Italy Diary 

25/1/2012 to 

25-1-2012 Wednesday
Walked around the town we stayed, Borgo San Dalmazzo - the local church, fantastic inside, with beautifully painted ceilings and walls.We then drove 150ks east to our friends, Dave and Coleen McLeod's place where we were treated to a lovely time for 4 nights, at a town called Montemagno (Italy) in the Asti Province. Their place is called Cascina Valgranocchio which is their mailing address even though it isn't the name of their street/road. They used to run a B&B from their house but now only rent out a house in the town. It was so quiet as there aren't any other houses close. They have a big place and we were able to drive the mhome up their long, upward slanting, gravel driveway and park around the side of the house. (The 2 Dave's used to work together in Telecom many years ago). We were treated to a lovely B&B guest room with ensuite and central heating. Coleens's kitchen had the typical European touch with the ladder strung horizontally from the ceiling, with garlic, onions, chillis, gourds, lavender, and any other herb or vegetable that's she's grown through the season, and uses as she needs for her cooking. She gave me a tour of their large garden which in season, bears fruit, vegetables, many vibrant coloured flowers and of course, grapes for the wine. We sampled Dave's home made wine which was top notch. Luckily we had a spare big 400g jar of vegemite we brought from OZ as Dave was running out and he was using his last tube sparingly (given by another OZ friend).

Their pets include Abbey, a lovely and intelligent dog, and Ratso, a big, fat rabbit which is so fat he has a big fat scroll around his neck (like a scarf) which he uses to wipe/clean his ears as he can't get his paws past the fat roll! It's a sight to see! Coleen picks him up by the plentiful skin at his neck and back to do a quick transport from one place to the other.

26-1-2012 Thursday Australia Day
Today Coleen took me to their dentist (the third now, for the same problem) and the final decision after xray and consultation with him, was that my tooth had to come out and antibiotics for an infection - so that's the end of that tooth saga. Coleen came in and translated for me which was great because I could make a decision being fully informed. The dental nurse wrote the antibiotics I needed on a piece of paper, not a script, and we just took it into the pharmacia and they give it - no script needed! That goes for any antibiotic here! But you can't buy paracetamol in the supermarket! (That's because the drug company/pharmacy have control and don't want them sold in the supermarket) Afterwards we went to a cafe and had lunch (something soft and easy for me to chew on the opposite side). We went to dinner in the village.

27-1-2012 Friday
We went to the markets in the town of Refrancore, which is about 5 mins away. In the afternoon, finally, after 5 months of not having one, I had a haircut and a colour!! Thanks to Coleen, again, who made the appointment with her hairdresser, Paolo, and translated for me and drove me there. It looks ok but I don't have my usual perm and I'm going to see how I cope with that! Everyone thought it looked good and that I looked 10 years younger! Well I can do with that, so might keep it! We all went to dinner which was really nice, at a place called Roosters. They tell us that you don't give a tip in Italy which is hard after we've been doing it everywhere else, especially when the food and service are excellent.

28-1-2012 Saturday
Drove with Dave and Coleen into the Asti markets, about 12ks and half an hour away, where Dave D bought himself a small beret-like hat (with a small peak to keep his head warm) like Dave M and the rest of the Italians wear. Most of the people do their shopping here at these markets which are great and have all the best of everything, from fruit and veg, cheese, meats to clothes at very cheap prices. After lunch back at the Cascina, it started to rain and it's snow! which is rain but turns to snow when the temperature drops down to about 0 degrees! We were hoping to get out of here and back to the coast and south before the snow started - we've been lucky up til now. Apparently the snow is later than normal.

29-1-2012 Sunday Andrew's 19th Birthday
Rang Andrew for his birthday. Well it snowed a lot last night, the first for this winter, and it's white everywhere with about 8 inches! The table and chairs outside look like a postcard, and very like the one we used for our Xmas card a month ago. DISASTER! We should've left yesterday and listened to Coleen - she thought yesterday that conditions were right for it to snow today. She and I shovelled the long driveway while the boys put the brand new show chains on the mhome drive wheels. Luckily, we were with someone who'd had experience with them, especially as the snow chains on one side for some reason didn't fit and Dave M was able to get some extra bits and the right tools to fix it. Luckily the 50m driveway was downhill and Dave and Coleen drove with us in their car to the main highway (the Autostrada) in case we ran into trouble. At one time Dave and C stopped as we were a bit slower following, and they got stuck, and couldn't drive off again as on a hill. Eventually they were sorted and we got to the Autostrada entrance. It was a bit scary but we made it, and we drove about 200ks south to try and make sure we were away from the snow as much as possible. After being on the Autostrada for a few ks we stopped and took the snow chains off the tyres as we could only drive about 50k/hr with them on. We drove past Genova and onward down to a town called Deiva Marina which was supposed to have an open caravan park but when we got there it wasn't, so we stayed overnight (for 1 night) in a park set aside specifically for mhomes, trucks and buses - no snow here.

30-1-2012 Monday
Drove south about 20ks to an Aires in Levanto (Italy) for 2 nights. We were going to go via the Autostrada but took a wrong turn, obviously, and went on a very winding, downward sloping and steep in some places, road. Tom, our GPS, tried to take us down this narrow road to the Aires, which wouldn't have worked for us, and we had to turn around. Well that was a bit difficult and scary as there wasn't enough room. Luckily a young lady came by who lived near and even though didn't speak English, we worked out that we could go a bit further and turn around. We did that but it was still difficult getting back up the narrow, goat track-like road and continue on a different road down to the town, which is not far from the sea. 2 scary things in 2 days! I'm too old for this! When we finally got settled in the Aires and had lunch, we got the bikes out and rode around the town and by the sea - beautiful!

31-1-2012 Tuesday
The day was a bit cold and overcast. We bought train tickets which allowed us to do a hop-on-hop-off style trip on the normal train to the very interesting and fantastic area called Cinque Terre (pronounced 'Chinkwa' Terre) which means 5 lands. It is a group of 5 villages built into the cliffs of the Ligurian coastline a little way apart from each other. Over the centuries, through constant collective work, man has managed to create this landscape, the only one of its kind in the world. Generations have worked to create this monument in landscape architecture, represented by the steep terraces sloping down to the sea. Held up by over 7,000kms of dry stone walling, cleverly built without any kind of cement, they are cultivated as vineyards that reach down to almost touch the lapping sea waves. The Cinque Terre, recognised by the Unesco "Mankind's World Heritage", are today a National Park and Protected Marine Area.

This area is truly a sight to behold, with buildings abutting each other and built upwards, all perched on the rocky coastline. The 5 town names are Monterosso, Vernazza, Cornigilia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Paths and centuries old flights of steps, up to a short while ago, were the only communications routes between the 5 villages. Then a lifeline rail line was built through to La Spezia, cutting through the mountains so the journey between villages is mostly in the darkened tunnels - at one station the narrow platform is partly in the tunnel and I thought we hadn't actually reached the station proper yet. Before the rail line, their vegetables and grapes were grown by hand on the hills, then hauled over the 6 mile stretch of precipitous cliffs that separate the villages from La Spezia. (I wondered how many lives were lost over the years on the dangerously steep terraces - they would've had to have been as sure-footed as mountain goats!) Manarola was the most picturesque town we thought. The most famous walking path of the Cinque Terre is the "Via dell'Amore", connecting Manarola to Riomaggiore, about 1k long and partially cut out of the steep cliffs overlooking the sea. Along the walk we noticed there were thousands of padlocks of all sorts, shapes and sizes (even bike chain locks), locked onto wires, railings, wherever they could be attached - obviously a symbol of love, being the 'Amore' road. We'd seen this padlock attachment before on railings especially on coastline lookouts, but not as many as here.

The village of Vernazza was badly damaged (with some loss of life) back in October 2011 by a mudslide with a lot of rocks in it - there were major street works going on so not much of the village was open for business. There are cute Piaggio three-wheelers everywhere - a motorbike engine but with 3 wheels, a small tray back, and handlebars for turning the single front wheel instead of a car steering wheel, and a front seat with room for 2, not big, people - perfect for these villages with small narrow streets. We caught the train on to La Spezia and had an early dinner, which is all we did here. It looked a nice town to explore but it was a big town and the wrong end of a long day so we caught the train back home to Levanto. It was starting to rain by then, or I should say, snowing!

1-2-2012 Wednesday
Well we woke up to 4 inches of snow outside! The road had been graded but snow was all over where we were parked. Luckily by midday, with the sun and no more snowing, we were able to drive about 100ks south to a famous town called Pisa (Italy), to an Aires (that we paid for, and which had low voltage power, enough to run the computer and the lights only), for 1 night. It had snowed here too in the previous days and the guy here told us that was very unusual for this area. The Aires was quite well located as we only had to walk down the road to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa (Torre) which was fantastic! We were able to buy tickets to climb the 300 steps up inside and the lean was really noticeable when we first walked inside, especially when starting to climb the spiral marble steps with well worn grooves from centuries' worth of many footsteps. Close to the top we could walk outside, onto a fenced area, right around the tower, which afforded marvellous views right over the city. The tower is all marble which made it very heavy, and without strong enough foundations, it started to lean.

