Coast to Coast

We visited the Amalfi Coast, staying right on the end in a little village called Marina del Cantone (???).  It was incredibly beautiful, but the real adventure was getting there.  Seemingly the entire population of Naples seemed to be coming back from the beaches as we were going along the road.  It wasn’t too bad in our direction, but the other way it was chaos, complete gridlock for miles and miles, and scooters were overtaking at high speeds, right down the centre of the oncoming (our) lane. It was nuts, people didn’t seem to be worried about anything, they just drove.  One thing we couldn’t get out of our heads was one couple who had their toddler on their scooter (no helmet), the mum obviously was having trouble holding him on the back seat, so passed him over to the dad in front, who stood him up holding onto the handles and carried on at high speed.  In general, we found people around Naples to drive very without a care – completely ignoring lane markings on the motorway and no kids seemed to wear seatbelts.  After a while I started to wonder if I/we are just really uptight about following the rules of the road, strapping everyone in, driving in a straight line, looking where you’re going, all that boring stuff....

One of the quiet moments of the drive where we could relax long enough to get a photo

Swimming on the Amalfi Coast, there were steps directly down from our tent to this little swimming patch

 

We found the Amalfi coast to be absolutely beautiful but incredibly crowded, and we all felt something didn’t quite suit us, so we woke up Monday, swam in the Mediterranean among the fishes, had a day in Pompeii, and then decided instead of spending any longer on the Amalfi coast we would head cross country to Puglia region (the heel of the boot of Italy).  It was definitely the right decision.  We ended up in Peschichi, a wonderful little town with a Greek feel (whitewashed houses, set into the hillside), where we found an absolutely brilliant campsite in Peschischi – on the beach but with tons of space around our tent – I don’t think we have a neighbour for 50m in any direction.  It was late by the time we got there, but we had a beautiful sunset swim in the Adriatic, swimming both sides of Italy the same day.   We stayed here for three nights enjoying the warm and wonderful Adriatic, having a real beach holiday, body surfing in the waves, and getting nipped on the toes by all the crabs hiding in the sand.  We’ve also been hiking in the nearby “Forest of Shadows” where we saw a wild boar skeleton on an abandoned path that was quite mystical with tall trees and open areas where all the elves meet to get instructions from the wizards.  There was also a lot of treasure from alien planets in the forest – all found and identified by Andy.

Sightseeing batteries fully recharged by days on the beach, we’re all packed up and off to Umbria today....

Second sea of the day - in the warm Adriatric.  It was actually very wavy too, just not in this photo.

Some lovely days on the beach - Andy loved the strawberry milkshakes!

Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii

We didn’t do them both on the same day, but we did climb Mount Vesuvius and see the incredible Roman Town of Pompeii.  Vesuvius wasn’t too much of a challenge, as you drive up most of the way, and then just trudge up half an hour or so to the top and get to walk around the crater. It is a “proper” volcano crater, with a big hole in the middle.  Was amazing to see how close it is to Naples – if it erupted again a lot of people would have to move quickly.  But it was hard to imagine Vesuvius erupting with all the ice cream and souvenir stalls up there.

Pompeii, on the other hand, seemed anything but dead.  It was amazing to walk through a 2000 year old city that seemed like anything from the modern day.  There was the swimming pool on the edge of town, the market, the theatre, the brothel, the baths, the laundry, it just seemed so recognisable and familiar 2000 years later.  And many of the houses would sell for large sums today as fixer-uppers, absolutely stunning!  A lot of it is original, but you could tell that some parts were renovated, but it didn’t matter at all, it was the town as a whole that was impressive rather than its individual parts, just a chance to see how wide the streets were, how houses were organised, it just seemed so alive.  Despite having visited many other Roman ruins this was the first time I could imagine being a Roman, it wasn’t hard to picture yourself walking down those streets 2000 years ago.  

Rome

We spent almost four wonderful days in Rome, and we could have spent forever there, it was amazing. Everything seemed to just work out.  We found a great campsite on the edge of the city – a 1.50 euro train ride in.  Can’t say enough good things about the campsite – it had everything (pool, bar, shop, etc) but we also had loads of space and privacy and no neighbours for far around our tent.  Bliss!  We also managed to magically have absolutely no queues at any of the attractions, even though we often saw queues on our way out - it seemed like the city was just  waiting for us.

Rome itself was a delight for all of us.  Andy and Joe thought the Colosseum and the Forum were fantastic (they were).  Stewart enjoyed the Vatican Museum a lot, even though it was kind of crowded. My favourite thing touristy thing was climbing the dome of St Peters, it was a lot of steps, but well worth it because you got to see St Peters from the inside of the dome, as well as the fantastic view from the top.  But more than anything, Rome was such fun. Around every corner was something beautiful and interesting and it was somewhere I would love to stay forever.  

The only bad or off-putting thing about Rome were the Modesty Police (my term) in the Vatican.  People kept getting funneled past groups of young men in police uniforms who made sure your shoulders and knees were covered and pulled lots of people aside to tell them to cover up.  We had heard about this and were appropriately dressed, but it was still strange.  Conjured up two main feelings, the first be to wonder whether God really objects to people seeing each others knees, and the second a reminder of regimes all over the world that impose these kinds of dress codes.

Campsite pool

View from the Forum

Outside the Colesseum

The ubiquitous audio guide

The Pantheon.  This was amazing!

We sat eating ice creams in the Piazza Navona and saw this guy get harrassed by the police, and several people take photos and not pay so although we never usually do we had a photo with him.

Climbing to the top of St Peters

Inside the Vatican Museum.  We have seen a lot of statues in Italy!

At the top of the dome of St Peters

View from the top of St Peters

In the Vatican Museum

St Peters square

One day there was a public transport strike so we decided to drive to some towns around Rome.  This is in Castel Gandalfo.