Thursday 29th October 2009 – Agrigento, Sicily, Italy

After saying goodbye to the English family, we left the most comfortable, prettiest and cleanest site that we have stayed at in Sicily and probably in the whole of Italy. Definitely one to visit again in we are in the area.
Punta Braccetto is an oasis in a sea of plastic. The area produces a huge amount of vegetables and specialises in tomatoes and particularly cherry tomatoes. Next time that you buy out-of-season cherry tomatoes in your local supermarket, they may have come from here. Our route took us close to the sea all of the way to Gela and up to Lake Biviere we must have past thousands of acres of plastic greenhouses most with tomatoes in various phases from seedlings to productive plants. From the lake onwards, vines and olive trees replaced the plastic until we arrived at the ugly industrial side of Gela with many refineries and chemical plants.
The first part of the road heading inland from Gela towards Piazza Armerina was marked as 'picturesque' on the Michelin map but we felt that it became much more picturesque almost from the moment that the green line ran out on the map. We had been climbing gently since leaving the coast and the mountain scenery was very pleasant. A different type of agriculture dominated here, one that I had never seen before – cacti groves. We had seen prickly pears (the fruit of the cactus) for sale in the markets at a very reasonable €2 per kilogram. At least it seems a reasonable price compared to other fruit and vegetables but I have never tasted one and have no idea of how they are prepared or cooked, if indeed they are not eaten raw (without the spikes I presume). Another thing to look up on the Internet.
And then I saw it – Etna. Without clouds and capped with snow it looked magnificent. I'm happy now!
We travelled to Piazza Armerina for one reason, the Villa Roman di Casale, 4 km outside the town. The 4th century AD villa is thought to be a hunting lodge of Roman Emperor Maximianus Heraclius. Amazingly it was in use up to the 12th century when it was covered in a mudslide. These two facts explain the preservation of the 12,000 square feet (no, that is not a misprint) of beautiful, high quality mosaics. As you can see from the photographs above, they really are fantastic. There is a huge amount of work going on at the site at the moment as walls are consolidated, mosaics repaired and new visitor walkways installed. This meant that substantial parts of the villa, especially the baths were closed off and parts of other mosaics were covered. The entrance fee was reduced to €3 and we were concerned that there would be little to see but this was not the case and it was well worth the visit. Hunting scenes and exotic animals were everywhere – lions, tigers, leopards, camels and many more; a huge scene showed a Roman circus (an oblong race track) with a chariot race in progress; oxen pulled loaded carts; the Great Hunting Scene coved the floor of a corridor running the entire width of the huge complex. I cannot stress enough how amazing the mosaics are and we didn't see them all. We got occasional glimpses of beautiful mosaics in the closed-off areas. My photographs don't do them justice and bright sun meant that many mosaics were a mixture of very bright and heavy shadow. This made it impossible to take good photographs. I definitely want to return once the work has been completed but it will have to be on a bright but overcast day so that there aren't any shadows!
We passed one castle on the way up but on the journey back to the coast at Agrigento we past more. This is a very fertile area, producing a huge amount of wheat but at this time of the year most of the fields were freshly ploughed. Again it was very attractive scenery and made for a very pleasant drive.
On route, we also found a huge Carrefour hypermarket and we able to stock up with provisions for the next few days. We arrived at the Valle dei Templi campsite just as dusk fell – the name of the site might give you a clue as to what we are going to see tomorrow!
Photos: Part of the 'small' hunting scene – it was very large!; Wonderful detail in the face of an Amazon (?); Two of the famous ten bikini-clad girls; A collage of other small mosaics; A view from the road between Casale and Agrigento.

Wednesday 28th October 2009 – Punta Braccetto, Sicily, Italy

Another day of relaxation – I could get used to this. Lots more reading, chatting with the other English family on the site and a short walk to the bakers and mini market, inevitably called 'Maxi Market'. The campsite is very nearly full with many Germans who are well established and are probably going to spend the Winter here. The site really very good, flowers line all of the pitches, the private toilet facilities, showers, washing-up and clothes washing areas are immaculate and the beach is clean and offers excellent swimming. Two bakers arrive every morning to sell break, panettone and other goodies, a fruit and vegetable van comes later and this morning we had a man selling fish. I can understand why people choose this site for a long stay. Having said that, there is not a lot to see in the area and although most people have bikes and the area is relatively flat, I think that I would soon get bored. The most popular pastime is laying on the beach and that wouldn't suit us.
We have decided to move on tomorrow but have thoroughly enjoyed our stay here and would certainly return to this site next time we visit Sicily.
Photos: Sunset over Torre Vigliena as seen from the campsite beach.

Tuesday 27th October 2009 – Punta Braccetto, Sicily, Italy

A day of relaxation in the warm sun with clothes washing and reading the the order of the day. Later in the afternoon we went for a walk along the beach and out to the headland where the ruins of the 18th century Torre Vigliena fortress are to be found. We think that the ruins were a customs post used to check for pirates and smugglers, both of which were common at that time. It must be said that they look more impressive from a distance than they do close up but it was a pleasant walk.
Photos: Punta Braccetto from Torre Vigliena.