Construction of the tower occurred in three stages across 177 years. The tower began to sink after construction had progressed to the second floor in 1178. This was due to a mere three-metre foundation, set in weak, unstable subsoil, a design that was flawed from the beginning. Construction was subsequently halted for almost a century due to a number of factors. This allowed time for the underlying soil to settle. Otherwise, the tower would almost certainly have toppled. After a phase (1990–2001) of structural strengthening, the tower is currently undergoing gradual surface restoration. In May 2008, after some further strengthening measures, engineers announced that the Tower had been stabilised such that it had stopped moving for the first time in its history. They stated it would be stable for at least 200 years.

The tower is part of the Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) which houses a number of buildings including a spectacular Cathedral and round Bapistery with a dome shaped roof. We only went inside the tower as the afternoon was getting away. We sidestepped many of the souvenir stalls except to buy a couple t-shirts and a tower souvenir. We had a nice dinner at a Chinese restaurant on the way back.

2-2-2012 Thursday
Before we were about to go, we gave the guys in the office a couple of Aussie flag stickers to put up on their wall with other stickers, as they'd been very helpful (they were obviously mhome people as they seemed to have a lot of knowledge of the places to stay). Later one of the guys came to our van and gave us a sticker of their Parcheggio mhome park and a small leaning tower of Pisa souvenir - we were chuffed! We did some shopping at a supermarket closeby and then drove about 80ks south to an Aires in a town called Marina de Cecina (Italy) for 1 night. We were going to a different one but the entrance to the road was very icy and slanting so we gave it a miss. There was lots of snow on the sides of the road on the drive here and at one time we passed a car stopped on the side and some kids threw a ice/snowball at our windscreen and scared hell out of us. Dave stopped the van and ran back to tell them off. When he came back he said those young kids were with adults (probably the parents) who were just sitting in the car and letting them do it! Unbelievable! Dave told the adults, through closed windows of their car, that it was dangerous and not to let them do it. Duh!

3-2-2012 Friday
Minus 1.7 degrees when Dave first got up! We drove about 110ks south to a large seaside car park in a town called Marina di Grosseto (Italy) for 1 night. We were driving to a publicised Aires but couldn't find it. No snow here or on the way so I am a bit calmer!

4-2-2012 Saturday
It's still cold, about plus 1-2 degrees, but no snow this morning and the sky is blue! We thought we'd drive east inland about 100ks to a lakeside Aires at a town called Bolsena, towards the middle of Italy. We didn't go to Florence (Firenze) or Siena (which are further north) because we'd heard it'd been snowing there. We were feeling a bit more comfortable now that we were far enough south and away from the snow - WRONG! Halfway there, we saw small signs of snow on the sides of the road, which was ok but as we got further and further along, the landscape changed dramatically and I was reminded more and more of when we were at our friends, the McLeods', just last Sunday - snow everywhere! We'd gone too far to turn back, especially as the road we'd driven on was pretty winding in parts, so we told 'Tom' (our GPS) to take us to the main Autostrada highway (which is always graded and kept open). On the way, we saw an overturned big truck on its side, on the side of the road! That gave us a lot of confidence that we were going to get out of here! Not! It started snowing quite a bit and was windy.

After driving for fair while on only just ok roads, we were about to turn on to a road that would take us to the Autostrada, when a polizia man stopped us and told us (in hand signs) that we were too 'grande' (big) to go on that road as it was very winding and we were too big to negotiate it with the current conditions. So - we had to turn around and backtrack a bit, and go another way, all the way on partly snow covered roads, which our mhome dealt with, with only a little bit of front wheel spinning now and again. Luckily the roads had been graded enough that we didn't have too much trouble, but it started snowing and was horizontal with the strong wind so we were concerned we could get into some trouble. The landscape on either side of us, was mostly white and picturesque and we tried to appreciate that as we prayed that we'd keep moving. After 5 hours of driving, we finally made it to the Autostrada and as soon as a motorway park came up, we went off and parked for the night - phew! A couple of beers and rums and we could relax. Outside our window, is a white postcard picture which we watched as we sipped our calming drinks, whilst on clean, snow cleared bitumen. It's minus 1 degree outside and it's 5.30pm. We will go to Rome tomorrow and apparently, it's been snowing there too.

5-2-2012 Sunday
Inside the mhome this morning, it was -1 degree because we turn the heater off at night so as not to waste the gas, but we were warm enough in bed. We couldn't get water when we turned the tap on and Dave thinks it was probably because all the snow and ice being thrown up under the van while on our 5 hour drive yesterday, froze the water in the tank or in the pipes. We hadn't had that problem before. Luckily we had some other water in bottles that we could use to drink and make coffee. We got some snow from outside and boiled it on the gas stove to use to wash up - I don't watch these survival shows for nothing!

We drove 79ks south to Rome, the capital of Italy, and finally, an open caravan park with showers, toilets, electricity and the internet which we haven't had for a week. Yeah! The park is called Camping Village Roma (about 6ks out of the centre of Rome) and even though I'd like to stay here for 2 months until it's fully Spring and there's no sign of snow anywhere, we'll probably only stay about a week or so. On the drive here, we saw many cars and motorbikes on the side of the main highway, probably abandoned after breaking down or getting caught in the heavy fall.  Quite a lot of them were newer cars too. We didn't know about the very heavy snow fall conditions until Dave checked the news on the internet - Rome has had its worst snowfall in 26 years! Apparently it's been a very bitter winter across Europe with 260 people dying (120 of them in the Ukraine which got down to -38 degrees!). No wonder we had trouble yesterday! If we'd had the internet we wouldn't have attempted that drive.

6-2-2012 Monday
Had an easy, relaxing day today. We had lunch at a bar/coffee shop over the road and then did some grocery shopping. We had to go over a walk-bridge across the highway and the snow on it in places, had become icy and very slippery so we had to watch our step. Snow in the cara park is noticeably disappearing - it was a lovely sunny day and it was pleasant out walking although it was still cold.

7-2-2012 Tuesday
It was very overcast all day but no rain/snow, so we stayed back at camp in the warm mhome (with the heater on). We caught up on a few things including washing. It was nice to just relax and do not much again today after the few harrowing experiences we've had lately. We've heard from our friends who live in Montemagno near Asti (where we were just over a week ago), and they are experiencing lots more snow and -17 degrees conditions - their coldest ever since they've lived there over the last 10 years. It is so cold that the snow isn't melting. Lucky escape for us!

8-2-2012 Wednesday
We caught the bus into Rome, from just outside the camping park today, to the Vatican City; another place where we will just get used to the public transport system in time to move on. We first visited the Vatican Museum. Among the many different museums and exhibits were
Raphael's rooms with magnificent frescoe paintings and the very striking Galleria delle Carte Geografiche (Gallery of Maps) - a 120 metre long, six metre wide room featuring 40 intricate topographical maps of Italy painted in the 1580's for Pope Gregory XIII. Then when you look at the ceiling you're greeted with a quite wonderful explosion of colour, as every inch of the vaulted ceiling is covered with vibrant frescoes. These vivid religious paintings represent episodes from the lives of the saints, scenes from the Old Testament and from the history of the Church, with each one positioned to relate to the particular geographical region that is depicted in the map beneath it.

We then moved on to the Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina), and its astonishing ceiling, Michelangelo's masterpiece. (Bounarroti was his surname for those of you who like a bit of trivia.) We joined the hordes of admirers, gazing up at the famous ceiling, painted between 1508 and 1512. I was glad we were here in the off season as there were enough people here as it was. It was easy to spend a lot of time looking at all the paintings, statues, and other exhibits. Lastly, we walked around to Saint Peter's Basilica, completed in 1626 and has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world. (We visited here in 2008 on mediterranean cruise but we didn't see the Sistine Chapel and museums.) In Roman Catholic tradition, the basilica is the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and, according to tradition, the first Bishop of Rome and therefore first in the line of the papal succession. Tradition and some historical evidence hold that Saint Peter's tomb is directly below the altar of the basilica.

We have seen a few magnificent churches but this one tops the list. Inside, absolutely everything is in different colours of marble; the floors with their multi-coloured marble inlayed images, the massive columns, the walls and many of the ornate sculptures - we couldn't imagine seeing more marble in one place. Michelangelo was responsible for the design of the grand dome, which soars 120m above the altar. Equally impressive is Bernini's masterpiece, Piazza di San Pietro. The vast piazza is bound by 2 semicircular colonnades, each comprising 4 rows of Doric columns, and in its centre stands an obelisk brought to Rome by Caligula from Heliopolis (in ancient Egypt). We just walked around in awe at the magnificence! By the end of the day, our necks were sore from looking up all day!

