At the end of March I went off to Italy for whistle stop tour of the major cities. Not a brilliant time of year to go to italy but pleasant enough hopefully....or so I thought
Flew in to Pisa on a Ryan-air and was treated for most of the journey to a family in the seats behind me screaming their heads off and kicking the seat backs. What is that this seems to be one on every flight??
Anyway. Picked up a nice little 'smart ForFour' car for the duration. Very nippy snd got hooked on it straight away. Installed my satnav kit and it or me promptly got its knickers in a twist and ended up getting lost. Gave up on it for a while and went straight to the coast to stop for a night on the Pisa riviera. Hadn't realised that this area had such a massive military presence. Passed an enormous US airbase on the way there.
The Riviera was dead!! Out of season of course so most places were closed. didn't mind that so much cos I got the place almost to myself. Spotted a number of places I had looked at going to and decided I had picked the right place to stop in. The hotel coffee was an ideal replacement for surfacing roads with. Will contact tarmac re the suggestion.
The following morning made a rash decision and shaved off a mostache I had since birth (well a very long time anyway). Small change but why now is anyone's guess.
First port of call was Pisa to see the leaning thing. It was actually more interesting to see the hoards of japanes people flooding the place and many wearing surgical masks. I know they have this thing about smog, but this is Pisa not Tokyo!
Massice queues to get up the tower and it started chucking it down, so much that the rain was running in one side and off the other creating a mini water fall off the side. Decided to give it a miss and went into the duomo instead. Rain stopped play unfortunately so headed off to Florence. Lovely pace even in the rain. The highlight is the Ponte Vecchio which reminded me of Venice. There seems to be so much traffic in Italian cities that it unfortunately spoils the otherwise lovely architecture and athmosphere.
As it was raining even heavier now, I wanted to stay somewhere near to Siena so made tracks in that direction. Thought I would check out the Tourist Informationin te centre. What a sight, as Siena has the most wonderful central Piazza. It was transformed however by the water flooding at it from every direction. Everyone huddled under the archways watching it aim down towards the middle. Probably more interesting than seeing it in the sunshine!!
Next port of call was to head south. Two things happened on the way out of Siena. The first was something you wouldn't see back in britain. On a road similar to the M1, a man in the middle with a bucket of tarmac filling a hole and another man with a red flag waving furiously at the traffic to pass him. A bit dodgy that!! In britain of course, the road would be sectioned off for miles down to one lane causing an enormous tail back and probably a few accidents along with it....The second thing was when I was waiting at some traffic lights and in my rear view mirror saw a large wagon rip the front off a brand new looking Mercedes. The poor guy got out of his car in tears and was kicking everything in sight. My dilemma was whether to act as a witness or leave the other witnesses to help him out. I decided the last thing he would want is a non italian speaking witness so left them to it.
That nights highlight was stopping at a nic little B&B. Haggled the price down and he almost looked as if he was going to cry at what I offered him, but he accepted. Nice man Sergio. When he looked at my passport, his only word of english came out...Beatles (I come from Liverpool). Apart from that I managed to get things sorted with no common language at all other than sign language.
Foggy start to the next day but that usually promises better conditions ahead. I was right as later the sun sone and eveywhere took on a much more Italian look. Headed off towards Rome through some pretty villages and stunning scenery. Got into Rome and my satnav packed in. Typical or what !! Spent a fair bit of time getting lost and cursing the crazy traffic and mad drivers. It's like london on speed!The temperature had risen to a nice 19degrees and all was well. Hoardes of tourists had been offloaded at the Vatican making the waiting time to get into the museum around 2hours. And to come all this way and then face this. Do I don't I wait...for some reason I wasn't too bothered so went to see the colloseum instead. Good decision as I enjoyed it. It was different than I expected with more intricate layout than I envisaged. Nice spending a while wondering around the passages. Would recommend it to anyone.
After some time in Rome wanted to get off towards Pompeii. Satnav still not working so had to revert to good old paper map. Opens up a more interesting approach to travel. Decided to get off the beaten track and spend the night at a place called Sperlonga, for no other reason than I liked the name of the place. Nice night at a Zimmer (hostel/hotel). Turned out to be a really nice place, so made a good choice.
The road to Pompeii had some nice scenery with Vesuvius being the obvious highlight when you get closer. It's massive and the weather wasclear enugh to see most of it although a bit misty in parts. What I hadn't realised was that, being sunday and a special one at that, every one was out at religious gatherings. I know everyone in Italy as they seemed to be lining every road that I went down. Am I special or what, they came out just for me!!....well actually not but there were alot of them which made the journey very, very, very slow.
Pompeii is not what I expected as a town.The roads on h way in weren't actually roads. More like dirt tracks with big holes in them. Interesting to see the kids up trees on the way in, pulling off olive branches and making them into small posies to sell/give to folks on their way to church. A nice custom I think. Every oldr man looked like the godfather with their coats draped over their sholders without their arms i the sleeves and wearing trilbys. Perhaps Pompeii is the epicentre of the mafia culture, they certainly looked like it. The women were all dressed up in their finery. Obviously this being a special day they made a big event of it.
You might guess what happened next...the ruins were closed! Yes, closed! I had driven for 4hours and battled through this lot to find them closed. I laughed. Typical.
After a bit of thining on whatI wanted to do over the next few days befor e going home I decided to head back north and find a beach resort to crash out in as the weather was improving. Found myself in Camaiore near to Viareggio and checked into a nice hotel on the beach. Most places were clsoed so it gave me some space to enjoy the tranquility and do some reading. Nice cosy restaurant around the corner so great location. Viareggio iself has a lovely harbour and a pier with a great view back towards the town. The usual stalls along the pier selling everything. Managed to get some nice sunglasses for 10euros (he wanted 30 - no way).
After a couple of days took an early flight home back to the grey skys. What a shock getting off the plane but good to be home.
