July 2014 – Page 2 – Martin & Joy's Blog

Herculaneum (Ercolano)

Tue, 22nd July, 2014:

We know we’re in Pompei – a town that got destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. We also know that Vesuvius is an active volcano, and that its activity has been increasing over the last several years and that vulcanologists are suggesting that its next eruption is due, or even overdue. Yet still people flock to Naples to live and to work. It’s not a great city: pretty overcrowded and lots of poverty. No-one seems terribly worried that they’re living on the slopes of an active volcano, or that, when Vesuvius next pops its lid, much of Naples will almost certainly cease to exist.

This morning at around 6:00, it was just light. I was awake, and could hear occasional rumbling in the distance. Joy could hear it, too. And we kept hearing it. I don’t suppose I actually, really believed it could be the stirrings of Vesuvius, but at that time of the morning, and when you’re still half asleep, the mind plays strange tricks. The rumblings got louder, and then the rain started. Up we got to shut all the skylights, and to place the drip collecting bucket (aka washing-up bowl) in position. It was nothing more than a good old thunderstorm. And about time, too: not had one of those for almost 1 full week now.

Despite being in Pompei, we’d decided to do Herculaneum first – it’s a short ride on the Circumvesuvio railway that runs from Sorrento into Naples. Ten stops, ½ hour, and just €1.80 each way got us to Ercolano. It’s not a modern train. It also runs on a smaller-than-standard-gauge track which allows it to get round some pretty tight corners.

Narrow (ish) gauge Circumvesuvio railway

It stopped raining when we got off the train, and the temperature was a very bearable 24 or 25 degrees, albeit somewhat humid. Better than the searing heat one could normally expect in July for trogging round old ruins. The ruins themselves are a revelation: We spent over 4 hours at the site; and that’s despite many of the buildings been closed for either restoration or because of danger to the public.

The whole town disappeared off the face of the planet in 79AD, just 17 years after a major earthquake had caused major damage in 62AD. It was buried under (get this) 23 metres of ash, dust & pumice from the pyroclastic flow. Much of the town was still undergoing renovations from the earthquake when the eruption occurred.

The bottom of the town used to be on the shoreline, and there are a number of vaulted rooms for warehouses and boat storage, right there where the top of the beach used to be. These are where many of the poor townsfolk took shelter from the eruption, and whose skeletons and some personal belongings are still there, having been partially excavated from the ash. There is a 23 m high wall now, on what used to be the beach, where they have excavated down to the original level, so it seems a bit odd talking about a beach when there’s an 80 foot tall wall where the sea should be The sea today, is about another mile further out, the land level having risen so much during the eruption.

The buildings give a fascinating insight as to how these people lived, with many of the bigger (i.e. wealthier) houses having wonderful mosaics and frescos, many of which have been remarkably well-preserved. How the archaeologists manage to determine what the various rooms were and how they were used is amazing. However, there were many, many artefacts that were perfectly preserved, including documents, materials, timbers, personal possessions, (almost all of which have been removed to the archaeological museum of Naples, which we won’t have time to visit), allowing sometimes even the owner of the house at the time of the eruption to be identified by name.

I have loads of photos, and not enough internet bandwidth to post them now. I’ll try to set up a photo gallery when I get a better connection.

Tomorrow, the ruins at Pompei. Will my duff knee take another day of this?…

Pompei

Mon, 21^st July, 2014

We’ve arrived in Pompei! This is very exciting because – although I’d often talked about coming here – I never really believed we’d make it.

It was sad to leave Parco del Gargano: It was such a wonderful, friendly site, I could have happily stayed there much, much longer. But time waits for no man (or woman) and we have to be back at our daughter’s house near Stuttgart by the 28^th July; in time for our eldest grand-daughter’s 5^th birthday.

Also, we’d been practically eaten alive. The bugs & biting beasties must have been bred specially for us. And astonishingly, the shops don’t seem to major in insect repellents & bite-easing lotions & potions. I stopped counting at over thirty bites on various bits of my anatomy: some where they had absolutely no right to be.