9-2-2012 Thursday
The day was beautiful and sunny and only a few dirty snow piles still appear here and there around the city. We caught 2 buses this morning to get to the Piazza Venezia (in the city of Rome), which is a focal point for the city's bus routes and an ideal spot for tourists to orientate themselves. The River Tiber (Fiume Tevere) runs through Rome and many bridges connect the sides of the banks to each other. The first attraction we wanted to see was the Vittorio Emanuele Monument, which towers over the surrounding cityscape of Rome, creating an ideal point of reference for travellers. It is known locally as the 'Typewriter' (and it truly does look like one of the old fashioned machines), and was affectionately christened the 'Wedding Cake' by soldiers during the war, because of it's white marble walls and columns. There was nothing much to see inside except a small wartime naval museum, but we rode up to near the top of the building, in a panoramic lift, attached to the outside of the building. The lift had clear, see-through walls so you could watch the city as you rode up. At the top we enjoyed spectacular 360 degree views of the city. The city centre consists of low buildings with no real skyscrapers, only a few higher buildings quite on the outer edge of the city.

Nearby we visited Colonna Traiana, Mercati Traianei (ruins), and the Colosseum which we only viewed from the outside this time as we did go inside in 2008 - it is enormous and spectacular. Right near here was the Arco di Constantino (another ornate triumphal arch like the Arc de Triomphe). We walked up to the top of Capitoline Hill where we had good views of the large ruins (about 6-7 times the area of the Colosseum), of the Roman Forum and the Palatino. Parallel to this large area was Circo Massimo - an area about 500m long, open, bare and sloped on the sides, which was used for chariot races. There are many ruins, and different wonderful sites in Rome but we will only see a small number of them. Rome is known as the Cittá Eterna (Eternal City).

10-2-2012 Friday
We caught the bus into the main part of the city again today but today was rainy and overcast. We planned to go to the Castel Sant' Angelo but only when we got to the door, did we find out it was closed on the 10th and 11th, today and tomorrow. We had checked it out on the internet and nothing was said about that! It is a big round building, built on solid rock which you can see halfway down the building. It was completed in 139 AD and intended as a mausoleum for members of the Imperial family. Castel Sant'Angelo takes its name from a vision supposedly seen by Pope Gregory the Great in late 6th century, in which the Archangel Michael appeared over the top of the monument thus announcing the end of a devastating outbreak of the plague. This event is commemorated by the magnificent eighteenth-century statue of St. Michael sheathing his sword on top of the monument. During the middle-ages, the building was then occupied by many different noble families, before coming under full papal control in 1377. It is linked to the Vatican by a special underground passage, the ‘passetto del borgo’, which enabled several popes to flee to the fortress in times of danger. There is a pedestrian only bridge, Ponte Sant' Angelo, that crosses the river and leads right to the castle. Angel statues adorn both sides of the bridge.

The next bridge over is the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II named after the first King of Italy. Complex statues of groups of people in various poses adorn both sides of the bridge, and 2 bronze winged statues of victory sit on the top of pylons at each end of the bridge. We walked around for a bit more and then had an early dinner of nice pizza at a classy restaurant near St Peter's. When we left it was still raining so we decided to go home. As we got to the bus, we noticed it started snowing and by the time we got home close to 4.30pm, there seemed to be quite a bit of white around. By 8pm back at the camping park, the ground outside was totally white!

11-2-2012 Saturday
Well it was quite a balmy morning this morning at 5.5 degrees. The sun was shining and the sky was blue but with the snow lying around we decided we'd stay for another day. We crossed over the overhead bridge to do some shopping and as we left, we noticed the sky wasn't blue anymore and it started to rain and also snow. By the time we left the shopping centre it was snowing quite heavily, very pretty but I was glad we didn't leave this morning. We'll see how we go tomorrow.

12-2-2012 Sunday
A nice sunny morning - seems there wasn't any snow overnight. So we decide to drive on today, 253ks south to Pompeii (Italy) and a caravan park called Camping Spartacus (very Roman), which is not far from the Pompeii ruins caused by Mt Vesuvius in 79AD. We expect to be here for a few nights as we feel there's a lot to see around here and the nearby Naples. We were going to stop overnight at an Aires about midway between Rome and Pompeii, and a few ks off the highway, but we weren't sure about the snowfall. On the way here on the main highway, the Autostrada, it was amazing to see how the landscape changed - one moment everything on both sides of the highway was just covered in lots of snow but then down the road another 30ks or so, there'd be no sign of snow at all! Then in another 30 ks or so, it'd go back to being snow covered. This was repeated several times and when there was no snow, you could be lulled into the false sense of security that it was safe to go off the highway and inland, like we did over a week ago before Rome when we tried to go to Bolsena and our 5 hour worrisome drive. So we decided to drive straight to Pompeii and the cara park we knew was open. There's been no sign of snow here, only rain and we had a bit of a thunder as well.

13-2-2012 Monday
It was a lovely 6.5 degrees outside this morning, which is about 3-4 degrees more than Rome. Caught the train to Napoli (Naples) (Italy), the birthplace of Sophia Loren and pizza. Naples has a primo location, butted up between the Bay of Naples and Mt Vesuvius. We were briefly here in 2008 while on the Mediterranean cruise but didn't have a lot of time to spend in the town. We saw Naples, Herculanium, Pompeii and then Sorrento and a ferry ride across the Golfo di Napoli all in one day - just in time to get on the cruise ship before it left. So this time we decided to see the sights. Our impression in 2008 of the town hasn't changed this time - it's still dirty, grubby and depressing with buildings in bad shape and large rubbish bins around the streets filled to the top and other rubbish lying in the streets, as if there's a garbage man strike. It's certainly not a place we'd ever contemplate living in. There's tons of souvenir shops in narrow streets with lots of Vespas driving quickly past you. Drivers are impatient and constantly sounding their horns at one another and they don't like to stop for you on the paedestrian crossings - you have to walk out on the crossing in front of them before they will stop. It's amazing the number of people you see driving motorbikes, whilst using their mobile phones (and sometimes even smoking)! These driving behaviours aren't confined to Naples, we've seen it in most places in Italy so far as well as Spain. They double park frequently, leaving their cars for a long time, and even park on corners and across pedestrian crossings making it difficult for prams and wheelchairs!

When we got off the train we walked to the main Piazza Garibaldi near the main Stazione Centrale, to seek out the tourist office for a map. Then we walked to the Duomo Cathedral which was quite impressive from the outside but wasn't open at the time. We had a great pizza at a modest looking shop called Di Matteo established in 1936. We just happened to pick this one to have lunch at and realised later, that it was cited in the Lonely Planet tourist guide as one of the best places to eat. It had a small takeaway shopfront but when you went inside there were quite a few tables and chairs downstairs and upstairs as well. It was well patronised so obviously the locals think it's good too. We then walked to the Chiesa (church) di Gesú Nuova with the 15th century rusticated facade but it was also closed. We moved on to the Basilicata di Santa Chiara, restored to its original Gothic-Provencal style after being severely damaged by WWII bombing. Inside the basilica was the beautifully tiled Chiostro delle Clarisse (Nuns' Cloisters) - tiled columns and seats.

We would've like to take a trip up to Mt Vesuvius but the tourist information office told us the road up there was closed due to snow. Vesuvius is easily seen from the train when travelling when travelling to either Naples or Sorrento. We spent a lot of time in 2008 at the Pompeii ruins so we don't plan to visit it again this time. The ruins were caused when Mt Vesuvius erupted in 79AD and smothered the area in 6 metres of volcanic ash and lava, resulting in perfectly preserved bodies, tools, household objects and the famous form of a dog. Pompeii was a resort town for the wealthy and the ruins provide an insight into the daily life of ancient Romans.

14-2-2012 Tuesday St Valentine's Day
We caught the train this morning in the opposite direction to Naples, to the lovely seaside town of Sorrento. We were going to catch a bus to see the Amalfi coast but after a 40 mins wait, we found out that it was a religious holiday today and the buses weren't running! There was a big markets day on in the street with fireworks, a bit like the Ekka, which was probably due to the holiday. So we walked down quite a lot of steps and then a road to the marina and caught a large ferry for 25 mins, across to The Island of Capri, which was wonderful. The small island seems to consist of a lot of rocky terrain and we caught a small, orange, 5m long bus, with 8-10 seats plus standing room, up a narrow, winding road to the main town of Capri. There is another town called Anacapri a bit further away, west of Capri, but we didn't go there. In stark contrast to Naples, Sorrento and Capri are very clean and well kept and it was a pleasure walking around the streets.

