2019 – Page 2 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

October 30, 2019 Lucca IT

We woke early to catch the bus as there were only two options, one at 8:15 and the next at 11:10 which we thought was too late. As I was getting things organized outside we ran into the owner of the Agritourismo, Andrea and he asked what I was doing up so early. When I told him he said that he could have his father drive us in at a more civilized hour and we happily took him up on the offer.

The sign for the campground we are staying at in Lucca.

Ton did some research on the comic book festival in Lucca and it goes back to 1966. It is the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world with 90,000 tickets sold each day and the festival apparently sells out the 450,000 tickets in hours each year. It is a much larger event than we expected. We figured the people watching would be interesting even though we do not have tickets.

Arriving at one of the city gates all of the tents we had seen around the city yesterday had long lines leading into them with fans of different cartoons and comics looking to score the latest merchandise. We wandered the streets pretty aimlessly and Lucca is a great site for this kind of event as the long narrow streets with frequent piazza’s allow it to absorb the people effectively and allows the participants interesting places to stage photos.

This guy loved having his picture taken and insisted on handing me his weapon.

A lot of the participants were dressed up in costume, though Ton and I are not the right age to identify most of the characters people were dressed up as. We did have fun trying to guess. Eventually we climbed up on the wall that encircles the old city and it turns out it is an unofficial promenade for the people in costume to walk and see what other people were wearing. We ended up walking completely around the city. We found one exhibit that was open to people without tickets, it was based on the video game Resident Evil so we got to go in and interact with a bunch of zombies in Raccoon City.

One of the zombies and a guard at the Resident Evil display.

In between all of the characters we also continued to admire Lucca. After a while we needed a little break so we went to a restaurant Ton had her eye on that has been in business since 1865. Our waitress was a young lady who spoke English well. She asked if we were here for the cartoon festival, we told her no, it was a happy accident. She apologized and said that Lucca is a beautiful city and while the festival was really good for the local economy she is happy when it is over because it was just a little too weird, and to illustrate her point she had to run up to the cash register to ring up the bill of a zombie with his intestines hanging out and a knife in his back.

The view of the Hoben Oak trees on top of the tower.

We returned to François just before the rain that had been threatening all day hit. I am writing this a little early today because we are heading up to the farmhouse for a 4 course Italian dinner, I will write about that tomorrow.

October 29, 2019 Lucca IT

Today we headed south back into Tuscany. It was a short trip so we were able to complete an important task which was a stop at Lidl to fill up the cupboards which were pretty bare.

After stocking up we headed out to the outskirts of Lucca to an agritourismo site. Like France, one of the camping options in Italy is on farms. In this case we are on a vineyard with 14 spots dedicated to campers. When we pulled up to the site there were no campers in site, but we were immediately met by the owner Andrea who asked if we had reservations. He said I know it looks crazy but we are full. It turns out Lucca holds the Italian equivalent of Comicon and it is this week and 500,000 people are expected. But in true Italian fashion with a twinkle in his eye he said we can stay for two nights which was exactly our plan, so it turns out there is no problem. I then asked him about the bus into town and he said the schedule was posted, but he would give us a lift into town if we could leave soon.

Early arrivals for Lucca Comics and Games Festival.

Lucca was a treat. It is an old walled town with the walls still intact. It has suffered little damage over time and has been a settlement since the Romans so it is full of interesting buildings from many different eras. We wandered the town for a few hours and were rewarded with small revelations around every corner. There are no spectacular buildings in Lucca, just a bunch of medium sized churches and palazzos with really interesting features.

One of the towers that Lucca is famous for. This one has tress growing on the top of it.

While it caters to tourists, (Italian Comicon), it is not overrun with tourists like a lot of the places we visit. Tomorrow we are going to give Lucca another look and take in the sites of Italians dressed like superhero and comic book characters in a town that goes back to the Romans. It should be a treat.

Street scene in Lucca. We really enjoyed the atmosphere of Lucca.

We tried to take the bus back to the campground, but the bus runs on a pretty irregular schedule. Google told us the next bus was not for 2 and a half hours, the bus stop seemed to imply there was one an hour sooner than that. We gambled on the bus stop sign and lost, so we decided to take a taxi. This turned out to be a good idea as a major thunderstorm rolled in just after we got back knocking out power in the area.

October 28, 2019 Cinque Terre IT

We had another great day on the Cinque Terre. We are staying at a basic Sosta run by one of the local ambulance services, so in addition to a bunch of motor homes we are sharing our space with a couple of ambulances. When the drivers are not out on runs they man the front gate and take payment. When I went to buy bus tickets into town I tried to do the ordering in Italian (“due persona, biglietta a autobus retorno”) for anyone who speaks Italian you will know that is terrible, but the guy understood and thanked me for trying and then switched to perfect English for the rest of the transaction.

Yesterday we covered the most popular of the three cities on the Cinque Terre, today we planned on covering the last two towns. After our twenty minute bus ride to the train station in La Spezia we headed out to Corniglia. It is the least visited town because it does not connect to the ocean, and you have to climb 365 steps to get to the town. The town is really perched on a promontory overlooking the ocean with great views up and down the coast. It is also has good views up to the mountains above the coast. In addition to climbing the steps to town we climbed up above the town into the vineyards that were the primary source of income before tourism took over.

Corniglia with vineyards terraced on the hills above town.