Monday 26th October 2009 – Punta Braccetto, Sicily, Italy

Our target for today was the Cava D'Ispica, one of two areas of Prehistoric caves in this part of Italy. The major area is Pantellica, quite close to Siracusa and this would have been the obvious place to visit. However, the map showed that the site is a long way up tortuous mountain roads, at a dead end and away from any villages. Not knowing how Henrietta would cope with the roads, I decided to go for the Cava D'Ispica on a through road and only 6 km off the main SP 115. The Michelin map showed a motorway under construction and this turned out to be open, soon to be a pay motorway (they were building the toll booths) but currently free. This speeded up our journey and we arrived before 11:30 and according to the guide book that allowed us just over two hours to see the free site. It turned out that there was now an entrance fee (a very reasonable €2) but the site was now open all day. The gorge is 12 km long, extended all the way back to Ispica and has caves along its entire length. They date back to the early bronze age when natural caves were used as houses. They were often extended by excavation and must have provided relatively comfortable accommodation. The fertile river valley must have also added to the attraction of the site.
When the Greeks colonised the island, they adapted the caves for burials, digging many tombs in the floors and walls of the caves. They also used the caves for habitation when pirate raids forced them in land from their cities. The Romans continued the practice of burials in the area and they have provided rich archaeological evidence for many cultures from the Bronze age right into the Christian age with the caves being finally deserted after the 1693 earthquake.
The scenery changed on the way, with volcanic rock giving way to limestone and craggy mountains appearing on the edge of the flatter coastal land. As we approached Ispica, drystone walls separated the fields and we saw many pomegranate, carob and walnut trees. As we walked around the site, carob pods lay all over the ground, the fermenting fruit filling the air with a pungent, sweet scent.
The site itself is based at the northern end of the gorge where there is a particularly dense collection of caves and we spent some time exploring them. Most had rock-cut, man-size slots in the floors and often in the walls although some had small pits, presumably for cremations burials. A fascinating site.
We walked a little further north to see 'Our Lady's Grotto' and, just by the car park, 'St. Nicolas's Grotto', complete with faded frescoes. We could have walked down the valley towards Ispica but decided to move on back to the coast to Camping Scarabeo at Punta Braccetto. This turned out to be a small but very impressive site next to the beach, full of flowering plants and with lovely pitches. We were welcomed by the Swiss couple next to us and I said how nice we thought the campsite was. They agreed but said that there was a problem with flies and as soon as we sat outside we saw the problem. And felt the problem – they crawled all over you and it was impossible to get rid of them. Subsequently we were told that they are come from Tunisia, which is very close, and appear when the wind is in a certain direction. We were told that they had been much worse over the last few days, so we hope that they are on the decline.
Photos: The fertile valley at Cava D'Ispica with cave dwellings visible in the cliff face; The 'Ipogei del Camposanto', a pre-historic dwelling reused as a tomb; A complex of caves eroded by the elements and probably damaged in the 1693 earthquake.

Sunday 25th October 2009 - Siracusa, Sicily, Italy

The clocks went back last night so we were able to get an early start for the Archaeological Park. There was a short shower over breakfast but the weather was definitely improving – fresher and lots of blue sky visible.
The short walk took us past the large coach park with the inevitable souvenir stalls to the park entrance. Here we saw the enormous, 200m long altar to Zeus Eleutherios (the giver of freedom) built by Hieron II in the 3rd century BC. It is the largest altar in the whole of the Greek empire and was the scene of massive sacrifices, Diodorus wrote that 450 bulls were killed in one of the annual feasts.
The Greek (inevitably modified by the Romans) theatre capable of holding 15,000 people and backed by a Nymphaeum, the water being by a tunnel cut through the rock. Sat in the seats of the theatre there is a view over the sea and in ancient times, without the modern buildings, it would have been even better. It was easy to imagine watching a performance of a Greek play with the sound of the water from the Nyphaeum and that view over the stage.
The other part of the park was one of the quarries that supplied the stone for the building of the ancient city. There were two natural caves in the quarry, the first the 'Orecchio del Dionisio' (The Ear of Dionysius) being shaped like an ear, high and going deep into the cliff in a twisted passage. The acoustics were remarkable and a single clap of the hands sounded like a rifle shot with a ricochet provided by the echo. The second cave was used in more modern times by rope makers, the dampness of the cave making it easier to make the ropes as the fibres were less likely to break. Unfortunately we weren't able to go into the second cave or explore the rest of the quarry. Although there were paths going off into the quarry, they were blocked and it was obvious that they had been out of bounds for a while. We inspected the Roman Amphitheatre with its central tank to collect the blood from the animals and humans killed for entertainment. The position of the lift used to raise animals into the ring was clearly visible.
After leaving the park we decided to check out the other two quarries behind the park. All of the quarries were used as a prison to hold the 7000 Athenians captured after their disastrous attempt to defeat defeat Syracuse in the Great Expedition of 415 BC with the largest fleet that ever sailed from Athens. They were badly organised and suffered from diseases and were soundly defeated, their generals executed and many of the Athenians made into slaves. The rest of the Greek world took a very dim view of this – killing Greeks in a battle was one thing but imprisoning Greeks for seven years in appalling conditions and enslaving them was wholly unacceptable. Once again, the quarries obviously had been open to the public at one time but they were now overgrown and securely fenced with padlocked gates. We were however able to see into them and the Latomia (pit) di Santa Venera was particularly fascinating. The rock was covered with niches cut for Greek and Roman cemeteries. We saw the tomb claimed to be that of Archimedes although there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim.
The afternoon was spent relaxing and reading in the sunshine and in the afternoon we decided to visit a more modern monument. Opposite the archaeological museum is a striking modern building shaped like a thin up-turned ice cream cone. This is the Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime (the Sanctuary of Madonna of Tears) built in 1994 to hold the statue of the Madonna that allegedly wept for five days in 1953. It is now an important place of pilgrimage and it was busy every time that we passed it. There were many people in the sanctuary when we visited and it took us a while to work out where the statue was. It was only when someone put some money in a box that the, much smaller than we expected, statue in the wall above the altar was lit. The building dominates the skyline from many parts of the city and is meant to look like a teardrop. The view from inside looking up into the conical roof is quite impressive but we noticed that they are already having to do extensive repairs to the roof on the outside.
Photos: The massive Altar of Hieron II; The Greek Theatre; Latomia del Paradiso; The Ear of Dionysius cave; The conical ceiling of The Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime.