We walked for a little way to Giardini di Augusto (Garden of Augusto) where there was a magnificent view/outlook, the best in Capri we've read, over the clear blue/green water. The small garden, adorned with statues, was well manicured. We were quite high up and we were able to look down onto Via Krupp - an interesting walking path, an architectural engineering feat, built in the late 1800's by and named after a German industrialist (Krupp), a path with a series of hairpin turns hewn from the rock, and leading down to the beach. One of the main tourist attractions of the island is Grotta Azzurra (Blue Grotto) but it was closed unfortunately. We walked back to the main Piazza area and had lunch before making our reverse trek back by bus, ferry and train.

From a web site of Italy religious holidays for 2012 - note that religious holidays strike without warning throughout Italy. (sounds a bit dangerous!)

Back at Sorrento we bought some peeled, raw chestnuts at the markets - we'd had the ones you buy hot and cooked in their shell but had never seen them sold peeled and raw. They were pretty hard so we tried roasting or frying them in the pan - Fail! They were as hard as rock, we'd made our own conkers! So we threw them out and boiled some others in water for a few minutes and they were great - another interesting experience!

15-2-2012 Wednesday
We decided to have a rest day, not travelling on public transport, and just explored the town of Pompeii a little, seeing as we're staying here. This was something we didn't have the luxury of doing back in 2008. We walked down the road about 500m to a beautiful church called Santuario Della Madonna Del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary), which seemed to be built in 1901, so it's quite young in comparison to others we've seen. It was unbelievable how much marble there was, everywhere. The very high, impressive clock tower is made of marble and granite and houses an 18 ton statue of Jesus. Inside, no wall or ceiling was plain. The vaulted ceilings all had beautiful painted pictures, some with additonal gold decorations of flowers, etc. On the walls, frames made out of marble (like picture frames) surrounded various unusual marble patterns so they looked like pictures on the wall. The main altar was pretty spectacular. The church was up amongst the best we've seen - and we only saw it because we were staying here.

The church is located on the Piazza Bartolo Longo, named for a lawyer who founded the church and other community minded establishments in the area. There was also a monument dedicated to this man in the well manicured piazza grounds and garden. We were surprised to also see a 9/11 monument, an actual piece of twisted steel recovered from the World Trade Centre, courtesy of New York - the monument was inscribed "11 Settembre", not 9/11 as has become a catch phrase well known by the world. The day started out a little overcast but fined up by the afternoon and it was a pleasure to stroll around this pleasant area.

16-2-2012 Thursday
It was a beautiful sunny day right from the start, which was particularly good for the trip we did today. We caught the train to Sorrento (25mins) and then a bus (1hr 40mins) to the town of Amalfi along the 50ks of sheer rock cliff that is the famous and popular Amalfi Coast. Villages are perched impossibly between crags and ancient terraced farming shows off the area's abundant citrus groves and flowers. Positano was another famous town on the way but we didn't have time to do it as well. The bus ride itself was a big part of the sightseeing experience, not just a means of getting there. The road was very winding around the sometimes overhanging rock cliff and quite narrow in places, with fantastic views over the open ocean. The bus driver was very confident and skilled at his job luckily, as even here, drivers still double parked at inconvenient and narrow places. The bus was a normal coach, thankfully, so our long, winding ride on sometimes rough road, was as comfortable as it could be.

The scenery was just magnificent! Dave and I clicked away constantly with both cameras and Dave will have a big job sorting out which ones will go into the travelogue. When we arrived we walked out on the jetty and marvelled at the lovely blue clear water. We walked around the town and had lunch at a lovely restaurant - the owner who was also the chef and waiter, being very helpful - even allowed me into the kitchen to show me the fresh fish and tomato casserole he'd cooked (to see if I wanted to order that). After lunch we walked up the many steps to the Sanctus Andreas Church which had unusual striped arches, a bit like the church at Cordoba. It wasn't open to view inside. After that it was time to take the long bus and train ride home.

17-2-2012 Friday
We'd asked again at the tourist place near the train station this morning, if Mt Vesuvius was open (after the recent snow falls) but we were told no. So we bought train tickets to Naples to finish some sightseeing there that we missed out on the other day, but on the way, would hop off first at Ercolano (Herculaneum) to visit the ruins. When we walked out of the station the first thing we saw was an advert for visits to Mt Vesuvius! Well the top and the walking road around the rim of the mountain was closed due to snow but we could go up the road a fair way into the National Park and walk around, so we did. A guy drove us and 5 other passengers up the winding and hairpin road until we got to a stage where snow/ice covered the whole road. He then stopped and wouldn't go any further, so we walked about 2 ks further to a panoramic view area while he waited for an hour for us. The road was very icy and slippery in parts (and I fell over only once, maybe twice) but we were closer to the mountain than we'd ever been before, and we would have to be content with this - at least we got up to the National Park and close to it so that was great.

We then had lunch before we walked down the road to the ruins of Herculaneum which were very interesting. (In 2008 we'd only briefly visited these ruins, not going inside, because we didn't have a lot of time) We spent close to 3 hours walking around and listening to the audioguide explaining the fate of the 4,000 inhabitants of this town. This town was buried by the eruption of 79AD but not in the same way as Pompeii - its splendid houses were covered by metres of volcanic ash which burned more than totally destroyed them, which preserved them better than those of Pompeii (especially as they were mostly made of brick-like material) and protected their frescoes, mosaics and building walls (we remember on our visit in 2008 that Pompeii's buildings were mostly destroyed).

18-2-2012 Saturday
We trained it into Napoli (Italy) again today as we didn't see all we wanted to see the other day. We visited the beautiful church Basilica Santurario Del Carmine Maggiore which only had 1 stained glass window but had beautiful colourful inlaid marble on the altars. The main altar was just wonderful and the ceiling was unusually flat (most we've seen have been vaulted) with lots of decorations. Walking along the waterfront we were struck by the beauty of the large buildings with very ornate balconies. They mostly now appeared to be hotels but we expect they would've been built by the wealthy merchants back in the early 1900's. We came to the port where our cruise ship docked back in 2008. We enjoyed lunch at La Scialuppa, a very old family restaurant on the waterfront. Photos on the wall where we sat, showed the owner in 1994 with the former US President Bill Clinton who dined at his restaurant. After lunch we walked around the nearby Castel Dell 'Ovo (Castle of the Egg) - one of the schools of thought for this name, was that was the shape of the rock on which the castle was built. There was no inside to go and see, just a large area outside with wonderful views of the ocean and of course, Mt Vesuvius.

Now people who look at our travelogue photos might think we've got a made craze for photographing Mt Vesuvius - it certainly is magnificent but the truth is the mountain is everywhere you look. When we're on the train, there it is. When we were in Sorrento, the Isle of Capri, Naples, everywhere, the mountain is there, and it is hard not to photograph it in all its splendour. We wandered off to the Palazzo Real (Royal Palace) but we didn't go inside as it was getting late, we were getting tired and we had a bit of a way to walk back to the train station. We came across the very large Piazza Plebiscito, the square reminded us of the big area outside St Peter's Baslicia in Rome, especially as the church on the edge of the square, had big columns laid out in a similar semi-circular fashion - this church wasn't open. We saw quite a few other amazing buildings - with such fascinating architecture and decoration - we don't have much like this back in OZ and it's great to see. On the way back to the train, we saw so many hawkers pushing prams with umbrellas in them, obviously going to some selling spot - but they must know something and sure enough the sky did cloud over and rain came. Luckily we'd made it to the train before we saw much of it. We thought there must've been some special festival on tonight as we saw lots of hawkers setting up on the street (bags, jewellery, kids toys, souvenirs, etc), as well as kids in costumes - later we found out that it was the peak Carnevale Saturday night.

19-2-2012 Sunday
The weather is warming up here nicely - it's been 12 degrees through the day and about 10 at night. We had a rest day today and walked up the road to the town of Pompeii and bought a couple of Pulchinello souvenirs - he's the unofficial mascot of Naples. Dressed in white clothing with a white, floppy (elflike) hat and black mask, he's a rascal, a loveable rogue who gets up to mischief and often carries a red chilli-like shaped object, which isn't actually a chilli but a horn, used to ward of the evil eye, which is any sort of bad/evil that can come your way - so he's a luck charm, like a rabbit's foot.

There were lots of people around today in the Piazza. We found out what the costumes the kids were wearing in Naples yesterday, were all about. Lots of kids, and even bambinos, were wearing all sorts of costumes and throwing lots of confetti about. It is all to do with the Carnevale festival season, the Mardi Gras that all Italy celebrates at this time of year, for several weeks. Mostly all the businesses were open in the town, which we've found is unusual for Sunday in Europe, so it must've been because of the carnival.