Our next stop was the town of Manarola. It is considered by the people who write about the Cinque Terre as the most romantic of the towns. It consists of one main street running down to a small harbor. But what makes it romantic are the trails around the town which after a pretty good climb take you thru the vineyards that cascade down the mountainside into the town. The trail is quite spectacular and you are rewarded for your effort by some great views.

Looking down on Manarola from the vineyards above town.

Having climbed about 770 feet in total between the two towns (if my fitbit is to be believed) we decided to reward ourselves with a nice lunch. We walked up the road in Manarola scouting for lunch. Ton would walk up to each restaurant and look at the menu and inspect the food on the tables that the customers were eating. After a while she pointed at a restaurant and said that is the one. I noticed that there was a table for two on the second floor balcony and asked one of the waitresses in terrible Italian if we could sit there. She said of course; and informed the manager/husband that we were going to get those seats (my reward for trying to speak Italian), clearly to his frustration. It turned into a wonderful meal as we both had great fresh seafood on a balcony overlooking the town. We shared the balcony with a nice German couple, and inside there was a French tour group who had quite a bit of wine with their lunch, and in the end their Italian tour guide broke into song and the group joined in. All in all a very memorable lunch.

The rail station at Corniglia looking down from the top of the 365 steps. The rail line connecting the 5 towns is more or less continuous tunnel, with the tracks only emerging at each town. Manarola is the town you can see in the upper right of the picture.

Our final plan for the day was to walk from Manarola to Riomagiore but unfortunately the trail was closed. So instead we headed back to La Spezia. Ton says I owe her a massage for making her climb 770 feet today, but I think most of the climbing was her idea.

October 27, 2019 Cinque Terre IT

Todays trip was driven by the weather. So far the weather has been spectacular, the one day it did rain it was nice enough to do it during the night and by morning the sun was out again. But our good luck is changing and we are supposed to get a week of rain, starting tomorrow night.

One of Ton’s bucket list items on this trip was the Cinque Terre. This location is really weather dependent, and since today was the last guaranteed good day for a while we decided to head over from Florence. We will end up heading back into Tuscany for a more extended visit once we are done here.

One of the pastel colored villages in the Cinque Terre.

We were up bright and early, and it turns out today was the day Europe Falls Back from Daylight savings time. With our early start we covered the 140km’s to La Spezia quickly and arrived at the Sosta on the outskirts of La Spezia at 9am. After a quick breakfast it was off to the train station to buy our two day Cinque Terre pass.

The Cinque Terre is a series of 5 coastal villages carved into the sides of cliffs along the Ligurian Sea. They are part of an Italian National Park as well as UNESCO Heritage sites. While they are difficult to reach by road, the Italian Railway has carved tracks that connect them all. This is by far the best way to explore the Cinque Terre. A two day pass is only €27 per person and allows unlimited trips on the line between La Spezia and the five towns (it also includes free access to the walking trails between the towns, and the bathrooms in the train stations!).

One of the UNESCO listed villages on the Cinque Terre.

As today was the only guaranteed good day we picked the three largest villages, Riomagiorre, Vernazza, and Monterosso. They are all in spectacular settings with small harbors at the bottom of steep roads leading to the ocean.

We started the day in Riomagiorre and as we got off the train we heard a lot of Thai being spoken all around us. It turns out we had stumbled into a tour of about 25 Thai. We listened into the guide for a while until he caught on and we introduced ourselves. He thought it was funny.

Monterosso is the largest of the towns and has the largest of the harbors but probably the least spectacular setting. I was a little disappointed when I saw a big parking lot on the edge of town with about 20 RV’s parked in it. It turns out this is the one place you can camp in the Cinque Terre. I missed it in my app because it was listed as parking and not a Sosta. In Italy I am not looking at parking areas like I have in France and Germany as places to stay only Sostas and Campgrounds.

Vernazza is the smallest of the towns we visited today and is considered by most people to be the prettiest of the towns. It only has one main road that leads down to a small harbor. As you walk down to the harbor you see pictures of a massive flash flood that shot down the road in 2011. After walking around town we headed up on to one of the trails that connect all of the towns on the Cinque Terre. We wandered up there by accident but the view was so good we kept going. At one point Ton was shooting some pictures when she overheard 4 Thai taking turns taking pictures of each other, she could not resist and asked if they wanted a picture of all 4 of them. They reciprocated by taking pictures of us.

The hiking trail between Vernazza and Monterosso, it is steep in this stretch, there are vineyards on the right behind the fence.

October 26, 2019 Florence IT

After our quick view of Florence yesterday we headed back in today with a plan for a walking tour of Florence. It is another beautiful Indian Summer day, low 70’s and sunny.

Florence is beautiful and an easy city to walk around in. We hit all of the tourist highlights. Because of the weather the city was teeming with people, but everyone seemed in a good mood. We had thought of visiting the inside of the Cathedral but when we arrived the line was far too long so we moved on.

Exterior of the cathedral, we never made it inside.

Our next stop was the Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge). We had gone by yesterday to get some photos but Ton was not happy with the results so she wanted a reshoot. (She is turning into a real professional.) After getting some good shots we headed up hill on the far side of the river. It was much quieter and we really enjoyed walking thru some interesting but less busy neighborhoods. We headed up to the Piazzo Michaelangelo where we had a great view of the city. On the way up we made a short detour into a very beautiful rose garden that we both enjoyed.