We were woken (still in Gargano) in the wee small hours by what sounded like rain. Bugger! We’d jury-rigged a washing line between the awning uprights/legs, from which were dangling all of our towels, mountain bike shorts and other bits. Also, our bikes were outside, plus table & chairs. The awning is not supposed to be rolled away wet either (obviously its use would be completely impractical back home, then!). It was a hot night, too. The hottest yet, so all our windows & skylights were wide open.

When it rains, being in the van is not unlike being in a tent. I.e. it’s noisy. A few drops of rain, and it sounds like a monsoon. Trouble is, we still think it IS raining like a monsoon. We were both out of bed and running around outside at 06:00 taking the towels in, winding-up the awning, bringing in the table & chairs with just the occasional raindrop putting in an appearance. What is wasn’t doing in wetness though, was being more than made up for in pine needles. I kid you not: It was raining pine needles. Heavily. Ok, it was very windy up in the treetops, and the dead pine needles were being dislodged. Either that, or the squirrels & crickets have managed to collude and invent a new game.

Pine needle rain is not all that much fun. It hurts. Honestly. Especially when being driven by a force 6 wind. Everything was covered in pine needles. This evening, in Pompeii, I’m still brushing bloody pine needles from places where there shouldn’t be any such thing. The awning was full of them. No time to try to dislodge them. They lay like snow on the windscreen wipers. A Dutch family had unwisely chosen this period to move their tent 10 metres to a more favourable location adjacent to our van, just vacated by another Dutch family (most people at the campsite were Dutch; followed by Italians & Belgians. We were the only brits). This was a big tactical mistake. In the 25 minutes it took them to beat the groundsheet into submission in the strong breeze, it had disappeared under pine needles and the rain came down proper. They then abandoned their relocation activities and took up temporary residence of the open-sided, timber yoga hut. For all I know, they may still be there.

The drive from the Gargano promontory was made difficult by the gusty cross-wind. The van is a bit rolly at the best of times. There were a few scary moments of veering right across the lane, but we made it in one piece.

Look at the map of Italy, and it only looks like a stone’s throw from Gargano to Naples. Believe me; it isn’t. Italy is surprisingly BIG. And our van is surprisingly SLOW. It was just over 320km to Pompei, and the exciting bit driving-wise, was getting to Pompei itself. We’ve seen some “interesting” examples of Italian driving, mostly involving blind bends and overtaking, but Pompei drivers took it to a different level altogether. I may have mentioned that the van is somewhat ponderous: You can sometimes write an essay between hitting the accelerator and it heaving itself into motion. Italian drivers seem not to have a great deal of patience. Whilst I was trying to turn left out of a tiny road onto a busy street (only our SatNav could have brought us this way), I must have taken more than 5 seconds to pull out – which would have been impossible anyway. There was a thunderous roar of horns being sounded behind. For me? The car behind decided to pull out and overtake me – completely filling the wrong side of the road – just as another car was turning into our road. That was fun. He made it without any accident, and everyone seemed to accept that it’s perfectly ok to pull out in front of other cars.

The campsite here took some finding. It involved impossibly narrow streets; a yet-again errant SatNav; going the wrong way up a one-way street (if they can do it, so can I!); finding ourselves at the wrong entrance to the Pompei ruins at the end of a cul-de-sac exactly where the campsite wasn’t; getting some directions from the entrance gatekeeper who spoke remarkably good English; retracing our route back down the one-way street (the right way, this time); and eventually arriving at the chosen campsite by the main entrance to the ruins.

The campsite is everything a campsite shouldn’t be. It’s noisy; from the adjacent “round-Vesuvius” (Circumvesuvio) railway line; the enormous group of Californian students 15 metres away watching an Indiana Jones movie – outdoors, if you please; and thoughtless people dumping glass bottles into the recycling bin close by. But we’re not here for the campsite. Tomorrow, we’re on to the train to Herculaneum (“Ercolano”, as the Italians renamed it relatively recently) and the museum.