20-2-2012 Monday
It's a rainy day today. Checked out of the camping park, did some shopping at the supermarket down the road before driving 80ks south to a town called Paestum (Italy). We're staying overnight in the carpark of Hotel Mandetta in Paestum where they hooked us up to electricity as well. They have a proper area across the road for about 20 mhomes but it's closed at the moment for renovations so they allowed us to stay in their big carpark at the back of the hotel. The other frontage of the hotel property is right across the road from the beach. We went for a walk around the town and it's easy to see this would be a popular area in the summer time with plenty of eateries, hotels and entertainment shops, most of which seem closed (chuiso) at the moment.

We came across a structure called the Tower of Paestum built in 1566 as part of a defence support system. It was nicknamed Cavallara (Horsy) because it would house the horses used for urgent communications. It was 1 of an uninterrupted chain of 111 similar structures, linked through a visual perspective, that have characterised for centuries the image of the Amalfi and the Cilento coast. The towers communicated with each other through clouds of smoke during the day and bonfires at night. The number of bonfires corresponded to the number of ships sighted. The hotel has a restaurant so we went there for dinner - we were the only customers but it was a lovely place.

21-2-2012 Tuesday Shrove (Pancake)Tuesday
Today, Shrove Tuesday, is the official day of the carnavale celebrations, where we see kids dressed up in all sorts of costumes. We drove about 2ks today to see quickly see some ruins before we moved on to our next destination. Well, what a surprise! We spent all up, over 4 hours wandering around firstly, in the National Museum Paestum and then across the road at the Scavi di Paestrum (the ruins), and they were a hurried 4 hours as we had a little way to drive before nightfall - we could've spent all day looking, especially in the museum. Just our estimate, but the area inside the old town walls containing the Temples and other ruins probably covers about 5-10 sq Km. If you ever consider a visit, allow a full day

Paestum was an old city founded by the Greeks (not the Italians/Romans) in the 7th century BC, and at that time it was called Poseidonia. Around about 270 BC the Romans took over and renamed it Paestum. So there ended up being a mix of Greek and Roman structures. Best of the Greek structures, are the 3 Doric temples - in each Greek community there existed a sacred area consecrated to gods. These are The Temple of (Goddess) Hera (also known as Basilica), the most ancient temple (550 BC); The Temple of (Goddess) Athena (also known as temple of Goddess Ceres) (500 BC); and the Temple of Neptune (God of the Sea also known as Poseidon or Apollo) (450 BC) the largest, the most complete and the most imposing and just awesome! The columns on this temple were so huge and one wonders how they managed to get those heavy pieces up that high without the aid of the machines that we have today! Occasionally we would sit in front or inside of one of the major ruins and contemplate what they would have been like between 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, when they were complete with their elegant facades and brightly coloured decoration. On the Roman side, among others, there was housing, the Forum, the Comitium (meeting area) and the Ampitheatre, or one third of it, as the rest is now under the road just outside the ruins. Apart from the temples, with most of these structures, there's mainly only low, one to two foot high parts of the walls left but you could see what they used to be, especially with the living quarters/housing areas.

The museum had on display, thousands of Greek related artefacts (statues, small and large, urns, keys, jewellery, vases, toys, bowls, etc) that had been recovered from the ruins. There were also big concrete-like tombs or coffins that had paintings done on the inside walls and lid of the coffin, so the paintings all faced the body - the tombs were taken apart so the individual pieces could be displayed. The most impressive of these seemed to be "The Diver's Tomb". The museum had 3 floors of displays with the 3rd floor being dedicated to the Roman statues and artefacts. It was a very impressive museum.

We then drove 130 ks south to a town called Scalea (Italy) to a basic camping place right beside the sea, called Lido Sosta Camping for 1 night. The road to here was a bit like the Amalfi coast road in its winding and narrow nature, and being high up, but luckily it wasn't as busy. The views over the ocean and around the rocky terrain, were just fantastic!

22-2-2012 Wednesday
It was very windy overnight and this morning! It was really rocking the mhome overnight and even bouncing the skylights up and down the little bit of play they have in them, even though they were closed down tight. We drove about 1-2ks and walked to the Torre Talao, one of the defence system towers (which wasn't open). The wind was so strong, it was just about knocking us over. We then walked around the old part of the town of Scalea - as with most old historic parts of these European towns, there were lots of steps, narrow laneways between very old buildings. There was a castle at the top but it wasn't open and didn't look very tourist friendly from the outside.

We then drove about 30ks south, about a third of what we were going to do. After leaving Scalea, it didn't take long and the weather turned really bad - frighteningly strong cross winds and driving rain. So strong that we were looking for a place to stop and let the storm pass. Dave was struggling a bit at times with the steering wheel. We had also seen a jack-knifed semi-trailer and then, the polizia diverted us away off the motorway because another one had rolled onto its side on a very high viaduct, probably due to the very strong cross winds. It was on its side resting precariously on the guard rail of the viaduct/bridge! We were diverted down a steep road, not a road we would've chosen to go down and one we don't want to go back up, onto the main road if we can help it! We drove for a little way into the seaside town until we found a place to stop, in a nice big empty car park, in a town called Cittadella del Capo (Italy). It was about 1pm and we decided to stay here for the night - 'wild camping'. Luckily we decided to stop for the night as the driving rain and very, very strong wind continued for the rest of the afternoon and into the night, rocking the van and skylights yet again. We actually had a nice spot, overlooking the sea from an elevated position - we could see the white caps white caps and spray on the sea caused by the strong wind blowing from the land.

23-2-2012 Thursday
This morning the wind had dropped right off and there was only light rain. But at 7am Dave woke me to tell me people were setting up stalls around us - it was a market day! So we quickly secured things and drove off down the road to a place where we could pull over, have breakfast and stow things properly for driving. We were able to pull into a roadside lay-by area that overlooked the sea - another scenic spot to eat our breakfast of Spanish prosciutto and French cheese (and vegemite from home of course) on a lovely part of the Italian coast - Ooh la la! From this spot we could actually see the spot on the viaduct/bridge where the truck had tipped over onto its side. It had been cleared away by that time though. We then made our way back up onto the motorway, by a different road to the steep one we came down on, and drove 140ks south to a town called Palmi and a caravan park San Fantino for 1 night. As we left fairly early this morning (which is unusual for us), we arrive early, about 12.30pm. Our caravan parks book says this park was 200m from the beach but failed to say it's a sheer drop of about 100m down to the water! The view is nice, over a big boat harbour.

24-2-2012 Friday
A little man in a little van came into the park this morning about 8.15 calling "pane, pane" which is "bread", freshly baked bread, a common thing we experienced in France and Spain but it's the first time we experienced it here in Italy (that is, driving the bread around to the customers). Well, when we were leaving, the tow bar scraped again going upwards, back out of this park, on to the road but we got out without too much trouble. We drove 55ks south to the town of Villa San Giovanni down near the big toe of Italy, where we caught the 40 mins ferry ride over to Messina on the island of Sicily (Italy) - Mafia territory! We then drove 56ks south to the town of Giardini-Naxos on the east coast, to a mhome park called Parking Lagani for a few nights. There a quite a few mhomes here, mostly with Italian and German number plates - the place must be really packed in the peak season! On the way here we drove through many tunnels through mountains even though we're still close to the coast. There have been many tunnels so far in Italy but not in the same concentration as this last 50ks.

The temperature here is 19 degrees outside, and 21 inside the mhome - very nice! We got our bikes out - the 1st time in a month! Rode down to the waterfront which was beautiful. We popped into the Tourist Bureau where the lady there was very helpful.

25-2-2012 Saturday
Need to mention Mt Etna which is here in Sicily, very close to us here where we are staying and, like Mt Vesuvius, is everywhere you look. It is the most active volcano in Europe, having had a recent eruption on 9/2 of this year, and apparently it erupts fairly regularly. However, the lava apparently spills down a valley that doesn't have human occupation, so it is more a spectacle than a danger. Mt Vesuvius (near Pompeii) is the most dangerous because of the occupation down below, but it hasn't shown any sign of eruption for a very long time (here's hoping!). Etna is snow covered at the moment but seems to be always smoking, with steam gently rising continuously from the top (caldera). I thought it was white cloud initially but then realised it was there all the time, even when there were no clouds in the sky. Etna is Sicily's highest mountain at approximately 3,350 metres and is a lot closer to the townships here than Vesuvio is to Pompeii and Herculaneum.

We caught the EARLY 9.15am bus this morning (I'm not usually ready to go out of the van until at least 10am!), to a medieval town of Taoramina, going up a winding road. We then caught another bus to a beautiful little town called Castelmola, another medieval town perched very high up on top of a mountain, and this road was even more winding (hairpins), narrow and steep - we were glad we weren't driving! Castelmola is a lovely, interesting, and clean town built on rock and many, many steps and steep streets. We commented that it would be hard to carry your shopping up every week, and it wasn't very "old people/infirm people" friendly. We walked around for a while and had already opted to walk back down the walking track of 1.3ks to Taormina. There were lots of steps and part of the track was really only fit for experienced cliff top goats but we persisted and eventually came down into the next town. Our knees certainly got a good working out today and will be ready for some liniment tonight! At Taormina we had a lovely lunch at a restaurant with beautiful clifftop water views, and to top it off, the waiter was a Johnny Depp look-a-like with glasses (like he appeared in the movie 'Secret Window'). He said he gets people saying that all the time and we laughed when he then said jokingly that Johnny Depp was his brother!