View of Florence from the Michaelangelo Plaza.

Our next stop was the Florence Market which is always a highlight for Ton in every city. The Florence Market did not disappoint, we wandered from stand to stand for a good hour, and ended up with spices, pasta, and a kilo of parmesan cheese which we have optimistically vacuum packed, but I suspect will not make it home. The upstairs of the market is a food court unlike any we have ever seen. There are 50 or more food stands with an eclectic mix of Italian and non-Italian foods. We were tempted but had two restaurants we wanted to check out for lunch.

A colorful stall at the Florence Market.

The first restaurant was right outside of the market but when we got there it was clear we were not the only one who had selected this restaurant. The other restaurant on the list was a 20 minute walk away but when we got there it had already closed for lunch. Now we were really hungry, we discussed going back to the food court at the market but neither one of us wanted to double back.

As we were walking down the street Ton saw a place offering a two course meal with wine for €10. It seemed too good to be true, and I was skeptical but Ton talked me into it and it turned into one of our best meals in Europe. There were 6 choices for the pasta plate, and 6 choices for the meat plate. We each picked different ones and shared and they were all good. It also came with a carafe of wine that was a solid Tuscan. In the end for €10 we had a memorable meal.

When we finished our meal we both had gone into a food coma, so we decided to head back to the Hilton for the day.

October 25, 2019 Florence IT

At the beginning of the trip Hilton informed us that we had to use points by November or we would lose them, so we are spending the next two nights in luxury at a Hilton Hotel near Florence, François is parked safely in the parking lot.

The drive over was relatively uneventful and we arrived early. We had hoped to see a grocery store on our way to the hotel, but did not. Since we were early we tried going to one near the hotel, but after wandering around for awhile (and possibly blundering into a ZTL) we could not find it so we headed back to the hotel and checked in.

We headed downtown to give Florence a preliminary look and were really impressed. We just walked the streets but Ton killed the battery on her iPhone in about two hours she took so many pictures.

We walked down to the river to see the old bridge which is quite interesting as it is one of the few bridges to survive that continues the medieval tradition of having stores and dwellings on them.

The old bridge with shops built along either side. The shops are high end jewelers.

We then came upon a Medici Palace and wandered in to check it out and decide if we would return and pay for the tour tomorrow. We took a walk around the Cathedral and decided we definitely would return for the tour tomorrow.

Having walked for awhile we decided to have a dinner of pizza and watched some Rugby on TV. Florence makes a very good first impression.

October 24, 2019 Perugia IT

The weather forecast was threatening so we had a debate about whether to head into Perugia. But after consulting with the weather channel app and the clerk at the desk for the campground it looked like the rain was going to hold off until late afternoon so we were off for Perugia.

The next issue was we had about 30 minutes to get to the train station which was about a mile away on foot. So we took off like someone chasing their water buffalo (to quote the Thai saying), and made it with a few minutes to spare. When we arrived in Perugia we saw signs announcing the European Chocolate Festival, so the day was definitely looking up. After taking the mini-Metro (maybe the cutest mass transit system we have seen) from the train station to the top of the hill that Perugia’s city center is located on we were greeted with row after row of tents with chocolates from primarily Italy, with a few of the biggies in Europe thrown into the mix.

Looking forward to entering Choco Street.

In between visiting chocolate tents we also enjoyed Perugia. It is a beautiful town set on a hilltop with expansive views in all directions. We were also surprised by the beauty of the Palazzo dei Priori (Palace of the first People) which dates from the late 1200’s and was the seat of government during that time up to modern times. We wandered in by accident and then spent about 30 minutes walking around looking at the wood carvings and paintings.

One of the paintings from Palazzo dei Priori.

Across the square is the Cathedral of Perugia and despite a little cathedral weariness we really enjoyed this one. It is quite different than the cathedrals we have seen in France, Germany, and Spain which seem to have a lot in common in design and decoration. Like St. Peters this one seems less in a pattern and more unique. The highlights were the different marble pillars, and the ceilings. But the surprise was a room off of the main cathedral. The sacristy (which is the room where the priests keep their formal clothing and other artifacts needed for mass) was covered in frescoes by an artist named Pandolfi and were really beautiful. It was like a small version of the Sistine Chapel, with the difference being that we had the room to ourselves to enjoy the art.

The ceiling of the sacristy of the Cathedral of Perugia.

Keeping the rain in mind we cut our visit short, and headed back to François. We beat the rain. Ton really outdid herself with a pasta dish that would make any Italian proud. The rain has arrived and we are being treated to a pounding rain on the roof of François.

October 23, 2019 Passignano IT

We have moved north towards Tuscany. Our plan for the day was to visit the university town of Perugia. Parking and places to stay were pretty slim, but there was one campground mentioned on the edge of town so we headed towards that.

Our French friends Michel and Ginette from Pompei ended up in the spot next to us in Rome so we took the time to say au revoir before we headed North. We smacked our foreheads about an hour down the road for not getting a picture with them. Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future so we can take care of that problem.

Leaving Rome was very straightforward. Overall Rome was a fairly easy to get in and out of in François, and we were pleasantly surprised how easy and convenient the public transit was. The other thing that was special about Rome is that every time we had a doubt or were struggling with a machine someone stepped forward to offer help or directions. While the sights and food of Italy are fantastic, we have been both really impressed with the Italians. They have been overwhelmingly hospitable to us, warm and fun to deal with. They seem genuinely concerned that you enjoy your time in Italy.