BTW, the weather is perfect: it’s rained really heavily in Pompei this evening so it’s wonderfully cool right now, and the forecast for tomorrow is for just 24 degrees with a chance of a storm. I was worried we’d get toasted in the blistering heat. I have bought (yet another) umbrella!

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More about Gargano

Yes we are still here as it is a lovely place to be.

I am not able to put in photos in the way Martin can, so my posts may not have the same attractive feel to them!

Another uphill cycle ride to Vico del Gargano this morning, but this time we set off at 9am not 11am so it was much cooler. I only had one short “walk uphill with my bike” this time so perhaps I am getting a bit fitter? I took my mind off the exertion and the heat of pushing my bike by eating the ripe blackberries in the hedgerows. Yum Yum.

I plucked up courage to ask the way to the post office and was able to understand the reply which was the directions and also that it was closed as it is Saturday. I ventured into a tobacconist shop knowing that this is where you can buy stamps in France, and bingo! I exited with the stamps I required.

Unfortunately I have developed prickly heat rash so lying in the sun today was a no-no for me, so I spent quite a bit of time in the pool keeping cool. Oh it is hard life!

Parco del Gargano

I think I may have found my spiritual home here in Parco del Gargano.

We’re about 380m above sea level, overlooking the Adriatic. We haven’t had a thunderstorm here, and it’s not rained. In fact, the weather was fabulous today (Wed, 16th) without being too hot. The view from the pool is amazing, with the Adriatic sea disappearing into the haze below us.

Gargano is “the bit that sticks out from mainland Italy”; probably where the ankle would be if Sicily were the foot. I believe that most of Gargano is a National Park (or nature reserve) with exceptionally diverse habitats.

I thought it would be flat. Wrong! The highest peaks here are around 900m (almost 3000 feet) above sea level, and it reaches that height in just 6km from sea level. So it’s pretty damned steep. Our motorhome has a 5-speed, automatic gearbox. There was no way it was going to use anything higher than 3rd gear on the main road coming up here.

I’m sure the crickets, high up in the trees, do a sort of Mexican wave. It can be eerily silent, then one cricket starts up. Followed by another, then another, and so on until you can hear almost nothing else. This goes on for 20 minutes or so, at which time they start to peter out until the very last one winds down to a stop. Sounds like a couple of pieces of rough, damp cork being rubbed together, albeit a strangely comforting background noise.

Crickets video/sound clip – turn the sound up & listen closely! (Beware, it’s over 38MBy)

Update – 18th & 19th July:
Vico del Gargano is the nearest town; about 50 mins away by bike, all of it uphill. I know, because we did it yesterday (17th).

It was market day and the place was absolutely buzzing. There’s a kind of roundabout coming into the town, I say “kind of”: it actually seems to be more of a decoration, being constructed out of cobbles with intricate patterns within (where the cobbles haven’t broken-out, that is). There seems to be no sense of discipline at this roundabout and negotiating it via whatever means requires nerves of steel & 360 degree vision. To add to the confusion, there’s also a petrol station with 2 pumps within the roundabout, and when we where there yesterday (about midday), there was a refuelling tanker there to add to the chaos. Wonderful.

“The roundabout”. Not as busy as it was the other day!

The market seems to be THE place to buy stuff. Forget supermarkets (at least the Italian versions); everyone does the weekly shopping at the market. We managed to buy 2 melons, a load of small courgettes, and a bag of new potatoes for €2.50. You don’t get melons like these in Tesco.

Get yer melons here! We did; two canteloupes for €1

On the subject of food, Italian bread is NOT to die for. It’s dire. Tasteless, and – unless eaten within 30 minutes of being baked – rock hard and liable to remove the skin from the roof of your mouth. On the other hand, bags of strong flour and fresh yeast are readily available in the shops, so Joy has taken to baking our own. Smells just like pizza dough when its in the oven, and tastes a whole lot better than the “pane” (pronounced paa-ne) you would buy. This has made the purchase & installation of an oven in the motorhome fully justifiable!