Saturday 24th October 2009 – Siracusa, Sicily, Italy

We wanted to see Siracusa (Syracuse), intending to stop at a campsite a few kilometres outside the city and travelling in by bus. However I discovered that there was an aire in the centre of the city and, checking the location, it turned out to be very close to the archaeological museum.
We got an early start and decided to take the motorway so that we could get a look at the city today. Jane thinks that she might have seen the bottom of Etna but it was on the wrong side of the van for me to see it and the low cloud prevented positive identification. It was an easy journey into the city and we were greeted at the aire (also a coach park) by a man who explained that the cost was €18 for 24 hours including water, showers and toilets. He also gave us a very badly printed map that showed us that we were next to the museum and he explained that the Archaeological Park was 10 minutes walk and 20 minutes would take us to the old part of the city. Although the aire was more expensive than the campsite that we were going to use, that was more than compensated for by the convenience of the location. The pitches were very pleasant – lots of room and level with plenty of electrical points and taps. The toilet and shower block however were not good and the gents was in a poor state of repair and dirty.
We bought a combined ticket at the museum that also covered the archaeological park and were looking at the exhibits by 11:30. The visiting hours had been extended to cover the whole day (09:00 to 19:00) so we didn't have to rush the visit. The brochure showed four large rooms, A to D with E and F due for completion in 2009. As often happens with Italian (and Greek) museums, some rooms were closed, so we only had rooms B and C and there was no sign of E and F being opened in the near future. It was obvious that they had squeezed in some exhibits from A and D into the open rooms but this was at the expense of some large sculptures.
The museum was well laid out with lots of high quality pottery although surprisingly little in the way of precious metals (plundered by looters or more important museums?). Of particular interest were the many votive offerings from a Greek temple of Demeter. They had found thousands of statues of Demeter buried at the temple and had exhibited a sample of the different styles demonstrating how common each one was by the number exhibited. It was strange to see so many statues lining the display cases and I could imagine the stalls outside the temple - “Come and get your Demeter offerings here! I've got the Goddess on her own or with a torch or with a piglet. For you madam we have a very special model with the torch and piglet and at a very special price!”.
We walked back to Henrietta for lunch and decided not to rush the Archaeological Park (it closed at 16:00), so we walked down to the city. Ortigia is a small island just a few metres off the mainland and now joined to it by three separate bridges. Because of its defensive qualities and an abundance of fresh springs, this was the site of ancient Syracuse and the second place in Sicily to be colonised by Corithian Greeks in 733 BC. This was just one year after pioneers from Naxos landed further north on the east coast and, with little originality, named their new city Naxos. Crossing over to the island we were soon greeted by the ruins of a large temple to Apollo, part of which was once used as a church.
The highlight of the visit to Ortigia was the Duomo, not just another ornate Italian church but a very important archaeological site. The Piazza Duomo is lovely in itself, surrounded by beautiful 17th and 18th century buildings but the Duomo dominates the square. An ornate Baroque façade replaced the Norman one that collapsed during the 1693 earthquake. Inside there is also a Norman stone font but the history of the building goes back much further. The building started life as a temple to Athena in the early 6th century BC, famous throughout the Greek world due to the opulence of its decoration. The doors were made of ivory and gold and the walls painted with military scenes and portraits of the tyrants of Syracuse – claimed to be the earliest example of portraiture in Europe. During the Roman period it was converted into a Christian church and this ensured its survival. Viewed from the Via Minerva the Doric columns can be seen in their original positions forming part of the structure of the church. Inside it is even clearer with the columns lining the aisles on either side and some of the wall of the temple cella (the holiest part) still in position. On the western side, the columns are misaligned and sections have shifted by a few centimetres, showing how close the structure came to collapse in the 1693 earthquake.
The other piazzas of the island are quite pretty but the most interesting parts of the town are definitely the warren of narrow streets full of interesting architecture of many ages and styles. Ortigia is very much lived in rather than being a tourist town and many of the families are obviously poor, squeezed into tiny terraced houses. But everywhere there were narrow alleys and arches leading to tiny open squares where the owners grew flowers in pots under the towering walls of the encroaching houses. I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Ortigia we spent a very pleasant afternoon there and didn't get back to the van until 18:45.
Photos: The Temple of Apollo; The outside of the Duomo with the Doric columns and Norman battlements clearly visible; The columns lining the inside of the eastern isle; A typical Ortigia street; The security was tight at Parcheggio Von Platen – the searchlights were used at night and the guards carried sub-machine guns! There were three of these lookouts around the edge of the parking and it does make one wonder why they thought that they needed them.