Interesting fruit (we think) on a tree in Passignano.

After a couple of hours we arrived at the campground in Perugia and it was closed. I had been worried about that possibility so we had plan B which was Lake Trasimeno. Lake Trasimeno is the fourth biggest lake in Italy and a large resort area. The town we are in has train service to Perugia so we have the option of heading into there tomorrow.

Sunset on Lake Trasimeno from our campground.

We finished the day by heading into Passignano to check it out. It is a very quaint lake front town with a nice promenade and several restaurants facing the lake. We walked a little further than we planned to to visit a Conad Grocery. We had not visited a Conad yet and Ton wanted to see one as it is the biggest chain in Italy. Another item checked off the list of things to do in Italy.

October 22, 2019 Rome IT

Our second day in Rome was aimed at the Roman ruins and the Colosseum. Again the public transport in Rome worked very well and we arrived early for our tour. This time we were able to get a slot on an earlier tour which was lucky as this tour was pretty small and we had some things we wanted to see after the tour.

We began by visiting Palantine Hill which contains many of the ruins of the old Roman city center. They are still discovering many ruins as Rome like many cities is in layers. We were told that there are seven layers of buildings from the modern we see today to the original remains of the founding of the city. We began the tour by looking over a site that was uncovered when they were extending the metro system. It was the remains of a temple and was quite impressive. The guide says this happens all of the time when new construction is begun in the city.

One of the ancient temples very well preserved because it was converted to a Catholic Church.

The tour of the ruins around the coliseum was very interesting, and the history is fascinating to hear. The ruins are different than those of Pompei because Pompei was destroyed in a flash, the ruins in Rome happened over centuries due to neglect. Originally Rome was built on hills because the areas between the hills were flood plains. Over time as the Romans developed their sewer systems they were able to manage the floods and much of what we saw today was development in what had been the flood plain. As Rome declined the sewers and other flood control measures failed, and things were covered over with mud from floods.

Overview of the Palatine Hill Area of Rome.

After a thorough exploration of Palatine Hill, we headed over to the Colosseum for the big finish of the tour. The Colosseum is an impressive structure. The resemblance to modern stadiums is striking. The building held 50,000 people for events, and they could have the crowds into the building in 30 minutes and could empty the building in 20 minutes. The construction techniques are fascinating to me, and their solutions to structural issues were quite sophisticated. Most of the seating is gone but you can easily visualize the crowds. They even had a method to cover the seats during rain using canvas and ropes.

Our final two sites for the day were the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. They are having a real Indian Summer here so the crowds at these two sites were summer like. For the Trevi Fountain I picked a spot where I could enjoy a view and let Ton dive into the crowd to get some pictures.

Ton braved the crowds to get this shot of the Trevi fountain.

October 21, 2019 Rome IT

Today we decided to start our time in Rome by visiting the Vatican. Yesterday after some research we decided to do a guided tour, it was €10 more than the unguided ticket. It was expensive but the other option was waiting in line for an indeterminate amount of time to purchase a ticket as an individual.

Our tour was at 11am but not having tried the public transport in Rome we left about 8:45 to give me some time to get lost. It turns out the trip to the Vatican was a breeze and we were there about 9:30. We used the time until the tour began to wander around St. Peters Square. The square itself is very impressive and we had no trouble killing the time we had until our tour.

We joined our tour and headed over to the Vatican Museum. The museum was fantastic but the crowds inside were incredible. I am not sure how many people they let in per day, but if today is any indication it is too many. At times you could not stop walking as you were being carried along by the crowds. We saw a lot of beautiful things that we would have liked to stop and admire but were unable to due to the crowds. It also made following the guides talk very complicated as we would frequently be separated from her by a wall of people and were not quite sure what piece of art she was talking about. We later learned that even in shoulder season Mondays and Saturdays are very crowded.

This level of crowd was the norm for the tour.

We eventually made our way thru to the highlight of the trip the Sistine Chapel. Again the place was jammed with people and you were basically herded into the middle of the Chapel and had to stop and stand in one place. There was no moving around to get a better view of a particular part of the chapel. Having complained I know why so many people want to see the chapel as it is absolutely stunning, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. In the end it was worth the trouble. Sorry there are no pictures from the Sistine Chapel allowed.

This picture is a Raphael from the Popes Apartments. He depicts Michelangelo sitting in the lower left center. He is in Renaissance clothing unlike the other characters, and working on a list.

The tour finished up with St. Peters Basilica. We have visited a lot of Cathedrals during our time touring in Europe but this one is special. While the crowds were just as large, St. Peters was more than big enough to handle them. While the place is ornate it struck me as more understated, as if it has nothing to prove. We appreciated this, but the art that is in the cathedral is beautiful, and surprisingly to us from many different eras. It is not frozen in time which is also refreshing.

A Michelangelo from St. Peters Basilica.

In the end our three hour tour took a little over four hours due to the crowd, and we emerged from St. Peters famished. Ton had picked out a place she wanted to try and following Google maps we arrived at the site, sat down and ordered some pasta, when I looked across the street and saw the name of the restaurant she had picked out, we were in the wrong place. The food was pretty good though.