We walked to the Teatro Greco (Greek Theatre) ruins which were quite large and we sat in the seats for a while, soaking up the beatiful sun. We walked around and looked in all the interesting and classy shops, some of which had fantastic ceramic products - georgeous glossy and with a brightly coloured finish. The most common ones that we see around the town, are these heads, Doulton-like character jugs, adorning railings and patios, etc. Also in glossy ceramic, we saw many examples of the symbol of Sicily, where it is called trinacria feature three running legs, bent at the knee and conjoined at the hip area. There are other theories of the origin, but people mostly attribute the origin of the Trinacria, to the triangular form of the island of Sicily.  While waiting for our next bus back home, we walked a short distance to the Byzantine Tombs (now situated parallel to the current road), dating from the 4th century - basically a cemetery (or necropolis), holes in stone/rock walls, 3-4 layers deep, a bit like the post office box arrangement for mail, or drawers in a morgue. They were open at the front so you could see inside (probably a lot of the rock/stone removed for other building activities), but no skeletons have remained (thankfully). That evening back at our motorhome park, the sunset provided a special view of Mt Etna with smoke/steam still rising after the 9th of February eruption.

26-2-2012 Sunday
Today was mostly a rest day, resting our weary bones and catching up on washing. We did ride into the town along the waterfront as we were told there was a Sunday morning markets but either we were too late or they weren't on today, because we couldn't find them. Then later we rode out again to go to a supermarket that was supposed to be open, but we couldn't find that either - so they were both wasted times except for the exercise we got, not that we really needed any today! Again in the evening, the sunset gave us an even different view of Mt Etna. We wondered if the strange circular cloud above the crater might have been a by-product of the rising heat. We have seen some spectacular natural wonders, but Mt Etna's different moods has to be amongst the best.

27-2-2012 Monday
We drove 113ks south to the town of Siracusa (Siracuse) (Italy) and a mhome park called Parcheggio Von Platen for 2 nights. Founded in 734BC by Corinthian settlers, Siracuse became the dominant Greek city-state on the Mediterranean, battling Carthaginians and Etruscans before falling to the Romans in 212BC. Once we were settled in and plugged in at our park, we walked to the Neapolis Parco Archeologico where we saw 3 main sight. First was the sparkling white 5th century BC Teatro Greco (Greek Theatre), entirely hewn out of solid rock - it is hard to comprehend the back-breaking work that would've gone into transforming the enormous rock into the semi-circular seating. Above the theatre, there seemed to be some cave dwellings, also carved into the rock - there seemed to be definite seating and bed-like structures carved out. One of these arched areas housed a nice waterfall.

Next was the impressive and well preserved 2nd century Roman Anfiteatro (amphitheatre), for gladiator/animal fights. On the way in, there were several coffin/tombs with walls and lids of 2-3 inch (5-7.5 cms) thickness. The last structure was the Orecchio di Dionisio, an ear-shaped artificial grotto about 50m high. When we looked at it, the term 'nature's cathedral' came to mind - it was so high and the walls so smooth, and our voices echoed and the place grew darker, the further we ventured inside, like a big cave. In Greek mythology, it was used by Siracuse's resident tyrant Dionysius, to eavesdrop on his prisoners.

28-2-2012 Tuesday
It was a beautiful sunny day with a bit of a breeze blowing, but we were happy enough seeing as the original forecast was for rain today. We rode the bikes to the fruit/vege and seafood markets on the Isola de Ortigia (Island of Ortygia) where we heard duelling fruiterers trying to outdo each other with their vocal selling techniques (which meant who could actually yell the loudest) - it was quite entertaining. The island is the old historical part of the town of Syracuse. We rode to the Fontana Aretusa, a natural freshwater spring, said in Greek legend to have been formed from the goddess Artemis' handmaiden Aretusa, to protect her from unwanted attention from the river-god Alpheus - its appearance is just a big round pond with ducks and some fish but the water is so clear you can see the ducks' feet, beneath the water, paddling away from you. Then rode to the Piazza del Duomo where the cathedral was built in the 7th century on top of the Temple of Athena, incorporating most of the temple's original columns, which you can still see from the inside and outside. The Piazza is lined with baroque palaces but they obviously are used for other things now and not open to the public.

We had an early lunch at a Trattoria, which is a family owned/run business with home cooked style meals. It was a lovely meal and the people were lovely too, even though they couldn't speak English (and we definitely couldn't speak Italian), and at the end of the meal, the matronly cook in her apron, gave us some mandarins and oranges to take away, probably out of their own back yard - they made us feel very welcome. We rode back towards home, and visited the very modern, large church, the Sanctuary of the Madonna of Tears. The ceiling rose up in what I can only describe as a pointed witch's hat with gaps that allowed natural light to spill inside the large, open, round main body of the many-seated church. Across the road we strolled around the Museo Archeologico Paolo Orsi, which shows off the region's history going back to prehistoric times and includes a dizzying array of Greek and Roman artefacts - most of which was found buried with bodies in their tombs, in the many necropolises/cemeteries around the area. It seemed a common practice to bury possessions, special to the deceased, in the tomb with the body, to accompany them into the next life. It seems people made good use of the rocky hills and dug out caves in which the funereal urns/tombs were placed.

29-2-2012 Wednesday Leap Year
We did some grocery shopping a few ks down the road before driving 113ks north back to Giardini-Naxos (Italy) and Parking Lagani where we filled up with water on Monday morning before we left, but forgot to put the cap back on. That wouldn't have been a problem as we could've bought a new cap at a mhome service place but unfortunately the cap also had some keys attached to it which weren't as easily replaced. So of course, we'll stay here for the night. When we did the shopping I looked for some vitamins. It was a big supermarket but the vitamin section was very small and the only Vit C available was a bottle of 30 which cost €10 (about $13), but you can buy a big bag of about 40 oranges for €5 ($6.50) so we'll have to get our Vit C that way.

1-3-2012 Thursday First day of Spring
We drove 130ks south and then west to the town of Enna (Italy) (about in the middle of Sicily) where there are a couple of Aires but the old town is right up on a cliff top. The road up was manageable but the streets in the old town are typical of all old towns - very narrow, not mhome friendly, and of course very busy with cars parked any way people want. It was a bit nerve wracking for both of us. We're always a bit wary of the streets in the old towns as we know what they're like but sometimes we get caught. We couldn't find the Aires and we decided not to look any further, and just to get out of there. It's a shame as the views from up there were wonderful, and even on the main motorway drive to Enna, the rural setting of luscious, green, rolling hills was just beautiful.

We'd magically found a place to park and decided to have a quick look around before we left, but when Dave tried to start up, it wouldn't go - just like the time a few months ago when we couldn't get it started (something to do with the security system). We didn't need this to add to our nervousness! So I made us a cuppa while Dave checked the manual and fiddled around with it and finally, he got it started - yeah! We drove back down the winding road and on to the motorway, and stopped a short time after once we came across a layby/park rest area just off the motorway. We had a superb view out our window for the rest of the afternoon, as we had a drink and wound down from our latest adventure.

2-3-2012 Friday
We drove 90ks south to a town called San Leone (Italy) near the bigger town of Agrigento. We are now about in the middle of the south-western coast of Sicily. There were roadworks in progress for quite a few ks on the way here - upgrading the motorway, and the countryside was still beautiful. We found a camping park that was open - Camping Internazionale Nettuno for 2 nights. When we got there the gates were shut so we thought our info was wrong but when I went in through a small side gate and called out, I found someone who confirmed they were open - we are the only customers in the park and their first for this year. The park is right on the beach which we accessed through a gate directly from the park. The sand is fine like ours and the water a lovely blue.

3-3-2012 Saturday
Had an easy day today. It was a beautiful sunny day with a slight wind blowing. Dave even put on shorts when we rode the bikes down to the centre of this small town of San Leone, about 3ks away. We road along the waterfront, saw the marina which wasn't full of boats by any means, and a bunch of guys playing cricket quite well and seriously - they sounded like and appeared to be Indian/Pakistani which we thought fitted as the Italians don't usually play cricket.