Friday 23rd October 2009 - Acireale, Sicily, Italy

Another warm and sticky night but no thunderstorms and we woke to see blue sky with small white clouds. With a bit of luck the wind, the first that we have had for a few days, will bring fresher, clearer weather.
I wrote the paragraph above too early as it clouded over, started to rain and thunder rumbled as soon as I had put the computer down. The remainder of the day was overcast for most of the time and there was the occasional light shower.
We caught the 09:40 bus up into Acireale and then the 10:30 bus to Catania, a major town one hour's slow bus ride south. The lady in the Tourist Information Office yesterday went into huge (unnecessary) detail about the buses throughout the day, whether they ran on Saturdays, Sundays, Festival Days, or on school days only and told us exactly where we could catch each one (some varied during the day). Unfortunately she neglected to tell us that there was another bus run by a different operator that only took 25 minutes to get to Catania. We discovered this only after we had bought tickets for the slower bus and watched the faster bus drive past us!
The journey was interesting with the first part especially spent in very narrow street often with only two or three inches between the bus and parked cars. On four separate occasions cars parked in ridiculous positions blocked the bus and we had to wait until a driver appeared to move it. Once a car parked opposite a junction prevented the bus from turning left. Coincidently a Municipal Police car arrived at the same moment and took control, one policeman blowing hid whistle to attract the attention of the car owner. He had his notebook out and I was sure that the driver was going to be booked. However, after about five minutes, the driver appeared, said a few words to the policeman, got in the car and drove off without any form of punishment being issued. The Italians are amazingly tolerant of bad driving and parking. When we were waiting for the bus in Acireale I saw a ship's captain in full uniform and it made me wonder whether the Italians steer and moor their ships like they drive and park their cars. If they do, reminder me not to take a cruise with an Italian shipping line! Pedestrian crossings are a great place to park cars; pavements are blocked by parked scooters; stop signs on the road are totally ignored; cars just edge forward onto major roads until there isn't enough room to get around them; cars often overshoot red traffic lights or anticipate them changing so that the traffic with priority has to swerve around them; cars continue driving down the road even when it is obvious that the traffic ahead is stopped and they will block the road to on-coming traffic. I could go on and on and on. I must say that Italian driving is bad but Sicilian driving is absolutely terrible.
Arriving at 11:30 and leaving at 16:00 gave us enough time to whiz around the town visiting the Duomo (cathedral), a couple of impressive churches, the Roman theatre and odeon as well as touring the centre admiring the architecture. We also managed to fit in a four course meal and twenty-minute walks to and from the bus station. We thought that we did quite well.
Much of Catania's architecture is in that very elaborate Baroque style and this is echoed throughout much of Sicily. There is a good reason for this as Baroque was the fashion at the time of the huge earthquake and volcanic eruption that destroyed much of the island in 1693. Acireale was covered by a lava flow from Etna and the city rebuilt over the old one. Catania was destroyed by the earthquake and the town redesigned and built in the modern style. Everywhere in churches you find the year 1693 mentioned and it is surprising how quickly the churches in particular are rebuilt. Thanks from those who were saved or protection from future disasters? Who knows?
One further thought for the day. Are we going to be the only people to spend three weeks in Sicily without seeing Mount Etna? Low cloud is still obscuring the view and we are not convinced that it actually exists!
Photos: The Roman Theatre at Catania. Some houses incorporate the theatre in their fabric but up to the 1950's there were houses occupying the whole of the theatre and set out in tell-tale semi-circular pattern.

Thursday 22nd October 2009 - Acireale, Sicily, Italy

Happy Birthday to Simon!
I was woken by a gentle rumbling noise at about 06:30. It got louder and I decided that it definitely was not Jane's stomach rumbling. Could it be Mount Etna about to blow? No, it was a thunderstorm – not surprising given that the outside temperature when we went to bed was as high as any time during the day and it was very humid. The storm didn't pass directly overhead but we were treated to an hour of spectacular lightening and accompanying thunder (in a motorhome you feel the thunder as well as hearing it) together with plenty of rain.
We caught the bus up to the town of Acireale high above the campsite and enjoyed the interesting town. There are some lovely churches and architecture and the fish and vegetable markets were interesting. One fascinating feature of the Duomo in Acireale was the Meridian line surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac built into the floor of the apse. This seems to have been a fashion in Sicilly as there are other churches with the same feature. This one also shows standard measures including the French metre, the English foot and the Sicilian and Neapolitan hands – it appears that the Neapolitans have larger hands than the Sicilians! The rain held off until we started on the walk back down to Santa Maria La Scala and up to the campsite. Fortunately it was quite short lived.
We very reasonable Internet access (€3 per day) at the campsite, we spent the afternoon catching up with emails and the blog.
Photos: Jane was struck by this cupid in the municipal building in Acireale; Standard measures in Acireale's Duomo; The beautiful ceiling of the Duomo showing a celestial choir complete with orchestra and conductor; Anyone for half a pig?