October 20, 2019 Rome IT

Not much to talk about today. We woke a little early, prepared François for movement after four days sitting in one place. The drive to Rome was uneventful, the Autostrada was quiet and easy.

The Monastery at Monte Cassino from the Autostrada. This building was completely rebuilt after WWII as it was fought over for several months during the war and completely leveled, before Polish troops fighting for the allies took it.

We arrived at the campground pretty early and got set up for what will be another extended stay. We spent the afternoon researching tours and purchasing tickets for the two big attractions the Vatican, and the Colosseum. So the next two days are already planned. As it was Sunday everything was closed but a grocery store so we headed there for a little recreational shopping. Some days are not very interesting.

October 19, 2019 Naples IT

We slept in a bit today, and after pottering around the campground a while we headed into Naples. When we got to the train platform here in Pompei we ran into the French couple we did the Amalfi coast with yesterday. Ginette and Michel were also going into Naples for the day and we ended up joining up with them.

Romance in the air in Naples. Ton had no idea she caught the couple in the lower left corner in the photo.

We did a couple of driving tours of Naples to get a feel for the city. Naples is an interesting city. It is as chaotic as any city you would find in the world, Ton said the traffic reminds her of Bangkok. The traffic is a free for all, and entertaining to watch if you are not driving. The city itself is grimy but seems full of character. The setting for the city is absolutely beautiful with a large bay with the Amalfi coast in the distance, and Mt. Vesuvius looming over the port. This is a city that no one is going to be neutral on, you are going to love it for its character and in your face attitude, or you are going to hate it for its grime, and lack of discipline. I was a little tempted to extend one more day to spend some time on foot to get a better sense of the city, but Rome is calling.

We had a nice meal with Ginette and Michel, and really enjoyed our day with them. Despite not having a common language we had a good time and learned about each other. As the day went on Michel tried out his limited English, and Ton even began to dredge up some of her college French. We really enjoyed their company and feel like we made some new friends.

Ton really liked this dog water fountain.

October 18, 2019 Amalfi Coast IT

Yesterday was a bucket list item for me, and today was a bucket list item for Ton. Before every trip Ton gives me some places we must see, and we took care of one of them today, visiting the Amalfi Coast.

One of the many stunning views on the Amalfi coast.

The Amalfi Coast is a spectacular 40km stretch of road strung along a peninsula. The road is carved in cliff side, and the views are spectacular. Part of the fun is watching the drivers deal with the hundreds of switchbacks on what is effectively 1 and 3/4 American lanes. RV’s are forbidden which allowed me to enjoy the views and the chaos on the road as a spectator. It was worth every dollar we paid to not be driving.

A relatively straight section of the road, of course we are on the same road looking across at that stretch.

To give an example of Italian driving from today. Our driver did not speak English. At one point we were crossing a bridge and I saw a little village and harbor tucked under the bridge and pointed to get Ton’s attention. Next thing I know the driver pulled over into the on coming lane (there were cars coming), threw the van in reverse, and backed to the middle of the bridge where he parked, turned around and looked at the 5 of us in the back seat and said “Picture”? The five of us looked at each other and said why not? So we got out of the car while cars going in both directions dodged around us and the van. The funny thing is this did not seem to faze any of the Italians in the other cars, vans and busses in the least, they all just shrugged and maneuvered around us like it was perfectly reasonable to stop in the wrong lane of a narrow two lane bridge to snap a few pictures.

Our tour included three towns and a tourist attraction. The first town we saw was Positano which is the jewel of the Amalfi. Steinbeck wrote a short story about it, and it has been featured in several movies. It is a beautiful sea front with the town flowing up the cliffs. Tourism is the main, (possibly only) industry in the town now, but the setting makes it worth dealing with all of the people.

Positano as we are dropping in on the road.

The harbor in Positano with ferries and tour boats coming and going.

The next stop was at a tourist attraction called The Grotto. There were six of us on the tour, two other Americans, and a French couple. None of us were quite sure what we were getting into, but it turned out to be a short tour of a pretty underwater cave.

The light for the Grotto comes from an underwater entrance to the cave. It is natural.

We next stopped at the largest city and the namesake of the Amalfi Coast, Amalfi. In many ways it felt a lot like Positano. A small harbor leading to another town carved from cliffs. Amalfi did have a really beautiful cathedral though we decided to pass on the interior as we are getting a little jaded about cathedrals.

The exterior of the cathedral in Amalfi is really spectacular.

The final town for the day was Ravello which was up in the mountains of the Amalfi away from the sea. It was clearly the most prosperous of the towns, and looked like it dealt with a higher end clientele than the other two towns.

Ravello way up in the mountains of the Amalfi coast.

We enjoyed poking around in a ceramic store with the French couple. At the beginning of the day they were pretty quiet as neither one speaks English. But by the end of the day we had a fun time communicating with them using broken English, broken French, broken Italian, sign language and smiles and laughter. They have been traveling extensively and it is a shame we cannot communicate better as Ton and I would love to talk to them about their travels in Morocco and Greece.

This is the high end ceramic shop in Ravello, some of it’s clients include Mark Rufallo (the Hulk), Steven Tyler (from Aerosmith), Mariano Rivera (NY Yankees), and Rod Stewart (the singer).