4-3-2012 Sunday
We drove 7ks to the World Heritage Listed Site - La Valle dei Templi (The Valley of Temples) with the large town of Agrigento in the background. The ancient Greek town of Agrakas (the ancient name for Agrigento) was founded here in 581BC. We ventured to the Museo Archeologico nearby, first, but unfortunately it wasn't open today, as our Lonely Planet book said it would be. This was a shame as apparently it is a very good museum. We spent 3 hours walking around the large grounds of the stunning Greek temples. An interesting site was Arcosoli Bizantine, burial niches in the rock. There were a few large, bronze sculptures of torsos and heads scattered around the place. They were inkeeping with the ruins but they were modern additions dating from the 1980's. There are a few temples but the main ones we saw were:-

- Tempio della Concordia the only temple to survive relatively intact was due to a lucky episode. Unlike the other pagan temples, which superstition and ignorance led the Christians to demolish, it was converted into a church. This transformation in spite of the alterations, made it possible to preserve it. In 1788 the building was restored to its ancient unrivalled form.
- Tempio di Giunone (Juno) has an impressive sacrificial altar.
- Tempio di Ercole (Hercules) is the oldest of the structures and equivalent in size to the Parthenon.
- Tempio dei Dioscuri probably has the least columns standing, with only the one corner still standing.

The surroundings were just stunning with rolling green fields smothered in yellow flowers and many olive trees and beautiful flowering almond trees all around the valley.

We then drove 46ks north/west to a town called Seccagrande (Italy) to a camping park called Kamemi Camping Village for 2 nights.

5-3-2012 Monday
There was a thunderstorm last night but it was nice and sunny this morning. Had a rest day today. We walked down to, and along the waterfront where we saw many places for sale and most looked vacant. That could've been because it was windy and the people were keeping their windows shut. It could also have been that the town is mostly holiday homes and we are here in the "off season". We didn't see a soul for a while and it felt like we could've been in one of those movies where the town was devoid of all life because some alien virus had killed everyone! (there's my imagination again!)

We've noticed, here in Sicily and on the mainland Italy, that there a lot of mhomes and caravans in the caravan parks, from Germany in particular. They seem well settled in and we suspect they're getting away from the cold and their snowbound homes for the winter - a bit like the southern Australians who travel to North Queensland for the winter.

6-3-2012 Tuesday
Drove about 110ks north to a town called Salemi and then west to a town, Marsala (Italy), like the drink. We went this way so we'd go along the literature promised, wine and olive country route but unfortunately this road had to take us firstly, through the town of Salemi, which was on a narrow, winding continually upward climb, through busy traffic and parked cars. Finally we got through and drove on the scenic route which was quite pleasant, miles and miles of grapevines and olive trees on lush rolling hillsides - surprisingly there were no obvious wine tasting establishments, where we would've been glad to have stopped and tasted a few, and maybe stayed the night in the carpark. At the end of this route, we made our way to an Aires in a big car park along the Marsala waterfront. We went for a walk out along the breakwater wall where many, small, old fishing boats were moored. Some showing the signs of being dive boats - divers going down for? abalone? sponges? we don't know.

7-3-2012 Wednesday
After leaving our stopover place this morning, we drove a few ks when we saw some old windmills, similar to the ones we saw in The Netherlands. We drove in their direction and discovered they were a part of a salt mining area (using sea water). There were a number of salt piles with terracotta tiles over the top so they looked like houses. There were about 4 of the old windmills but we suspect they weren't in use now. We then drove 40ks north/east to a town called Segesta (Italy) where we saw yet another impressive temple - the only other complete Greek temple in Sicily (not all of Italy) - the other complete one being in Agrigento, where we were 3 days ago. We walked up the short road to this impressive temple and then walked up the 2ks steep winding road (closed to all but the site's optional bus), to the small but intact Teatro (theatre) and the several sites of evidences of the local community. All around this area are farms and grapevines on the hills - as we looked over, a man on a tractor was working his farm in the distance. Then it began to rain softly but there were heavy, dark looking clouds in the distance. We got back to the mhome without getting too wet, and drove 70ks north to Palermo (Italy), the capital of Sicily, and the small town of Sferracavello, (12ks out of Palermo) and a camping park called Camping International Trinacria for 2 nights.

The last kilometre on the way to the park however, was a bit of a nightmare! Our GPS took us through the small town with small streets which would've been ok if cars weren't parked on both sides of the street. In one street we tried, but couldn't pass through the cars on both sides, with only millimetres to spare - if one car had been just slightly further over we would've been ok. So we had to back up and turn around in a tight spot, holding up traffic, and continue up another narrow street. We stopped when we could and reassessed, and then went down a different one way narrow street (which we'd avoided earlier feeling it was too narrow!). This narrow street went for about 1k and had 2 very tight turns but finally, we came out into a wide street which took us down to the esplanade and the park was not far from there - thank God! It was a bit scary and I had to have a couple rums to calm my nerves! Obviously there was a better way to get here, especially as there are buses that drive past this park all the time on their way to Palermo. We'll check it out before we leave here and give Tom, our GPS, a serious talking to!

8-3-2012 Thursday
It was a very rainy, cloudy and windy day so we decided to not do much. We walked down with our umbrellas, trying to keep them right side out in the wind, about 1k to the local town to have a look around. We walked by a couple butcher shops and I noticed one advertising 'agnello' (lamb) which you don't see very much here unlike in OZ and the UK. I asked for some and the guy went out to the cold room and brought back a whole baby lamb, skinned and gutted with the head still on (lucky I'm not squeamish!). He cut it in half (lengthways) in front of me and looked at me for what part of the one half I wanted. I indicated the leg which turned out to be only 1kilo and that was the whole leg so it was a pretty small lamb, again unlike the lamb legs we get in OZ. It didn't taste as strong or as good as the lamb we're used to either and I wondered if it was because it was such a young one. Apparently they have lamb here only on special occasions (why, we don't know). We also haven't seen many sheep herds as we've been driving through the rural areas. We've been told that their milk is used for cheese.

9-3-2012 Friday
It fined up today with blue skies and no wind so we bought bus tickets (at the park office - can't buy them on the bus in a lot of places) to go into Palermo and do some sightseeing. After waiting one and a half hours with no bus (probably another religious holiday that isn't advertised), we decided to get our money back, and we had a pleasant walk back down to the same village again today. We had a nice lunch at a modest cafe. When we walked back we went past the campsite to the end of the esplanade where there were some unusual amateur grottoes. One had a nativity scene inside, and there was also a very small chapel with a gate and padlock. There were statues and pictures inside so it looked like it does get used. There was a nice little garden and some seating cut out of rock, which may have been an open air church.

10-3-2012 Saturday
It was very windy again this morning and overcast. We left this park and town today, driving through a couple of tight spots again between parked cars and buildings in the town (before we could get out onto the main motorway), but not as bad as when we drove in to the place last Weds. Drove about 100ks east to a town called Finale di Pollina (Italy) and a park called Rais Gerbi Village Camping International for 1 or 2 days. This is a nice park and well kept, unlike a lot of the parks we've noticed in Italy, which have needed a bit of TLC. It is situated along the coastal road, a bit high up, and luckily there was no problem getting to it (like our last stop through a small village with narrow streets). A lot of Sicily, and Italy in general we've noticed, have quite rocky and mountainous terrain, not conducive to a large mhome! In this new park today, I spoke to a man from Lichtenstein, who with his wife, have been here for a few months, getting away from the snow and cold at their home. He has a large mhome of 9.6m (another metre bigger than ours) and said he often comes to this park and stays the whole time here because it is large enough to accommodate his big mhome, unlike most of the parks in Italy. He said even this park, in Sicily, had snow a little while ago! and we heard Sicily doesn't get snow!

11-3-2012 Sunday
Even though it was overcast and rainy today I did some washing and was able to hang it on our small portable clothesline, and leave it in the big laundry room which is covered but has openings, allowing a drying breeze through. We'd decided to stay here and relax for another day as it's a pleasant park and luckily we did, as the kitchen sink (which had been draining slowly lately) decided to block up this morning, so Dave had to spend a couple hours fixing the problem.

12-3-2012 Monday
We've been driving around Sicily and mainland Italy on the main motorway, the Autostrada, because this country is quite mountainous but today we drove the coastal road on the advice of a fellow mhomer with a larger mhome than us. He said it was a good road and quite ok for our vehicle. It was a good road but it was quite winding as it made its way around the mountainous terrain and at times we were quite high up (luckily it wasn't a very busy road). Driving through some of the towns was a bit taxing but the scenery and ocean views were fantastic. On the way we stopped at a ceramics factory and the many products were just beautiful but all we bought were 2 small trinacrias (the 3 legged symbol of Sicily) and a cup. We also stopped at a supermarket with a nice big car park and stocked up. We drove about 107ks east to a town called Oliveri (Italy) and a camping park called Marinello Camping Villaggio for 1 night.

