After a lovely night in upper deck class on the ferry, we arrived in Napoli and experienced our biggest goat-rodeo yet. Driving and generally existing in southern Italy is chaotic at best, horns, darting in and out, undertaking, driving down blocked roads, immediate swerves to park at the side of the road etc. Hey, it’s an experience at least. At one point a car pulled up along side our van (in the slow lane of a dual carriageway) and asked if we would swap Swiss money for Euros!! But we managed to get out of town in one piece and headed for Pompeii with Vesuvius on our left half covered in clouds. Since I was a little boy I have been fascinated by Pompeii and it was all I hoped it would be. It is HUGE! 63+ hectares of city that just got covered in ash, fire and mud and then left for ages. Should be on anyone’s bucket list.
Spent half a day in the ruins – they were so advanced, there were loads of frescos, mosaics, pottery, carvings, baths and even “ye olde bank” with clay deposit jars built into a counter and a coin sorter on the wall!
We then hit the road pointing to the Amalfi coast. Ahhh la Dolce Vita awaits. Riva speed boats and extreme luxury and romance and bla bla….. Well, we drove pretty much up and down the entire Amalfi coast and didn’t even bother getting out of the car. Maybe it is us? No idea, but it did not tick any boxes in our book (scruffy villages, overpriced hotels, big inflatable bouncy castles & aquaparks on tiny beaches etc… ) so we headed back up North and found a deserted resort town on the coast on the way to Rome. Seemed like a perfect place to spend a few days and despite the bing bing music of the aqua-aerobics, we were rewarded with lovely sunsets and tasty food in the local taverna.
We tried to go for a walk in the hills but unfortunately it was not so enjoyable when the trailhead had been left covered in plastic bottles and garbage. This was not the only time we saw that in southern Italy. Such a shame that people care so little for their land and litter everywhere. Anyway, we had an interesting drive through the chestnut forests (even on a road so skinny that Tasha had to get out of the car to move a very heavy stone to allow our tyres to pass through!). Eventually we ended up on a hilltop that had burned recently. We had seen lots of burned forest, but this was the first time we actually stood in the middle of it – still with the charred smell, quite eerie.
However, that was all we needed to see and do in Southern Italy for now, so we pointed the blue racer north and aimed for Rome on the small local roads. And it is true what they say: “All roads DO lead to Rome”. We drove up along the coast on Via Appia (an old Roman road) along the beautiful beaches in the strong winds and through a serious rain storm. Arrived in a small town where the roads were flooded and blocked with water pouring out from the manholes in the roads. Later we saw that 7 people were killed in the flooding from these storms up in Livorno. Makes you think…
So after an eventful three days we arrived in Rome where we checked into our hotel, an old cloister in a quiet park on top of hill, thankfully out of the local floods. Pheweee… time for a breather before we launch ourselves into a major historical trip into town.
Counterclockwise around Europe 