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!