Co-incidentally with the market, or possibly in conjunction with it, is the festival of the “Fallen Madonna with the big boobies”. Oh sorry – that was ‘allo, ‘allo. This was the festival of the “Madonna del Carmine”. I must admit, I’ve never heard of her, but she must have been a pretty big noise around these parts as she warrants a 4-day long festival in Vico del Gargano.

We missed the processions; we first heard, then saw the fireworks last night from the campsite (we actually thought it was blasting in a nearby quarry, or military artillery practice. Whatever, it wasn’t very restful.), and – sadly – only caught the last 5 minutes of a performance by the Grande Orchestra di Fiata “G. Ligonzo”. They were very, very good.

Unfortunately, it was now midday and – like everything else – they shut up shop, so we didn’t get to hear much of their performance.

I’m writing this update now on Fri 18. Trouble is, I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to upload it to the blog: the internet connection here is truly useless. Apparently, there’s supposed to be a WiFi hotspot up by the bar. It seems to work within a 2 metre radius of the bar itself. Whilst it’s easy enough to connect to their WiFi point within this range, the onward connection to the internet is the real problem. Far worse even than dial-up modem speeds back home (if that still exists). Sometimes, it’s less than 1Kbps, so trying to upload photos is a frustrating waste of time – even after I’ve doctored them to reduce the file size. So you may end up reading this with the photo placeholders still in place, I’m afraid. (PS: 19/7/14: managed to get the photos uploaded & linked. Yay!)

The motorhome itself has been behaving admirably (apart from the obviously obscene amount of fuel it uses). I can happily confirm that the skylight doesn’t leak when it doesn’t rain. Which it hasn’t done for four days now. However, I think our fresh water tank may now be slightly less than fully watertight, judging from the damp patch on our best Axminster. This was discovered after making 10 or so 100 metre round trips to the nearest water tap to fill our 5 litre container which, in turn, I then poured into our fresh water tank. Whilst this is a really great campsite, it – once again – is not terribly-
well thought-out for motorhomes. None of the taps are within a 20 metre hose length of anywhere we can get the van – not that we can move the van at a moment’s notice. Hence the multiple trips on foot. All helps the fitness levels. But the best shag-pile is still ominously moist.

Stars, bats, sheep, goats, horses & wild boar:

There’s very little light pollution here. When you look at the night sky, you see stars. millions of them. In fact, the view of them is masked only by trees and bats. You never hear the bats, but when you look up at night, they’re constantly flitting between the trees, sometimes within a few metres of your head.They often leave you wondering if you really DID see something just then.

Being somewhat of an eco campsite, they keep a variety of animals here, including half a dozen or so cats & kittens and a 3 week old terrapin in a glass bowl with its own (plastic) palm tree!

There is also a white stallion & a shetland pony to keep it company. There is also a small flock of sheep and 3 goats; these seem to have the run of the campsite and – despite the reputation of goats for eating practically anything – none of our clothes or other belongings have disappeared (yet). But if they do, we’ll have a pretty good idea of who the culprits are.

I don’t get it: there are loads of bushes lower down1

I don’t get it: there are loads of bushes lower down

Allegedly, there’s a wild board kept here too, though (I’m probably glad to say) I haven’t come face-to-face with it yet.

An oasis in the hills of Gargano

Now in Promontorio del Gargano. I didn’t know this bit of Italy existed! It is a beautiful area with a large part of it being a national park. It is hilly – a lot of Italy is mountainous we have found. The coastline has 2 large lagoons.

The camp site is up in the hills somewhere near Vico del Gargano. We are not sure where we are exactly as the road was twisty and narrow and we just followed the instructions we had from the website! However that matters not as this is a little oasis of calm and relaxation. A beautiful pool which overlooks the coastline,

hammocks and comfortable chairs in the shade and even an outside double bed for a midday nap when the sun is too hot! Camping is very informal here – choose your spot in the woodlands and set up camp. No regimented marked out plots here – take note Camping and Caravanning club uk. The downside of this is that the best spots were already taken. But we eventually found a shady glen big enough to take our monster van.

We are very comfortable …..now did we have a plan to go to Pompei?…..

