, electricity or sewerage. When they had run out of space in the 1920’s had started to move into the caves or burrow into the hills for their dwellings. In some places they have been restored and people have moved back into the dwellings. Now it is surrounded with ugly blocks of flats where we had a bit of a difficult time negotiating the narrow streets to find a park.. We are finding the Italians are very relaxed with the way they park, and this became quite a problem when we found ourselves trapped as we tried to turn into a street where the cars were parked close together with no room to get around them. Luckily a young girl came out and helped us by locating the owner of the car in our way and he moved it so we could get out. So with great relief we found a suitable park and went for a long walk down into the valley and up the winding streets through the old buildings. Hot and tired by such a busy day we headed off to the coast where we found a camperstop by the beach. A carpark by day for the beach and it also caters for campers overnight. The site has a large pizza bar/ restaurant and a café. On the beach they had a bar where you can hire beach lounges, umbrella’s and played loud music. So not a very peaceful place to stay but we settled in for the night to the late night noise of the disco next door.
Thursday 18th
After a swim at the local beach we headed off to our next destination which was on the west coast called Praia a Mare. We travelled across country and wound our way down a very narrow steep and winding road to finally arrive at the beachside holiday area. We parked in a car park where we could stay the night for free and as it was quite warm went across the pebbled beach for a swim.We have found out that a lot of the beaches we have come across have either very coarse sand or are all pebbles. So we have bought ourselves some foam beach mats and our “frogs” imitation croc’s are very essential.
Friday 19th
After a not so peaceful sleep, (didn’t realise the road went on both sides of the car park and that it was quite busy) we headed off up the coast. The road we took looked pretty straight forward but looks can be deceiving. And you cannot trust the Tom Tom to take you always on the best roads. We wound our way on a coastal road that hugged the cliffs, winding up and down through small villages and trying carefully to miss the oncoming traffic while not hitting the wall of rock on our right. It would have been very scenic if we had a chance to enjoy it but we were getting a bit nerve wracked and we looked forward to getting to our destination of Paestum.
Paestum is a small archaeological site that contains remains of Greek temples and Roman dwellings. We found it a quite interesting site and thankfully it wasn’t very busy so we happily wandered around and explored the ruins. We finally had a peaceful night sleeping in the car park near the ruins.
Saturday 20th. – Monday 22nd
We left Paestum and decided to follow the fastest route to our next spot near Sorrento. We headed to a small campsite near Seiano and found ourselves again having to negotiate a narrow winding road down towards the sea. Luckily for us it wasn’t too busy, because as we were observing on our way to this site, it was Saturday and everyone seemed to be out looking for a place to park for a day out at the beach.We made it down the road and found a nice small, relatively quiet campsite only 300mts from the beach. I might add though that the beaches were not the most attractive with black volcanic sand or pebbles. There was also not much fee beach as there was a resort nearby and this took up a lot of the nicer area for swimming. Anyway we set up for a few days, tried to have a swim with the hordes, but decided that we would rather be away from the crowds relaxing by our camper.
Sunday : We had planned to go by ferry to the Amalfi coast, but due to some rather rough weather the ferry was cancelled so we decided to take the train to Pompeii.What a place, we spent 5 ½ hrs there and still did not see everything. It was quite hot,and even though it was busy the sheer size of the place meant that we didn’t feel that it was crowded.Here we also met a family from Australia, a young couple with 3 small boys who were travelling for about 6 months and had bought a camper in Germany. So we spent a pleasant time chatting with them and exchanging travel tips and stories.That’s all I’ll say about that, the pictures as everyone knows tell the story.
Monday; Again after a night of thunder, lightning (very,very frightening) and lots of rain, the ferry again was cancelled. The weather though was fine, and so we took the train to Sorrento. We have a regular appointment with our family on the msn, Monday mornings, when we can so we took our laptop and tried to find some wifi. After wandering the streets and asking a couple of people with happened upon a Belgium Pub where we could sit down and have a coffee and fee wifi. Great, we spent a happy hour or so contacting our family but unfortunately the battery ran out when I was trying to update my blog so lost it all. Rats! I must learn to save when I can and not make that mistake again.We then spent some time walking through Sorrento, had some lunch and did some grocery shopping. It’s quite a pretty place but in the end we were happy to call it a day and go back to camp.
Tuesday 23- Saturday 27th
After another night of wild weather we decided not to worry about the Amalfi ferry ride and head off up to Rome. The campsite we intended to stay at (Happy Camping) which is in our ACSI : 11, 13, 15 € book said that the offer ended on the 28th so we didn’t want to miss out on their special offer. (we since found out they extended it to the 20/7th) We knew that we would need a few days at least to spend exploring Rome.
So three days catching the train into Rome. We bought a 3 day ticket for the metro: trains, trams, buses which cost 11€ and as we could hop on and off as much as we liked we made full use of tickets and saw as much as our brains could handle. One day the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine; the next day, Trevi fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona with the fountain of the Moor, and the Spanish Steps. The last day was the biggest with a visit to the Vatican City, the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, St Peters, and even tackled the Cupola at the top of the Basilica. Great Views of Rome! We finally got back to base about 5.30 and plunged eagerly into the camp pool, to wallow and relax. After a swim we paid for our internet connection which was 6€ for 24 hours. So we checked our email and did some other surfing until about 9.00 pm when we decided it was time to eat.The campsite has a reasonably price restaurant and so we decided to try their Pizza’s and had a pleasant dinner, eating what seems the most popular food in Italy. As they say: When in Rome!
Saturday all day was spent on the internet, updating this blog, uploading our photos, calling our family on Voip Stunt, (free on internet) emailing and generally taking some time to catch up. A swim in the pool and a read.
It’s been really tough!
