Bari, Pompeii and Cassino

7th - 9th September

Monday

After departing the ferry - which was another testament to impatience and disorder, we followed TOM's instructions to get to a camper stop site. It was dark, late, very windy and the streets were desserted. We found ourselves in a military zone where all the fences were 10 metres high but trusted TOM as it's usually right. We saw the sign for the camper servicio pulled in (well done TOM), were told it was 15 euros a night and we thought we were ok - that was until we realised we were alone in a storage depot for other people's motorhomes, but it was too late to change our minds!

About 4am we were woken by the security hounds who then barked all around us for the next two hours. We got on the road early after being charged an extra Euro to take on water which was not suitable to drink ( thieving-gypsy was the word I used several times over as I couldn't work out the translation for - you have to be joking!). Even the wasps wouldn't drink the water it smelt so chlorinated.

Ah bless!

We headed for Metaponto on the southern part of Italy's boot and got there in no time. We spent an hour on the beach trying to get the kite to fly and do stunts. The best stunt I pulled was to drown the kite in the sea!


We still had a few hours of sunlight left and so pressed on to the Amalfi coast to try and catch the sunset again. We started off on a dual carriageway but there was a diversion that led us high into the hills and with spectacular views and tight bends that dropped away to the ravines below (a little hairy!). Eventually we got to the coast and saw the sun set however, the site we had chosen was no longer there.

Hills - not so much fun without power steering or a turbo (mobile pic)

We re-planned our route and TOM took us up high again into the hills to a town called Carda de Terrini. The camper stop was a small unmarked car park with one other van parked up and we had travelled down some very narrow and steep streets to get through - we had to stop! We ventured out for a pizza and after 45 minutes of walking stumbled into an authentic takeaway pizza outlet that had a massive wood burning pizza oven, sold cold beer and the most delicious pizzas. We kept the lid of one of the boxes as it had quite a resemblance of us both!

Pizza box lid
The resemblance is uncanny - Suzy, age 4 & Paul, age 4 to present.

Tuesday

We left our car park high in the hills and wound our way back down through the tiny streets with some seriously tricky 8-point turns when we realised on several occasions we were not going to fit. We got to the motorway instead and pressed on towards Pompei.

One of the many streets in Pompei

 

A victim of the disaster preserved by the ash

Vesuvius dominated the sky line and we found an overpriced coach park to stop while we toured the ancient city. We stopped for a cappuccino and chocolate croissant - were appalled by the cleanliness and standard of toilet hygiene for which we believed Italy was accustomed too, and purchased our tickets.

 

Pompei streets, with hillside wildfires burning in the background

Pompei was absolutely amazing. Take a large bottle of water with you and some food as many people were lost in the vast array of streets and uncovered treasures. Fortunately we had a map but this didn't stop us getting slightly overwhelmed by the scale of the place.

A vinyard by the Ampitheatre - the origins of match-day drink-fuelled violence maybe?

Ruins of Pompei with Vesuvius in the background

We headed back to the van and got back on the motorway towards a little town called Cassino that was overlooked by a large abbey. We went to buy supplies and bedded up for the night in the main plaza car park for a well needed rest.

Overnight stop in Cassino