Wednesday 21st October 2009 – Acireale, Sicily, Italy

Warm again this morning and sunny. The views were much better and we could make out towns on Sicily.
Having no bread, we were just about to sit down to cereal for breakfast when Jane heard a shout of “Pane” from outside. Sure enough there was the local baker's van, rather surprising given that there were only two vans in the campsite! The bread was that tasty long load with a hard crust. Jane decided to cut it and, aware that it would be difficult, attacked it with vigour. An expletive, mild of course, escaped from Jane's mouth as the knife slipped and she carved her finger. I was sent to find the plasters in amongst our extensive medical supplies and found it in the last of three containers. Fortunately, the patient hadn't lost too much blood so I was able to apply the plaster and continue cutting the bread without further mishap.
It is olive picking time in this area and many olive groves, including the one in the campsite, have nets spread under the trees and white plastic bags full of collected olives scattered around on the nets.
We drove for an hour to reach Villa San Giovani, the port from which we caught the ferry to Sicily. The cloud was building and the area that we were heading for looked decidedly dark. The crossing is very quick (20 minutes for €60 return) and we were soon driving off to brave the Messina traffic on the way to the pay motorway. The motorway was quiet and the driving easy. Soon after leaving the city we started to see evidence of the catastrophic floods that hit the area with considerable loss of life. Tunnels were reduced to a single lane and the brown stains on the road showed that they had been covered with mud. Every dry gulley had either been recently cleared or workers with diggers and bulldozers were working on them. In one place wrecked cars were still upended in the mud and in another the wrecks were lined up in the school car park. Further on we passed vast dry river beds – very wide and shallow but designed to take very large amounts of water. These obvious coped with the floods whereas those closer to Messina were much steeper and narrow – unable to cope with the continuous torrential rain.
The Michelin map showed the non-motorway route from Fiumefreddo in green (picturesque) whereas the motorway lost that status. We decided to leave the motorway and follow the picturesque route – a mistake. All I can say is that the person who decided that this section of road was 'picturesque' has very poor taste! The road is almost entirely urban with one run-down, uninteresting town following another, and it was very busy leading to tortuous driving. If you are doing this trip, stay on the motorway.
We headed for Acireale and 'International Camping La Timpa' and found it quite pleasant. We chose a pitch overlooking the sea again but this time the sea was crashing onto the rocks directly below. The rocks here are all volcanic, the outflow from Etna which we are close to, so there is no beach just slabs of lava that provide an area for swimming from. The campsite even has a private lift that takes customers down through the rock to the platform. I tried to use it but it wouldn't respond to the buttons, probably because the sea was too rough and the platform too dangerous. It certainly wasn't the time to be swimming or sunbathing there!
We walked down to the harbour of Santa Maria La Scala just below the campsite. The boats were quite attractive but the village is somewhat scruffy, like most of the towns that we passed on the journey. In fact we both agreed that we were struggling to see the attractive Sicily that we had expected.
Photos: The view from Henrietta of the volcanic rock ledge that forms Camping La Timpa's 'beach'; Moving a boat by committee; Santa Maria La Scala FC playing by the harbour.

Tuesday 20th October 2009 – Taureana di Palmi, Italy

A much warmer morning with the outside temperature at 15°C at 08:00 and no need for heating in Henrietta. We walked up into the town and did some shopping and attempted to use the WiFi Internet in an Internet café. Unfortunately it was one of those cases where I could connect to the café's network but couldn't access anything on the Internet. The café reset their Internet connection and I rebooted the laptop but all to no effect, so we just enjoyed the cappuccinos.
The short hop down the coast turned out to be quite exciting. It started to rain as we started to climb the long winding hill out of the town to the higher land behind and then the heavens opened. Torrential rain followed for nearly an hour. Rivers of water ran down the hill disappearing off at the hairpin bends and as the road levelled out we drove through standing water sending curtains of water up on both sides. And then it suddenly stopped – from pouring rain to nothing and the roads were totally dry!
Palmi is to be our last stop before we take the ferry over to Sicily. The San Fantino site in Taureana di Palmi is located on high land shaded by pine and olive trees and is an ancient Greek and Roman site. The facilities are basic but this is compensated by the position. We chose the pitch on the edge on the hill – there are no signs of ancient remains but this must have been a temple site. High above the beach, there are lovely views up and down the coast and out to sea with Sicily, Stomboli and other islands.
We chose a sunny spot for lunch and then continued to follow the sunny spots whilst planning the rest of the trip. We ended up sat on the edge of the hill overlooking the small fishing harbour below. A constant stream of small fishing boats set off with the deep 'phutt, phutt' of their engines drifting up the cliff. And then we watched the sun set in a blaze of colour over the tip of Sicily – magical!
Photos: View south from Palmi; View north from Palmi; Sunset over Sicily.