October 17, 2019 Pompeii IT

Since we are parked across from the entrance to Pompeii we decided to visit the site. I have always been interested in Pompeii since I read about it when I was a child, so I was excited for the visit. Pompeii was destroyed and buried when Mt. Vesuvius exploded and the ruins were not discovered until the 1700’s.

The archeological site was much larger than I expected. To me one of the interesting things was to see a city layout unchanged from the Roman era. It gave you a real sense of how the Romans lived. It was easy to imagine the flow of commerce and just day to day living of the people. It includes all of the things you expect to see as a tourist including two extremely well preserved theaters, and a coliseum. The temples are not as well preserved as they were either more effected by the volcanic blast from Vesuvius or were stripped down over time.

A public fountain, all of the public fountains had faces on them.

But for me it was seeing the more day to day buildings such as bakeries, baths, taverns, public toilets and even brothels. The different houses from the rich, working class, and the poor were on view.

It was very easy to imagine what life was like in this Roman town. You can see very clear similarities between how people live today, and how they lived back then. You can see how very highly developed things were and how some things are very common to today. As an example the ovens used in the bakeries are almost identical to those used today for Pizza in the local restaurants.

An oven in a bakery that is almost identical to the pizza oven in the restaurant next to the campground. We think the large stone on the left is for grinding grain into flour.

October 16, 2019 Tropea IT

Ton read my account of entering Tropea yesterday and said it sounded a little whiny. Ton thought Tropea was a really beautiful city, and felt I should have spent more time talking about how beautiful the town was, about our fun encounter with a young clerk in a food shop and that the water off shore was a beautiful emerald color. So I apologize to Tropea for not giving it it’s due yesterday.

Another picture of Tropea to make up for my whining.

As usual on these trips we start to panic when we realize that there is more to see than we have time for. Today we are two weeks into the trip, and have a lot more to cover. I had hoped to spend more time in the far south, but we both agreed that there was a lot to do around Naples so we made the decision to have a big travel day up to Naples. It helped that it was our first rainy day of the trip so we headed up the excellent and mostly free Autostrada to Pompeii. Tonight we are parked in the Spartacus Campground across the street from the entrance to the Pompeii archeological site.

The A2 Autostrada in Southern Italy is quite an engineering feat, we must have passed thru more than 50 tunnels from 100 to 2500 meters long.

Since there is not a lot to talk about today I am going to tell one of my favorite stories from Sicily. As we were walking around Sicily we kept seeing these flower pots of a male and female head. The male head looked Arabic, and was often black. We finally dug up the story behind these pots.

These flower pots are all around Sicily.

Once upon a time in Palermo there lived a fair maiden who was extremely beautiful, but she was a loner, and was not interested in suitors. One day a Moorish Prince landed in Palermo, and spotted the fair maiden and fell in love. He boldly entered her home and professed his love. The fair maiden was taken by his forwardness and agreed to allow him to become her lover. One day she asked when he planned to marry her, he then confessed that he must return to Africa tomorrow, and that he had a wife and family at home. The maiden said nothing, but that night she murdered him in her bed, cut his head off and turned it into a flower pot so he would be with her forever. How very Sicilian!

October 15, 2019 Tropea IT

I was worried about the day for some reason. I was 90% sure that I had told Greta Garmin the right ferry terminal, but there are three in Messina, and I did not want to be playing Ferry Terminal roulette in an old Italian city. It turns out I had nothing to worry about as I had put in the right terminal. I think the other reason I was uncomfortable is I have a feeling we did not give Sicily all of the time it deserves. We have not had a bad day on Sicily.

They have an interesting system for selling tickets for the ferry, there is an island in the road with two ticket booths in the middle, but no designated parking, everyone just drives up to the vicinity of the ticket booths, stops their car, and heads over to the ticket booth on foot, once they have their ticket they wind their way thru all of the other randomly “parked” cars, and head on down to the ferry.

It was a short ferry ride over to the boot of Italy. We pulled off the ferry and on to a really nice freeway for the next 60km’s on our way to the resort town of Tropea. We picked it as it seemed like a pretty easy drive if anything went wrong with the ferry. We were also intrigued with some of the pictures of the town in one of our tour books.

The drive was going along pretty uneventfully until we dropped down into Tropea. The road down from the mountains above town was pretty twisty, but we are getting used to that by now. The real problem was once we entered town we were immediately in typical small city roads which are challenging in a RV, then the real problem started. In Italy they have areas called limited traffic zones (ZTL) where cars are forbidden to enter without special passes. The fine for violating these zones is around €100, and they are enforced by cameras. The problem is if you accidentally blunder into one you may pass several cameras before you work your way out of the area, and you get fined each time.

The road we turned down to reach the campground, the sign on top means no campers or trucks. I missed that sign as I was trying to work out how to get out of the center of town.

While I was trying to follow Greta and thread my way down the narrow streets I saw a Limited Traffic Zone sign in front of me. I made a left turn to avoid entering the zone, and hoped it would trigger Greta to find another route that avoided the dreaded zone. She led us out of town on even narrower roads to punish me for not following her original route. We finally emerged on a nice wide highway and I thought problem solved, but suddenly she wanted me to make a right turn onto a road that was on her map. The problem was the road was in a gorge about 50 feet below us, so now we were heading back into town, and sure enough there was another limited traffic zone sign, but I had a place to pull over and sort thru things. As I was looking at the map, I happened to notice that the limited traffic sign had a green sign under it that was flashing a message in Italian, and then a miracle, in English the same sign said Free Access. I took this to mean it was ok to enter the limited traffic zone and did. We were not out of the woods as Greta then told us to turn down the narrowest road yet, a motorcycle behind me honked a warning and I knew that I might be heading into trouble. The road was narrow and the switchbacks were hairpin. Luckily François is short, and most importantly we did not meet anyone coming up. So after quite an adventure we made it to our seaside campground. So I guess my unease was right I just did not realize it would be on the end of the trip.