Thunder storms, rain & biting insects

We travelled over the hills from our overnight stop in St Giovanni Incarico to the Adriatic coast. The scenery was yet again awesome. As we went east it looked more dry and arid and the temperature rose. “It probably doesn’t rain so much here” I said. That was on Saturday. Sunday brought thunderstorms and heavy rain, which cleared by 4pm so hurrah! – we headed for the pool. Lovely! Today, more thunder and light rain and feels cool at 21 degrees C.

Unfortunately the stormy weather doesn’t deter the biting insects here in our woody glen – 20 bites and still counting!

Did a couple of bike rides today as we were in need of a bank machine & few provisions. First bank machine didn’t like our card and we couldn’t find the supermarket…

Returned to campsite and had a chat with Christiana at the reception, who was lovely and gave us some helpful information about the whereabouts of another bank machine and supermarket in the town of Fossacesia.

Set off again in late afternoon and made the long climb up to Fossacesia, hoping the black clouds were not coming our way. First bank machine was out of order, and we were beginning to get a little worried. Thankfully the second bank machine accepted our card. A happy hour was then spent in the supermarket trying to find the essentials we needed. The lady at the delicatessen counter was very patient with my attempts to speak Italian but we laughed and gesticulated and I bought two types of cheese, one of which she assured me was “moo cow” – but I’m sure they will taste good! I wish I could speak Italian though – it’s frustrating and embarrassing being unable to communicate.

Moving on again tomorrow…

Torino di Sangro

Sat – Tue, Jul 12-15.

We arrived at a campsite in Torino di Sangro after a really great scenic drive over the mountains (I never realised just how mountainous Italy is). We’re on the adriatic coast. Yea! The campsite is on the side of a really steep hill. The van struggled to make it up the “road” to camping area.

The campsite had a few people staying; practically all Italians but for one Dutch couple, but almost everyone had left by Sunday night. A really nice campsite, whose glory days were probably 35 years ago. “Rustic” would be a good description. We had mainly crickets, ciccadas, and small lizards for company.

Our spot in the shade (of the thunderstorms)

It was a really lad-back site: what it lacked in facilities, it made up in character. The staff could not have been more helpful, extending the hospitality to shuttling my windsurfing kit down to the beach & back (but it wasn’t windy), and out to the shops to get supplies (graciously declined as we needed to set out to find a bank machine anyway – they didn’t offer to pay everything for us).

The site was mostly bungalows / mobile homes – almost all of which, as I mentioned, were empty & a bit neglected-looking. But… Apparently, the site is completely booked out after the 19th July and for the whole of August.

Also strange were some of the small rental “bungalows”: These are like tiny, cylindrical hermit/hobbit homes, barely large enough for one person. I’d have looked to take a peek inside one but they were all locked up.

One of the roundhouses / hermit bungalows

The bougainvillea added great touches of colour, as did the grassed sun terrace. Good pool, too.

We set off on our bikes 3 or 4 km into Fossacesia Marina where there was a bank machine. No bank; just a small building housing an ATM. Insert your card to gain access. It was air-conditioned inside. Delicious. I stuck my card in, entered my PIN & it regurgitated it. I tried again. Same result. Oh well, let’s live without money for another day. We had enough to buy a beer at the bar.

Monday, 15th:
Cycled in Fossecesia itself – which is not on the coast. I may have mentioned that Italy is mountainous? Well Fossecesia is not up a mountain, but it was a serious climb up to it all the same. We’d been reliably informed that there was not one, but two bank machines in the town. And a supermarket. Yay! Money & food!

Glad there were 2 bank machines; the 1st one didn’t work. Seems to be a theme developing?

Italian supermarkets. Since we’ve been in Italy, we’ve been on the lookout for the elusive Carrefour/LeClerc type of place. One where you can go in and buy everything you might ever want. Thus far, we’ve failed to locate such a thing. Italian supermarkets are like a small Tesco Express, but less well organised. However, and unlike Tesco Express, they all have a fresh meat and cheese counter which in turn has led to some interesting broken conversations and sign-language. But the range of products is very narrow. We’ve not been able to buy washing line (got forgotten about in our hasty departure), nor matches, nor one of those long-nosed gas lighter thingy’s for lighting the cooker. In fact, it seems that supermarkets aren’t allowed to sell cigarettes or associated items. Shopping, therefore, is very time-consuming. There’s also only so much you can carry in a rucksack when you’re on your bike. Also, finding a supermarket with a car park is a challenge. This makes it difficult for us to park anywhere close by with such a big vehicle.