Monday 19th October 2009 – Tropea, Italy

Just a two and a half hour drive this morning, mainly along the A3 motorway. We had spent part of the journey on this road yesterday and saw various stretches being improved. However today the first forty miles on contraflow sections with a speed limit of 60 km/hr (35 mph). They are doing an incredible amount of work on the motorway, new tunnels, replacement bridges and widening sections. It is a mammoth project and must be costing multi-millions of Euros. It is difficult to understand the justification for it. The South is undoubtedly poor but a dual lane motorway was already there and I can't see that the improvements are going to bring more wealth to the area. However, I suspect that the Mafia-run construction companies will be benefiting considerably. The roads are generally in a very poor state and I think that the money would have been better spent in a general road resurfacing programme.
We had rain in the night and more followed today although it started to brighten up and the sun shone at times. The A3 took us higher with mountain peaks around us and deep wooded valleys between. Last night's rain had fallen as snow on a couple of the highest peaks, there may have been more but swirling cloud often obscured the mountain tops and spilled down into the valleys. Is was very attractive scenery and well deserved the 'green road' status shown on our Michelin map.
We arrived on the coast at Tropea in the middle of a heavy rain shower and water was running down the narrow road with hairpin bends that descends from the town to the coastal road when the two campsites are located. We booked in at Camping Marina Dell'Isola where we had stayed in April 2008. The campsite is right next to the beach and, as it was very quiet, we were able to get a pitch next to the sea. The view out of the left side is over the sea to Stomboli and its smoking volcano whilst to the right, perched on volcanic pumice cliff is the town of Tropea. It really is a lovely position making up for the fact that the campsite facilities are rather basic.
After the heavy rain had stopped, I plugged into the power and as the skies started to clear we decided to explore the town. Last time the steps up to the town from the campsite had been destroyed by a flood caused by a massive thunderstorm. They had just begun to rebuild them and now they were completed giving us an easy, if steep, route into the town.
Tropea is a fascinating town, pretty is not the correct word as many of the houses are very run down and there is obviously a lot of poverty. However, the mixture of architecture and higgledy-piggledy appearance gives it real charm. We wandered around the street, finding where the Madonna had intervened to stop an American bomb exploding during the Second World War and just gazing up at the houses or to the lovely view out to sea.
In a tiny backstreet shop that I remembered from our last visit, we bought some local wine in a crown-top litre bottle for €2. Nearby was one of the many Pizza restaurants that advertised 'Forno a Legna', a wood-fired oven. I was intrigued by it last time but it was closed. This time we arrived just as he was lighting the oven ready for cooking that evening. The restaurant is dominated by the oven and preparation area with only four small tables available for eating. I watched the chef lighting the fire and managed to explain that we would return at 7 o'clock to eat.
After shopping for a few more provisions and a little more sightseeing we returned to Henrietta. Our table at the appropriately named 'Vecchio Forno' (Old Oven) had a good view of the oven but the pizza preparation was being done out of view so I couldn't get any tips from that. I showed the owner pictures of my partially completed wood-fired oven - “piccolo” (small) he exclaimed and it was compared to his! The oven must be two metres square by a metre high and his peels had handles that were about 3 metres long. Round baking dishes hold the pizzas and these are placed and turned occasionally using the peel. A pitchfork-type tool is used to move the wood around in the fire that is kept in the oven during the baking. The instructions on my oven suggest that it will only take about 90 seconds to cook a pizza, so I was surprised to find that here it took 10 minutes. Having said that, the larger oven and much higher roof would mean that the heat would be less intense than in mine. All the same, 90 seconds may be a little optimistic.
We had a dish of peppers cooked in the oven and served warm with lots of olive oil and then a pizza each to follow. It was very good, the pizza being slightly thicker and more bread-like than I remember the Neapolitan ones being but still delicious. Probably another reason for the longer cooking time.
Photos: Henrietta's pitch next to the sea; The entrance to Vecchio Forno isn't ostentatious; Lighting the fire in Vecchio Forno's old oven; The latest fashion in bathrooms for exhibitionists or those who simply want a loo with a view!

Sunday 18th October 2009 – Padula, Italy

Jane had requested that we drove no more than two and a half hours today and I agreed that a less taxing day would be nice. Fortunately, I had already spotted an agroturism site just off the motorway on our route and the sat nav told be that it would take 2 hours 35 minutes – ideal. We were more confident of the aire (Aia Antica at Padula) this time because, like Ai Cuivin, it is at a restaurant and the Italians (like the British) like to eat out on Sunday lunchtimes.
The weather was worse than yesterday with more rain and it was decidedly chilly. We arrived at 12:15, delayed slightly after having to take a slight diversion after the sat nav attempted to take us up a 1 in 2 hill – at least it looked like that and Henrietta's wheels started to spin! Sure enough, the restaurant was open, yes we could stay overnight and they had a table for us. By 12:30 we were sat down and were presented with vast volumes of food. A Lazy Susan held all sorts of antipasta, my favourite being chopped liver and onions in a lovely rich sauce, which went very well with the savoury doughnuts, well dough balls to be totally correct. After that came cheese lasagne and an unidentified type of pasta (there must be thousands of varieties) with a simple tomato sauce. The meat course came next – pork chops, roast chicken and a small piece of goat (?) on the bone, served with a green salad. A sweet of a very pleasant cake and coffee finished the meal that was, off course, washed down with oodles of red wine and water. All of that for €20 a head and a free night's stop!
I would like to say that we finished every course but, although we very nearly finished the antipasta, the pasta and the meat defeated us even though we made a valiant effort. We were now stuffed and Jane suggested a short stroll.
We wanted to find out why there were a number of coaches parked just up the road, so we walked the short distance to the car park and found an information board that showed that we were very close to one of the most important religious sites in Southern Italy. The Unesco protected Carthusian monastery of St. Lawrence is a very impressive building and is well worth a visit if you are passing. It is massive, has wonderful frescos and superb architecture. The guided tours were in Italian and were totally incomprehensible but they seemed to be happy for us to wander around at our own speed. Only the ground floor is open but that is fascinating with many chapels, cloisters, courtyards and monks cells. Particularly impressive was the monks kitchen and, it must be said that it appears that the monks must have had quite a pleasant life. The airy nature of the rooms and the many outdoor spaces in amongst the building would be ideal for the hot, dry climate of Southern Italy. Having said that, today it was damp and cold.
Within the monastery there is an archaeological museum and entrance to that is included in the €4 charge for the monastery. The museum was excellent, showing finds from ancient cemeteries in and close to Padula. The finds date mainly from 10th to the 6th centuries BC (before the Greeks settled here) but some date to the Greek and Roman periods up to 6th century AD. There are many very informative boards in English and we were given an excellent English museum guide book consisting of over 50 pages of information and superb pictures of the finds.
We spent two and a half hours in the monastery and museum – an excellent afternoon's entertainment and just what we needed to stop us falling asleep after all that food and wine! We returned to Henrietta, made a cup of tea, put the heating on and tried to get warm again. What has happened to the blazing heat of Southern Italy? Having said that, we can't complain. The restaurant had a television on all of the time we were in there, mainly showing the Italian X Factor and other game shows. However at one point there was the news, from which we were able to glean that there had been a minor (3.1) earthquake in Frosinone (we shopped at a supermarket there yesterday), snow was falling just north east of Rome, L'Aquila had suffered more aftershocks from its devastating earthquake and buildings had collapsed, and they were still cleaning up after the mudslides in Messina, Sicily. Rain and cold weather we can cope with, after all we are British and used to it!
Photos: About to start the antipasta in Aia Antica; A bride and groom relax during a gruelling photo session at the monastery of San Lorenzo; The choir stalls with exquisite marquetry; Jane inspects the monks kitchen; The main cloister of San Lorenzo; Aia Antica under lowering skies.

