Thursday 27th March 2008

It was time to leave Rome and Castel Fusano and start on the journey south. We chose the coastal road because the Michelin map showed it as a green route but, certainly to start with, it wasn't picturesque being lined on both sides of the roads with a continuous string of beach resorts and 50km per hour speed limits. However, a little later we entered a National Park and the views were much better and it was here that we stopped for lunch with water on three sides – the rough sea in front, the lake behind and the rain coming down from above!
We drove on to Sperlonga and the early 1st century AD Grotto of Tiberius just to the south east. This was one of Tiberius's palaces and he incorporated a natural cave on the seashore. Ponds inside and outside the cave were used to breed fish and some of the ponds have been restocked today. Tiberius was said to have held banquets on the artificial island with courses floated across the water on little boats. The cave was adapted to hold colossal Greek statues either original or high quality Roman copies – the jury is still out on that subject but Tiberius was a known collector of Greek antiquities. When Byzantine monks occupied the site, they objected to the pagan statues so they smashed them into thousands of pieces and threw them into the lagoon. They were discovered by an amateur archaeologist and many years have been spent piecing them together. The process is still on-going but the museum displays some very impressive partly-restored sculptures.
We drove on to Gaeta to attempt to find an open campsite. They were listed as opening on the 1st April but we guessed that they may have opened at Easter. We were wrong – after four closed sites we gave up. The nearest open sites that we knew about were around Naples so we headed there. We chose the nearest one at Pozzouli – Compeggio Complesso Turistico Averno. It gets marks for the length of the name and its convenience but the site itself wasn't over inspiring in the dark.
Photos: The Grotto of Tiberius from the palace; Looking out from the Grotto with the artificial island just outside the mouth of the cave; The Blinding of Cyclops.