So on Tue, we departed for pastures new, keeping our eyes peeled for the elusive supermarket. We found one in Vasto, and found a big enough parking place within 100m. We weren’t sure if we were legally parked, so I volunteered to stay with the van whilst Joy did the shopping. Success.

Now, further S down to Gargano…

Area Verde Puntolago – San Giovanni di Incarico

Having had 3 or 4 days of no, or very poor, internet connection, I’ll try to do a catchup…

Fri, 11/7/14
I’d said in a previous post that we’d stayed overnight SE of Rome (where we got hit by thunderstorms!)… We have this app on our smartphones called “ProMobile”. It’s a German app that’s a guide to all of the free or low-cost “Stellplaetze” (“aires” in French; “sostas” in Italian; no equivalent and mostly illegal in the UK) across Europe. These are places where you can park a motorhome overnight, or for a couple of nights usually. ProMobile is a fantastic resource that’s supplemented by the feedback from previous visitors. The only drawback is that it requires an internet connection to allow you to do searches.

So we found this Sosta on ProMobile: I liked the sound of it because the description of it included mention of an “uriges” (ancient) restaurant on site. It was off the beaten track, and on a small lake.

The access was down a steep, narrow track. Being (mis)led once again by our SatNav, we started to get suspicious when it suggested we drive into and across the lake. I always get slight panicky on such narrow tracks as there’s no way of turning the van around; it’s just too big. So as we were heading off into the wilderness, we could see this figure on the other side of the lake frantically waving to us and beckoning us back again. Great, we’d obviously missed the turn.

I did manage to turn the van around by going only a couple of hundred metres further along the track and then doing a seventeen point turn in the entrance to a field.

Very enthusiastic owner of the land and restaurant – very pedantically guided us inch by inch to the best spot (we were the only campers there). He spoke a few words of English, we still speak practically no Italian (shame!). Within a couple of minutes, his expressive abilities and broken English had told us that he had bought the land & the restaurant having previously been a dentist. He runs the place (restaurant, Stellplatze and lake) out of love. It certainly can’t be for money as he gets very little trade, which is a great shame for him. He blames the economy – which is still poor in Italy right now. He has 3 dogs & two horses which – although the horses wear rope tethers – are not actually tethered to anything, but are free to roam around eating whatever they can get their mouths on.

We decided to eat chez-host. There was no menu. With gesticulations and a mixture of broken English & Italian, we managed to negotiate a vegetarian meal for Joy, and a less-than-veggie meal for me. The giant BBQ was fired-up and dinner was on the way. Accompanied by a thunderstorm.

Next morning, one of the dogs decided it wanted to come with us.

We would have loved to have obliged, but felt the owner (whose name we never learned) might have been upset.

Are we jinxed?

I really can’t figure out what’s going on with the weather: wherever we’ve been, we always seem to be subjected to thunderstorms. Whilst we didn’t get hit by one at Lake Garda, we could see them all around. When we were in the Appennines, we had several – plus heavy rain & a serious temperature drop before we left. In fact, it was the main reason for leaving to head South – the forecast being so unsettled.

We made an overnight stop SE of Rome. There was a thunderstorm, though we didn’t get wet.

We’re now on the adriatic coast at Torino di Sangro; SE of Pescara – where the sun always shines. I’m writing this in a thunderstorm. It’s not exactly teeming it down with rain, but it IS raining. OTOH, the temp is around 25 degrees so it’s not all bad! However, we DO need to cycle up to Fossecesia where – I have been led to believe – there is a bank cash machine and some shops; both of which are fairly urgently needed. And it’s raining.

It is allegedly supposed to improve from tomorrow. Bring it on!