After I had a beer and did some research on how to avoid a ZTL we walked into Tropea and it is beautiful.

Our campground is just to the left of this 6th century monastery.

October 14, 2019 Taormina IT

Taormina was on Ton’s must see list today. I made a scouting run down to the terminal to discover the best way to Taormina. Option 1 was a hop on hop off bus that gave us use of the tourist bus and the regular bus for €14 each or take a regular bus for €3. We were torn about what to do, and still had not made up our mind when we got to the terminal. We finally chose the regular bus, but after we bought the ticket the cashier who must have heard our debate, asked the Hop on Hop off bus driver to let us ride to Taormina, so we ended up with the best of both worlds. This good samaritan was the same guy who had rebuffed my earlier attempt to ask him about the bus to Taormina in Italian, with a gruff “What do you want?” in English.

Taormina is the town between the two high points of land.

Taormina has been a town since the ancient Greeks, and it is really a spectacular site on a large bluff overlooking the harbor at Giardini-Naxos. We were dropped off at a nondescript bus terminal, but as soon as we began hiking up the road to the town the views were spectacular. As we got closer to the town center we both became more charmed. Despite the fact that Taormina is definitely on the tourist trail, complete with all of the brand name stores lining its main street, it still had a spirit that we both really enjoyed.

The main road in Taormina lined with big brand shops, but still beautiful.

The town meanders up and down hill. The main road is wide and flat, but all of the roads off of it are either up or down and quite narrow, which adds to the atmosphere. Off of the main road the shops were run by locals who were very friendly without being pushy. Ton had picked out two potential restaurants for lunch, but one had gone out of business, and the other was not open. Just down the street was a cheese store that advertised lunch and we were both drawn to it. We went inside to take a look and saw a restaurant in the back. We asked the lady at the counter if they served lunch and she said yes in an hour, would we like a reservation. Something I have learned is that in romance languages my short name “Ron” (in Spanish it means Rum) is perplexing, so when she acted confused about my name I switched it to Ronaldo, she immediately connected the dots and had a good laugh with one of the customers.

Having an hour to kill we decided to head up to the Greek Theater which is the big attraction in town. When we got there it was €10 to get in, and since we have seen a lot of antiquity sites on this trip decided to pass. We still had time to kill so we went to the municipal park and sat down on a park bench to enjoy the views.

The view from our park bench in Taormina.

The lunch at the cheese shop was superb. We opted for a Sicilian food and wine tasting. It consisted of three wines, and a plate of cheeses, meats, and grilled vegetables. We have had a lot of good meals on our trips in Europe, but we both agreed that so far this is the best. The food and wine while simple was fresh and delicious. The service of the husband and wife was great and they enjoyed explaining the food and wine to us. They were clearly proud of their Sicilian heritage and happy to share it with us. At the end neither of us could bring ourselves to leave so we stalled with a coffee, and an aperitif. Ton was tempted to return for dinner, but they were full, though we could tell if we pushed and had some flexibility they would have found a way to accommodate us. We rarely mention places by name but if you are ever in town do not miss La Bottega Del Formaggio.

I really enjoyed this meal much more than my expression shows!

October 13, 2019 Giardini-Naxos IT

Today was a maintenance day mostly. We woke early as we wanted to drive to the US Navy base at Sigonella to take care of laundry and shopping. We covered about 150km’s to the base, and the traffic was Sunday light. Large sections of the freeway we traveled on were under construction or heavy maintenance, and we got a little turned around for awhile, but recovered without too much trouble.

Arriving at the Navy Base we were not sure what the procedure would be to gain access. In Spain it was pretty complicated, in Germany it was as easy as the US, and here it was easy also. In Germany and Spain there were limits on what facilities we could use, but here in Italy we could use everything. All of the chores were taken care of mid-afternoon. Our original plan was to stay somewhere close to the Navy base, but the pickings were slim.

As we were driving down the coast we realized Mount Etna, was having a minor eruption. It turns out it has been putting out ash clouds now for a few days, and it was strong enough on Wednesday that they had to close the main airport for Sicily.

Mt. Etna is having a small eruption, it is venting in two places.

Our plan for tomorrow is to visit a town called Taormina, so as it was early I decided we would head there. It was a short hop up the coast on the freeway, which for the last 20km’s turned into a tollway. I was a little distracted as we came to our exit and blew right by it, so we had to go up one extra exit. At the exit as we pulled into the toll booth I noticed everyone was paying with cash. We panicked as our smallest bill was a €20. The machine coughed up €18 in change with no problems.

Greta Garmin sent us up a national road, but it turned into a driving test as the road was a beautiful seaside road but quite twisty, and with cars parked fairly randomly in one or sometimes both lanes it was a tight squeeze at a couple of points. The good news though was we realized that the Sosta (Italian for Aire) we are using tonight is located quite close to the ocean. If we had taken the right exit we would never have known that.

