Sunday, 25 September 2011: Canne, France
We decided to drive to Pisa, so are just following the motorway along the remainder of the coast of Spain and France, stopping for the night in a truckstop along the way.
Monday, 26 September 2011: Pisa, Italy
The minute you get to Italy everything changes. Not sure where people learnt to drive, but it is beyond description and there is rubbish everywhere, so unsure if there are any rubbish collections. We follow the GPS to an aire in Pisa, but can’t find it and the roads are fairly narrow and the drivers are just so in your face, we park near the garage and walk into the main square to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This actually does lean quite a lot. For some reason, I thought it was all about camera angles. The square is also teeming with tourists. We spend some time wandering around looking at some of the other buildings which are also beautiful in their own rights.
We head to Carrefor for some shopping and the worlds slowest checkout chick before driving off to a place called Cecina along the coast outside of Pisa and an aire which turned out to have no facilities but you had to pay. We were too knackered to argue the point and stayed.
Tuesday, 27 September 2011: Rome, Italy
We have decided at the last minute to head to Rome and find a campsite with a free shuttle to the train, so head to Happy Camping. We arrive, but it is late, so we go for a swim and chill out. Of course the drive in brought us past many ladies of the night again working during the day. Not sure what it says about the countries economic woes when the streets are lined with prostitutes.
Wednesday, 28 September 2011: Rome, Italy
Up early and onto the shuttle bus to the train station. We buy an all day train ticket which lets you use all public transport and head off to Rome. We get off the train and onto the underground for St Peters. There is a huge queue, so we decide to just walk around St Peters Square. It is Wednesday and the Pope does a group thingo in the square at 11am. We walk in through minimal security and then score a spot right near where he came past in his pope mobile. Not sure why all the queues were on the other side. Anyway, there isn’t that many people there and we listen to the first bit and decide to wander to the Sistine Chapel. There are loads of touts out front saying they can help you beat the queues to get in etc, however, there was no queue, so we paid our money, went through many many corridors full of relics, art etc (if the church sold off one room I am sure it would solve world poverty and if I ever hear anyone bleat on about the church needing money they need to come here and see the extraordinary show of wealth that surrounds Vatican City). Of course as soon as we get to the Sistine Chapel you can’t take photos and it is packed. Strangely it was a tad disappointing. I thought it would be breathtaking, but it wasn’t. I am not saying it isn’t a good painting, but I just had something else in my head.
We continued following the queues like lambs to the slaughter and eventually made it outside and found a small pizzeria for an early lunch.
Next up is the rest of Rome. So we fill up on water and head off towards the Coliseum. We have elected to walk where possible or take the metro and not do the bus tour thing as you just whizz buy and then spend the rest of the time queuing up for the bus again.
The Coliseum is amazing – this was breathtaking. It is huge and still relatively intact in parts. Plus the surrounding roman ruins are just fantastic, although a lot of things are ruins or just in a jumble on the ground, you can still get a sense for the size and modernity of Rome. We then walk around to where the chariot races used to be held which unfortunately is now just a field with no signs or anything. Obviously the focus is on the rest of the roman ruins. We meander through the streets, it seems like every turn is something new and interesting.
We head towards the Pantheon, which again is huge and even better, free to go inside. Of course the crowds inside and outside are huge, but it is still interesting and aweinspiring to be here. We walk up one of the alleyways and grab a slice of pizza and continue on through the streets until we are shattered and can’t walk any further. We head back to the train station and get the train/bus back to the campsite exhausted but I have to say, I loved Rome. People are friendly, no hassles and easy to get around.
Thursday, 29 September 2011: Pompei, Italy
Up and off again today. We are heading to Pompei, so drive out of Rome and through some very narrow streets and the GPS sends us down a road where we find out the bridge is only 3m high, now considering Vinnie is 3.5m high we didn’t think we would make it, but Scott thought we may as well give it a go as there was literally no way of turning around so we gingerly headed off, obviously some of the locals thought we weren’t going to make it either and watched in surprise as we made it through the other side – yeah.
We arrived at Camping Zeus and parked the van. This is right outside the front of the ruins and has a restaurant which we use and have yet more pizza. Loving the pizza in Italy so far, so many different vegetarian flavours.
Refueld we head into the ruins. Not sure what I was expecting, something like Macchu Picchu, but this wasn’t it. The ruins themselves seem to be full of modern day rubbish, concrete, gravel and various other things that have just been left where they have been put. I am also dubious about the sheer amount of renovation or restoration work. Other than a million bus loads of tour groups everywhere you look, there just seemed so little left that you would call original or authentic. Oh and if you get the map from the front office, it doesn’t line up with the streets or the buildings that are actually inside. However, it takes a few hours to wander through the maze of streets and you can only imagine how modern this city was and how quickly things finished. We were disappointed.
Friday, 30 September 2011: Pompei, Italy
We are staying in the campsite for an extra day as it is in a nice spot and we wander through another part of Pompeii which turned out to just be tourist oriented stalls and shops and restaurants.