13-3-2012 Tuesday
Drove 57ks east to the port of Messina and caught the ferry off the island of Sicily (after about 2 and a half weeks), over to the mainland port of Italy, Villa San Giovanni. Then drove another 57ks south and then east, (around the toe of Italy) to a town called Bova Marina. We tried to go to 2 different Aires type of places but, 1 we couldn't find at all and thankfully got out fairly easily, of the streets our GPS led us into, and the other 1 was down a road that was too narrow and winding and not good for us. Dave checked this road out the next morning and found there was a nice beach area at the end of it, which would've been good to spend the night on but there weren't any other mhome services available that were advertised in the book. Luckily we had passed a biggish car park that was good for us, close to the last 'no go' spot. So we're 'wild camping' for the night.

14-3-2012 Wednesday
We drove 150ks north up the east coast of Italy, to a town called Cropani Marina and a park called Sena Park for 1 night. We're the only ones here - it's no wonder not many parks are open if they haven't got the custom, but although the nights are cool the days are beautiful, around the 20-22 degrees, so we can't understand why mhomers and caravanners aren't travelling around right now. Some parks are only open for 3-4 months of the year in Italy and other countries we've been in, and it's hard to understand how they can make a living! After a late lunch we rode the bikes around the area as it was flattish but there's not too much to see. We're only about 400m from the ocean but unfortunately, there's no real esplanade to ride along. We rode in the other direction up to the township but not much to report there either. On the way back we passed a supermarket, Carrefour (French origin), but it didn't open until 4pm! (it was only 3.30pm) - siesta!

15-3-2012 Thursday
Drove 150ks north up the east coast, to a town called Corigliano Calabro (Italy) and a camping park called Thurium Camping Village for 2 nights. It was a fairly easy and pleasant drive along the coastline, with mostly nice scenery. The mostly yellow flowers in the fields everywhere along the motorway were shouting out that it's Spring! We're in a spot in the camping park that is right beside the beach facing on to the Golfo di Taranto - Red sunrise through the mist over dead calm water and professional net fishermen in their small boat, lovely.

16-3-2012 Friday
Rest day today - it's important to relax and just 'be' - not do much which is great. It was a lovely sunny day so we walked on the beach in our shorts! (first time we've been able to wear shorts since we arrived last September) and no shoes! And there was a German couple sunbaking in their deck chairs in their swimsuits (a bit too cool for us to do that yet though). This is the sort of location that you might spend a few weeks on "holiday", but we're "travelling" so we had just the one lazy day before moving on. In fact there is an Austrian couple next to us and they've removed their caravan wheels, so they have probably been here a while to get away from the snow. I took the opportunity to do some washing and as the laundry room was a bit of a distance away (in the camping park), we rode the bikes with the laundry basket, washing powder, etc. The bikes came in handy for riding down to the shower and toilet as well.

17-3-2012 Saturday St Patrick's Day
A fisherman came around the park in his little van this morning, selling fresh fish that he'd caught this morning - sole, so guess what we're having for dinner! We drove 98ks north to a town called Metaponto and park called Camper Parking Nettuno for 1 night. At a roundabout close to this park, we saw a shetland pony just walking around on its own on the road, and eating the grass and flowers on the roundabout! - a very unusual site. When we drove into the park the pony trotted in not long after and we found out that he actually belonged to the park, along with another larger horse. Apparently, in the low season as now, they let him roam around freely, and we were told he'll probably come to our door tomorrow morning, looking for food. Once we were set up, we got the bikes out and rode down to the Museo Archaelogica in the town - the area is good for bikes as it's mostly flat (all up we rode about 10ks). This area was largely inhabited by the Greeks when they fled from Greece due to invasion, so the museum showed extensive Greek artefacts, mostly recovered from tombs, dating back to 7-300BC (about 2700 years ago!). Then the Romans kicked the Greeks out so they've had a hard time of it!

Outside the museum there were a few tombs, above ground, thick concrete boxes with lids, that could've housed 20 bodies - of course these were used for the affluent people, not the peasants. On the way back we rode down to the waterfront which appears would be a pleasant and popular place in summer. When we came to the park, we were the only mhome here - when we got back there were a few more here and some more came in later (about 7 all up). This evening in the park there must've been a function on as there was music coming from one of the buildings and cars came in and parked in the pitches next to us - maybe this is how they survive during the low season, and it is Saturday night.

18-3-2012 Sunday
Well the very loud music went til about 2am! If we'd known about it we could've parked a bit further away from that building, especially as the music was at the end of the building next to where we were parked, so it sounded like it was right outside our door. Of course, the happy and inebriated people leaving the place at 2am, also had to sing and talk loudly as they made their way to their cars, also near us! We drove 115ks north to Bari (Italy) where we'll catch the ferry to Greece in the next few days. We're in Gran Parcheggio Alberotanza for maybe 3 nights - it's really a big car park but mostly for mhomes - looks like there are a lot of them stored here side by side, and we are amongst them. This would also be where mhomes would come for the night waiting for a ferry from the Bari port. I imagine that people coming back from Greece (and other places) could conceivably stay here for the night also as it's a long trip over and you wouldn't want to go far if you haven't slept well.

On the way here we saw many olive and orange trees as we were driving away from the coastline. After setting up we got the bikes out and rode down to the railway station to find out the details for tomorrow, as we want to go to an interesting town, Matera, and it's not good for mhomes. We rode on some good cycle paths on the way which kept us off the busy roads, and it was pleasant as it was a lovely sunny day.

19-3-2012 Monday
We left early this morning, about 8.15am, riding our bikes to the train station to go to the town of Matera (Italy) about 50ks away. We chained the bikes up right outside a Polizia booth so we thought they should be still there when we got back later in the day. We went early because we knew it was about an hour between trains (and we didn't know the times) and the train ride was 1h 20mins, however it ended up being about another 20mins more, although it was a comfortable ride. For the last part of the trip our train consisted of only 1 carriage as they separated the rest of the train to go in a different direction. We just missed one train so went to a cafe and had breakfast. We'd gone into McDonalds but breakfast was finished and you could only get coffee and cake - it was only 8.45am! Very different to home and other Maccas we've seen in other countries that have lots of customers continuously, where meals of some sort are available all the time.

We wanted go to Matera to see the town of cave dwellings known as Sassi, and it wasn't a place we could take the mhome at all. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on Earth. Prehistoric caves are just across the river from the 'newer town', where residents and their farm animals shared caves without running water or electricity up until a few years before man landed on the moon - apparently the infant mortality rate at the time was over 50%. The caves (Sassi) are a Unesco World Heritage site and, more recently, the setting of Mel Gilbson's movie 'The Passion of the Christ'. We spent about 2 and a half to 3 hours walking around this interesting, stone and rock coloured buildings and that wasn't doing all the suggested walking trails. We didn't go inside many of the available buildings, mainly just viewing them from the outside as we walked up and down the steps and narrow roads and peeking inside some of the uninhabited, boarded up caves.

Everything from wine bars to churches have been created inside of caves carved from the cliffside. Matera’s caves date back at least 9,000 years. Shockingly, they were where 50% of Matera’s population lived a mere 70 years ago. Soon after Carlo Levi wrote his famous book 'Christ Stopped at Eboli' (1945) about poor living conditions in Southern Italy, the Italian government considered the malaria-ridden area a national embarrassment and began to move citizens to the modern part of town. Now tourists and artists flock to the area. Obviously a lot of the buildings have electricity and running water now as places certainly show signs of inhabitants with plenty of cars around. You see satellite dishes on rooftops and being a popular tourist destination, some of the caves have been made over into hotel/B&B rooms and restaurants. The more modern town of Matera is right at Sassi's side.

20-3-2012 Tuesday
The weather is certainly warming up during the day and it's been lovely and sunny and pleasant for riding. We rode down to the Port this morning to see if we could get a ferry ticket to Greece for tomorrow. They've been on strike these last 2 days so the ferries haven't been running. The lady said that tomorrow the backlog would have to go first so she didn't know if we could get on then or even the next day. We would have to check again tomorrow. We rode around the old historical part of the town which is right next to the port and of course the streets are narrow and some only good for motorcycles, of which there are plenty. It is amazing how the Italians seem to park even in narrow streets - they park on corners and then you get people double parking beside those cars, parked on the corners! Pedestrian crossings aren't safe, they park across those too which makes it difficult for prams and wheelchairs! We visited the Castello Svevo (Bari Castle) dating back to the year 1131. It had a good museum type history of the place, which was changed a lot over the centuries by various owners but no real battles seem to have been fought at the place. Across the road from the castle we had lunch at a nice friendly restaurant and everyone who came in seemed to be friendly and chatty (not with us of course as they spoke Italian) but when we left they all seemed to say 'Ciao'.

21-3-2012 Wednesday
Dave rode down to the port again this morning to see if he could get us on the ferry to Greece. He did get a ticket and we are going on Fri night at 8pm. I just stayed back in the Parcheggio and caught up on a few things.