Paestum

Today we visited Paestum which is just down the West coast from Salerno. Here are some of the best preserved Greek temples in Italy. Apparently the city was abandoned in the 9th Century because of the plague and only re-discovered in 18th Century. The guy on the campsite where we stayed on Friday night told us they found it when they went to clear the area to build a road!

The temples are amazingly well preserved.

The Doric temple of Poseidon

The temple to Athena

The Amalfi coast

We were really looking forward to exploring the Amalfi coast having heard so much about it so we set off early on our scooter hoping that the rain we'd had during the night would hold off for the day.

We rode the entire length of the Amalfi, from Positano to Solerno and back which was around 100km. In Solerno we stopped for a coffee and to warm up as it was quite chilly riding.

Positano - a village popular with the jetset clinging to the cliffs above the sea

The village of Praiano

The Amalfi was nice but not quite what we were expecting as the majority of the narrow winding coast road was taken up with hotels, bars and restaurants. I guess we thought it would be a stretch of wild unspoilt coastline...

We returned to the campsite around 3pm and decided to move on rather than spend another €30 for a second night - this is the most expensive place we have stayed!

The way out of the camping place was very narrow and at 90deg to the track which then went steeply uphill. As we turned onto the track disaster struck or rather we struck.... a tree..... Kiki now has a nasty scratch along her side and a hole in the plastic trim on her offside rear. Having extricated ourselves from the tree we then attempted to drive up the track which was steep, green and slippery - no chance - wheelspin and smoke ensued! After a couple of minutes we gave up and then the owner came down to us with his 4x4 lorry and with the aid of a long rope, pulled us up the hill.

Having extricated Kiki and covered up the damage with Duck tape we drove on to Cava de'Tirreni and the Ariee di Sosta where we planned to spend the night.

Again we didn't have an address, just a town and a road name. Fortunately as we got close the the Sosta we spotted a sign (pointing uphill again) which we followed for a little until we got to a T junction - there were no signs here and the had road started to narrow so we stopped and I walked along both roads but found nothing. In the end I walked back down to the sign to check the direction and asked a local guy who had just walked down the hill where it was - he pointed back up the hill - I acted dumb and he walked all the way back up with me and into what looked like a private carpark. He asked someone else if it was the right place and sure enough part of the carpark is available for motorhome parking. We tucked ourselves in a corner and enjoyed a well deserved supper of Lasagne and chippy potatoes (an Em special).

The Sorrento Penninsula

Today we left our campsite at Pompei and drove south towards Sorrento. We didn't actually go into the city but took a road across the Sorrento penninsula towards the Amalfi coast. We were heading for a parking place that had been recommended to us by a guy who lives locally. Unfortunately when we arrived we found it to be too close to a busy road so we went for option two which was a campsite he also recommended.

The campsite was called Agricampeggio Oasi Verde and was only a few kilometers away however we didn't have an accurate location. We drove along the road towards the campsite and spotted a sign off to the left. We turned left and followed a narrow road uphill and round a few bends. Suddenly the road got a lot steeper and Kiki struggled to get up - we were stuck halfway up a hill :-( A local chap stopped and we explained where we were going and he said we'd gone the wrong way!! He helped us to reverse back down the hill and watched whilst we turned round in the narrow road. He then said follow me and took us back down the the main road where we saw that the sign was in fact pointing to an entirely different Agri.... something or other. It turned out we were about 1km from the proper place and he drove all the way there with us following and made sure that it was correct before returning the way he had came. The locals around here are very friendly and helpful.

Anyway we had arrived at Agricampeggio Oasi Verde but the adventure was only just beginning because the way to their camping area was down a steep and narrow track. When we got down it took two of them to help us to manouver into one of the camping places. Once we were settled they scurried around tidying things up. A lady came down and cleaned the toilets and showers and then spent ages sweeping all the leaves up.

It was a lovely quiet place to stay in preparation for exploring the Amalfi coast on our scooter tomorrow.

A few pics taken on our drive from Pompei to Sorrento

Sorrento on the Northern side of the penninsula.

Vesuvious

After waiting two days for the weather to clear, today we finally made it up Vesuvious. We took the bus from Pompei which on reaching the bottom of the volcano proceeded to wind its way up a series of precipitous hairpin bends to the parking area about 200m below the summit. We then climbed up a rough track to the rim of the crater and with thunder (at least we hoped that's what it was) rolling in the background we proceeded to explore.

You can walk about halfway round the rim - this view is looking down into the bottom

Fumes rising from the volcano

We loved the colour of the rocks up here

Ercolano - Part II

We were stunned by Ercolano because it's so much more complete it's even better than Pompei!! Our experience was enhanced by the dramatic sound and light show provided courtesy of a massive thunderstorm that was going on whilst we were there.

One of the many fresco's

Street number IV - only three out of the five streets have been excavated - the "modern" town of Ercolano was built over the others and it looks like the archeologists are tunnelling under the town to explore more.

One of the mosaics.

Em tries out one of the Roman baths.... a little more water, oh and a glass of wine please!

Ercolano - Part I

 Today we are visiting Ercolano (Herculaneum) which is another Roman town that was buried under volcanic ash by the eruption of Vesuvious in 79AD. However unlike Pompei, half a centry later another eruption further covered Ercolano in lava which compressed the ash and preserved the buildings virtually intact.