Saturday 17th October 2009 – Benevento, Italy

A reasonably early start on a cool and overcast morning saw us soon on the ring road around Rome. We came off at junction 18 to join the SS6 (the Roman Via Casilina) but discovered that Saturday morning is not the best time to travel on this road through many miles of the suburbs of Rome. Everyone was out shopping, markets caused traffic chaos and the driving was atrocious, even by Italian standards. Still it was an experience and the Italians seemed to take it all in their stride even though a few gasps of astonishment did pass my lips!
The journey was uninspiring at the beginning but the scenery improved later even if the weather didn't let us enjoy it. Rain and very low cloud obscured most of the mountains and we found ourselves repeating that British landlady's mantra of “the view is lovely from here when it's clear”. The lack of campsites and aires had us driving quite a long distance today but we had identified an aire that was in our Camperstop Europe (2007) guide, the latest Guida Camper book and the April 2009 Agri Plein Air (agrotourism) booklet that we had just acquired from our Italian friends at Ai Cuivin. I am sure that you have worked out what is coming next! We arrived at the specified coordinates and found nothing, so Jane checked with the owner of the village garage. “Chiuso”, closed he said, as in “closed for ever”. We looked at our options and decided to head into Benevento, another 40 minutes further on. This worked well and we soon found the car park and, although both guides said that a payment was required (€5 according to one of them), the barriers were up and there was nowhere to pay.
Photos: The Santuario dell'Addolorata dominated the valley south west of Isernia on the SS17.

Friday 16th October 2009 – 'Happy Village Camping', Rome

We drove to Murlo, the largest local town but actually barely more than a village. The old part of the village is a tiny settlement surrounding a Mediaeval castle on the top of a hill. This is very attractive with lovely views over the surrounding countryside but it also has another attraction. The
castle has been renovated and now houses an archaeological museum with finds from an Etruscan site, 'Poggio Civitate', on a neighbouring hill. The site has two houses from different periods the earlier one built in the 7th century BC, later destroyed by fire, and the second one that superseded it built in the 6th century BC. The site was eventually abandoned in 525 BC but, intriguingly, it was carefully demolished, many architectural elements deliberately buried intact and the well blocked to prevent its future use. It has been suggested that the owners moved to another location taking their valuables with them and wanted to make sure that nobody else occupied their original site. For such a small village, the museum was surprisingly good – well presented, English translations on many boards and it had some excellent finds. Some finds had gone to museums in the large cities but it was great to see many exhibited so close to their original site. The other advantage of this is that there is plenty of space to show many exhibits and tell the story of the site. In a large museum, only the best finds would be shown as the display space would have to be limited.
One of the most interesting aspects of the site is the high quality terracotta work produced on the site. The workshop used in the first phase of development has been found and it has been established that it was destroyed in the fire. Unfinished clay tiles were discovered in the wreckage with human and animal footprints made, they have surmised, when the occupants fled the fire. Terracotta wall tiles and roof decorations have been excavated – masks decorated the eaves of the buildings whilst clay statues were set on the apex of the roof. One of these statues is of a man wearing a large broad-brimmed hat – most unusual!
From Murlo we had to cut across country to join the R2 (the Roman 'Via Cassia') and were rewarded by the sight of two magnificent villas or castles from one single viewing point. I suspect that they were rival estates each determined to demonstrate their power. The one pictured above was in a tiny settlement called Castelnuovo, a very common name in Italy – we must have past dozens of towns and villages with that name and there must be hundreds in the country. We have two towns called 'Newcastle' in England but Italy has a few more castles than us!
The vineyard scenery gave way to the much more traditional agriculture in Southern Tuscany. Vast ploughed fields encompassed many small hills whilst the farmhouses occupied the highest hill on the estate. The farmhouses were very attractive, often surrounded by trees and with long poplar-lined drives that contrasted against the light grey of the fields.
It was a day of castles and as we moved from Tuscany into Lazio encountered another spectacular example at Bolsena, the main town on Lake Bolsena. This looked like an interesting town and the lake also looked well worth a visit. It's on the list for another trip!
We attempted to stop at two aires shown in the Guida Camper book but one was padlocked and the other obviously closed for the season (our fault, we didn't read the entry properly), so we decided to move on to a campsite listed in the ACSI guide. This was 'Happy Village Camping' north of Rome, just outside the outer motorway ring road. We probably wouldn't have chosen a site with such a naff name but it sounded good in the guide and they operate the special ACSI rate of €15 out of season.
It turned out to be very good and we were soon on our allocated pitch just two pitches away from another Hobby motorhome. We see very few Hobby's on our travels and this was an even rarer version – a British Hobby. It was the big sister of ours, a 600 based on a Fiat chassis. It is over a metre longer than our T600 and has a garage with twin single beds above it. It looked very comfortable with all of the same high-quality Hobby fittings as ours. Mike was also towing a Smart car that enabled they to get around more easily once they had found a campsite.
Photos: Terracotta statues from the Etruscan site of Poggio Civitate; A Tuscan castle between Bibbiano and Buonconvento.