This is the road you end up on when you miss your exit on the freeway.

After an early dinner Ton proposed we walk on into the town. Giardini-Naxos is a postcard beautiful Mediterranean fishing port town, with incredible views. There was a cruise ship in port, and as the sun set the harvest full moon was rising over the ocean. The walk around the port was pretty romantic. It was a fantastic end to a day that we had low expectations for, and all because I missed an exit on the freeway.

The harbor of Giardini-Naxos with Mt. Etna in the background.

This view is the reward for missing the exit and squeezing thru town.

Ton loves fishing ports, because the views are pretty, and the food is great.

October 12, 2019 Agrigento IT

We finally have a plan for Sicily and it was time to move on from Marsala. It was a short drive to Agrigento for our first stop.

We spent the last two days trying to figure out what these little tubs were for. We finally asked and they are for washing your feet, of course!

We had heard a lot about the poor quality of Italian roads and particularly those on Sicily. The road today was on the whole good, the only problem was I spent the whole trip more or less not knowing what the speed limit was. The road was controlled access most of the way and while it was only two lanes there was very little cross traffic. But the speed limit was a total mystery, sometimes really good stretches were posted at 50kmh, some other stretches were posted at 70, and once in a while we would see a short stretch of 90. Near the end just to add some variety there was an 8 or 10 km stretch posted at 60. The problem was there was no rhyme or reason to the speeds, and the Italians around here are pretty stingy with signs. The Garmin was no help as it seemed to have a different opinion than me and was also frequently different than the signs. You cannot judge by the local drivers as they bomb along at any speed they feel comfortable with, but they know where the speed cameras are. I think it will be a miracle if I do not end up with a ticket somewhere along the line, if I did not get one today, even though I was one of the slowest cars on the road.

The view of the Sicilian countryside from our trip today.

The purpose of todays trip was to visit the Valley of the Temples near Agrigento. The area around here has been an urban site since the Greeks and there is a large area with different versions of mostly Greek temples, with an area of Roman development thrown into the mix. Ton and I counted 8 different temple sites, but we may have missed a couple. The entire Valley is about one and a half miles, and is one of the most extensive archeological sites I have seen.

Part of the remains of the Temple to Hercules.

The highlight of the valley is the Parthenon like Temple of Concorde which dominates the valley. Originally built by the Greeks 2500 years ago it has been repurposed over time as Carthaginian, Roman, and Christian Temples/Churches which is why it has survived in such good shape. Many people say it is in better shape than the Parthenon in Athens.

Another view of the Temple of Concordia, with a broken statue of Icarus in front.

The Valley of Temples is one of the most impressive World Heritage Sites we have visited. For me it was pretty awe inspiring.

October 11, 2019 Marsala IT

Our first full day in Italy was a treat. We were still a little unsettled about our plans for Sicily when we woke up. Marsala is famous for a type of fortified wine and while I was sleeping Ton found a place where we could have a tour. So while I was making coffee she proposed we spend the day here and take the tour. The winery was too far away to walk to, and it required reservations so we had to find out if we could get in and arrange for a taxi to take us there. I went up to the office and asked if they could arrange a taxi, and call the winery for us as we do not have a sim card for Italy in our phone. The owner of the campground said he would take us and the winery could accommodate us at 10am. Since it was already 9:15, I ran back to tell Ton to get ready as we needed to leave in 20 minutes. Giacomo the owner of the campground ran off to change into better clothes and also to quickly give the van from the campground a wash. We arrived at Florio winery with 10 minutes to spare.

Our breakfast today, not healthy but delicious.

Florio Winery was founded in the early 1800’s to produce Marsala. It was the first Marsala Wine producer to be owned by Italians as prior to that the fortified wine industry in Marsala was dominated by English. The Florio family went on to become quite a conglomerate including wine, shipping, agriculture, and light industry. At one time they were by far the richest family on Sicily. They also made their mark by providing some of the original assistance to Garibaldi as he began his campaign to unite Italy into one country. Like many family dynasties the first generation makes all of the money, the second generation maintains the fortune, and the third generation squanders it all. The third generation of the Florio’s ended up selling off the winery to raise cash to pay for their extravagant lifestyle.

A 700 liter wine cask built for an exhibition in San Francisco in 1915. It is still in use today for production of cooking wine.

After we completed the wine tasting we followed the harbor to the old town. Things are scruffier in Sicily, but very charming. We enjoyed walking around town looking at the sites when we realized that our breakfast had been fortified wine. We found a nice restaurant near Garibaldi square. The food was outstanding, and the service was really outstanding. The waiter was a young guy who may have been the son of the owner, and if not acted like he was. At the end we asked for coffee and when we commented on how much we liked it he lit up and told us it was a local coffee and talked us thru the beans and roasting process with great passion.

The Garibaldi Gate near the point where Garibaldi landed with his initial 100 supporters in his successful campaign to unify Italy.

We arranged for Giacomo to pick us up at a local grocery store. After delivering us to François I saw him sitting in a chair near the office having a beer and struck up a conversation. It turns out between driving us to town and picking us up he had spent the day harvesting the olives from the trees around the campground. Talking to him it turns out he had retired from the Italian Army after 20 years and returned home to Marsala to open the campground on part of his fathers farm. He took us around the campground showing us the different plants and herbs he had planted around the campground. It was a treat to spend some time with him.