This picture shows the depth that the city was buried. The ditch in the foreground was formerly the sea shoreline - there is sand here and they found the remains of serveral wooden boats. The city, to the left, was covered in ash. The rock wall on the right is the lava that has been cut away to reveal the city below.

Removing the ash has revealed the Roman buildings as they were complete with original walls, doors and some of the roofs. Inside are original mosaic floors and walls covered in fresco's.

These two pictures below show what happened to this large marble washing bowl.

The ash cloud broke through the glass window that is shown behind us and filled the bowl. Then later when the lava flow came the ash was compressed into the shape of the bowl shown below.

This is the compressed ash from the washing bowl - if you look closely you can see the outline of the glass fragments from the window that smashed into the bottom of the bowl under the weight of the ash cloud.

Napoli

Today we visited Napoli (Naples). We took the train from Pompei into the city centre and walked to the museum. After the museum Em wanted to see the "lovely Bay of Naples" as our guide book described it but all we could see were sprawling ferry terminals... We gave up and took the train back to Pompei. We both agreed that Napoli has absolutely nothing going for it. The city is dirty, full of street people, beggars and Africans selling fake handbags/belts/hats etc - what a dump - our advice would be to give it a miss!!

We visited the National Museum of Archeology which at €8 each was one of the more expensive we've been to. This was rather a let down as well because it had quite a small collection (in the rooms that we saw) and two of the more interesting rooms were closed......

Hercules (in the museum) taking a rest from lifting heavy stuff.

One of the many piles of rubbish - this was small compared with some we saw sprawled across the side streets.

The ONLY thing Napoli has going for it..... public benches - they are quite a rarity in Italian cities!

This is the middle of the city

Pompei - Part III

We were both stunned by Pompei - it's definately one of the highlights of our trip. We spent four hours walking around and were astonished at how well preserved and complelete the buildings are - by far the best Roman "ruins" we have ever seen!!

Em enjoys the sunshine.....

..... whilst waiting for the pizza to cook

The Roman Forum

Shrine to the Ancient God Richard

Pompei - Part II

The amphitheatre - a lot smaller than the colosseum in Rome but better preserved

This will hold 20,000 people

The hot tub looks inviting

The Theatre

Pompei - Part I

Today we are visiting the Roman city of Pompei which is only 50m from our campsite.

A Roman street with Vesuvio in the background - this is the only active volcano in mainland Europe.

The site is enormous and there is more still to be excavated.

Petrified window shutters - they look like they're made of concrete

One of the many fresco's in the villas

Waterfalls and an English Garden

An English Rose poses by the 70m fountain at the top of the garden.

More Greek stuff...

A surprise in Italy - the Palace gardens also contain an English garden which was designed by some British bloke

After leaving Caserta we drove South to an overnight stop we found in out Camperstop book - unfortunately for the forth time in a row we were disappointed and found nothing there so we decided to continue driving South. After a while the sun was going down and we hadn't found anywhere suitable (to be honest it's a bit of a dump around here!) so we decided to push on to a campsite at Pompeii.

Approaching Pompeii was manic as it was rush hour and there were crazy drivers everywhere.... we did however contribute to the mayhem because 500m from the campsite we came across a railway bridge which was about 3m high.... Kiki is 2.92m tall... we crept forward very slowly with the Italians encouraging (!) us with much horn blowing and arm waving. With inches to spare (and our bedroom still attached) we made it through, quickly got off the road and tucked ourselves into the calm tranquility of the campsite. Stiff drinks all round tonight!!

Palazzo Reale

Today we are visiting the the Palazzo Reale (Royal Palace) in Caserta.

Quite an adventure getting here as the refuse collectors are currently on strike in this area which means there are enormous piles of rubbish everywhere. Having avoided these, we then had to run the "traffic light hawker" gauntlet. The main road up to the palace has a dozen or so junctions with traffic lights and at each light was a small group of African guys waiting to sell you stuff or clean your windscreen.... slightly unnerving, reminded me of Joburg!

A view of the palace - it has 1000 rooms!

The garden stretches for about 3km up from the palace to a 70m waterfall. The lake in the picture is nearly 500m long and contains over 32,000 cubic meters of water!

There are eight waterfalls along the length of the garden, each depicting scenes from Greek mythology.

Statues on one of the fountains ;-)

Come in the water's lovely

Em proving the the Med is still warm enough for paddling in November!

Sperlonga

We have now left Rome and are heading into Southern Italy. Yesterday we had quite a long drive because we struggled to find somewhere to stop for the night..... The first place had a Wednesday market in the carpark that was to be our stop so we carried on to our second option, which had a large marquee on the carpark and didn't seem to be a particularly nice place. Our third option didn't even exist!! By this time it was getting dark so we drove on desperately looking for somewhere.... finally we came to a carpark and on driving in we discovered two more motorhomes and several caravans parked for the night.

We spent a quiet night there and in the morning spotted the no motorhomes/caravans sign - the Italian's don't seem to care. One of the caravans had a long line of washing out so was clearly intending to be there for some time!!

Today we visited Sperlonga which is a whitewashed village perched on a promentary with a little fishing harbour and sandy beach below. it reminded us of St Ives in Cornwall.

The village had lots of narrrow alleyways with pretty courtyards and views of the sea through archways - this is more like the Italy we came to see :-)

The harbour and beach - we walked all of the way to the end of the beach and back - a lovely warm sunny day - we can't believe it's November!