Thursday 15th October 2009 – Casciano, Tuscany, Italy

There was a cool wind yesterday and this continued today but the air temperature was lower still, struggling to reach 12°C, although out of the wind and in the lovely sunshine it was quite pleasant.
The wind and sunshine was ideal for Jane's task of washing – two loads in a very efficient and quick washing machine. Our recently acquired washing line, looking like a whirly line on a tripod but it doesn't actually whirl, worked extremely well and all was dry by mid-afternoon. And that was about the extent of the active things that we did today, reading and planning occupying our time.
Photos: The view from our pitch in Casciano.

Wednesday 14th October 2009 – Casciano, Tuscany, Italy

For the second morning in succession we had to put on Henrietta's heating as the outside temperature was below 3°C. However the skies are clear and the sun is strong so the temperature soon rises and has been consistently in the early 20's.
Whereas the countryside around Asti is dominated by vineyards, the Chianti country is much more mixed with forest, olive groves and vineyards. This, together with the rolling countryside and the Tuscan architecture makes a very attractive scene. Everywhere there are vineyards with signs advertising direct sales, often selling olive oil as well as Chianti.
We visited two hilltop Tuscan towns, the small Panzano and the larger Castellina in Chianti. Panzano was quiet and charming, with its houses crammed into the small hilltop with the church, of course, occupying the highest point. In the square I went into the village butchers and purchased some piquant sausages and stewing beef. We found a path beside the church and set off for a walk that took us off the hill and round at a lower level before we climbed again back to the car park at the edge of the town. The views across the Tuscan countryside and up to Panzano were lovely.
There is a good aire just outside Castellina in Chianti and we used that to park before walking into the town. Castellina is much more popular with tourists but was still quite quiet at this time of the year. We wandered around the town visiting one of the wine cellars, home of Castellina wines but also holding the largest collection of Chianti Classico wines in the world. These date back many years and large catalogues list the wines, dates and prices. I managed to find some Contessa di Radda wine that we bought many years ago on a previous visit to Tuscany. The 1991 vintage was a bargain at €25. If only I had kept our bottles rather than drinking them!
Just outside Castellina we came to a large wine estate where we attempted to buy some wine in bulk but they only sold it in bottles. We explained that we knew that it was possible to fill your own containers at some vineyards but didn't know where to go or how to ask for it. They couldn't have been more helpful. They made a phone call, confirmed that they couldn't do it but gave us directions to the nearest agroturism vineyard that offered the option. They must have detailed the route to us about five times – they obviously thought that we were a little simple! We just hoped that they weren't watching as we drove out of the estate road and turned the wrong way – we decided that we didn't have time to backtrack on our route. Still I had asked for the Italian word for bulk wine sales – sfuso. We had seen signs showing this word but didn't know what it meant. We will look out for more such signs on the journey.
We headed on around Siena (been there, done that but will return sometime) even driving on a short stretch of motorway before travelling south to Casciano. Here we had identified a campsite offering the ACSI out-of-season discounted price of €15 per night. We chose it partly because it was at a convenient point on our route but also because it was described as having excellent views. It certainly has and we found a plot in amongst the olive trees. Our first night in a campsite since we set off!
Photos: The Tuscan countryside – a mixture of vineyards, olive groves and trees with Tuscan houses in amongst; Tuscan chimneys in Castellina in Chianti; the casks of Chianti Classico in Castellina.

Tuesday 13th October 2009 – Greve in Chianti

After a little shopping in the local Conad supermarket (now owned by the French giant Leclerc) we set off for what we hoped was going to be a shorter and less arduous drive. Castelnuouvo seemed like an interesting place with a castle in the centre on the banks of the river. Next time we will investigate the town more but still use the aire as it is close to the centre and parking in the centre looks like a nightmare.
The major road towards Lucca was busy but easy and we were soon eating up the kilometres. Close to Lucca we turned off the road and once again headed across country. The views all of the way were lovely with large areas of forest and many of those hill-top villages. Chestnut trees and chestnut collecting were much in evidence although the wind had disappeared today and we didn't have to avoid any debris.
Early in the afternoon we started to see vineyards again – we had arrived in the Chianti area. We diverted slightly north so that we could join the 222 road at Strada in Chianti. The 222 is the very pretty road that travels through the heart of the Tuscan countryside touching many historic, tourist-filled towns. One such town is Greve in Chianti where there is a free aire on the north side of the town. This was quite busy when we arrived at about 15:30 but we found a good spot and set off to investigate the town.
At this time of the year there aren't too many tourists although there was a large group of Americans occupying the cafés of the main square. This was surrounded by cafés, restaurants, souvenir shops, wine shops and butchers that also sold Chianti Classico. Just of the edge of the square was a path up to a view point that looked out over the town to the hills and vineyards beyond.
Photos: Greve's main square; The 'Gallo Nero' (the black cockerel, the symbol of Chianti Classico) with the tower of the Greve library in the background; It was washing day in Greve!