Europe trip 2019. Fourth stop: Italy - Part I

ITALY

26 August 2019 (continued)

ITALY BABY. It’s only a couple of hours to drive to the border and to our sleeping place for the night. We have chosen a spot from our camping book. On the map it looks like there are good roads and it will be an easy drive. In reality our TomTom takes us on what feels like a super random route. It’s an 80km per hour road going through these ghetto looking villages. Not the best first impression of Italy I have to say.

After an hour and at least 30 roundabouts, we make it to our camp spot for the night. It’s in a really small village called San Vito Al Tagliamento. The municipal has made an enclosed parking lot for campers with electricity points, garbage bins and a sewage and grey water dumping station. To stay there it costs EUR 5 per night. I wish more towns would follow this example and have these excellent facilities.

When we arrive the president of the municipal is there with his camper also and he was super excited to see campers (other than Italians) were finding the camp spot. He gave us some tips on good restaurants and gelato in town. That was really sweet, but I had dinner already made and we had the cream cakes from Bled as desert. But I am planning on having so much gelato while we’re in Italy. And pizza! And olives. And pasta. And .........

While we set the camping chairs and table up I notice this place is infested with mosquitoes. I must have sweet blood because they love me. But I don't reciprocate this love at all. Especially not the tiger mosquitoes like these ones. I only have to stand still for one second and I have multiple on my leg. We have been very lucky up until now because Austria and Slovenia didn’t have them. I really hope this is not what is awaiting us for the next 3 weeks because I will go crazy.

With our legs, feet and arms soaking in DEET we can have a peaceful dinner outside. The sun is setting,  but it is really warm still. While we catch up on each others adventures from the past couple days, I think about how happy I am to be here, on this adventure. To be able to do this and share it with Rhys  it is so special. I remember a rainy day last year in winter, I was driving to work. I was really jealous of two colleagues who had left recently and were now traveling. That is what I wanted! I realised that morning on my way to work that nothing was stopping me and I should try and make it happen for myself. Many  months and so many preparations later, here I was. Living my dream!

27 August 2019

It stayed warm all evening and night, turning the van into a little sauna. We have a blower that we can put on if we have power that will bring some relief to the sweaty temperature. I don’t mind the heat too much though, it is all part of our temporarily camping life and this amazing Europe adventure.

Before we could get to sleep last night we had to chase the mosquito's that had found their way into the van. I had bought one of those electric fly swatters in the shape of a small tennis racket. The upside of this device is that you can catch the mosquito's while they fly and so you don’t have to wait until they go sit somewhere. Best 2 euro's I have ever spent.

We wake up to a bright blue sky. I am loving it, especially after the grey and rainy days in Slovenia. While Rhys makes breakfast I walk over to the Aldi, which is right behind our camping spot. It was supposed to be a quick shopping trip for some water and bits and pieces. But this Aldi is amazing, so many good and delicious Italian products.

In no time I have filled my shopping trolley with pasta sauces, olives, capers, cheese, bread, olive oil, fruit, bread sticks. Anything that looks good disappears in my trolley. By the time I finally make it back to the van, the porridge Rhys made is cold.

What a great start of the day. After the weird roads and mosquito's my love for Italy had gotten a little less, but my morning shopping spree made up for all that.  

After breakfast we set off to lago di garda. Rhys has to work again tomorrow afternoon, so for today we have planned to take it easy, relax and enjoy the lake. In Sirmione, a place all the way at the south end of the lake, we find a nice camp spot. Its right on the lake side and since we arrive early in the afternoon we find ourselves a nice spot.

The afternoon is spent by the lake. We go swimming and are surprised the water is really warm. Also it stays shallow for ages and ages. The rest of the time we chill, read our books and just enjoy this beautiful place.

In the evening we cook Mexican and decide that somehow our cooking is better in the van than it is at home. Not sure if it’s the Italian products and produce or because we have more time and put in more effort, but we are loving our dinner creations. Its again a lovely evening.

28 August 2019

In the afternoon we have to be in Misano Adriatico , where the motoGP test is held. Its on the east coast of Italy and we have booked a campground near the track for three nights. I have been looking forward to going to this campground as it is right on the beach and has a pool. It should be easy for me to pass the next 3 days here.

Maybe my expectations were a little bit too high, because arriving at the campground it is one disappointment after another. It starts with checking in, where our reservation is ‘lost' (luckily there was still plenty of room) and we have to hand over our ID's like a bunch of criminals. We will not get them back until we check out and have paid for our stay. So much for trusting your guests or at least making them feel welcome.

After checking in an employee guides us to a spot. He wants us in a small pitch, even though we have asked for a medium sized one. With three quarters of the campground empty the employee tells us there are no medium sized pitches available. He should be a professional poker player, trying to sell this lie with a perfectly straight face. No matter what we try, he wants us in the small pitch. A medium pitch is more expensive, so why he doesn’t want to sell us one is beyond me. So a small pitch it is.

The ‘pitch drama’s doesn’t end there unfortunately. Where normally a campground has square pitches, this one has a layout made of grass stretches and you are parked side to side instead of back to back. He parks us next to a permanent caravan from an older Italian couple. Their opening faces one way and ours another, but the side of our van is literally 30 cm from the side of their caravan. So for the next three days we can enjoy their conversation, their television programs etc while and they can enjoy ours. Its the stupidest layout of a campground I have ever seen.

I don’t want to battle this man anymore, for some reason he has a hate on and we don’t seem to have much luck with him. We'll park here for now and try again later to move the van to a spot with a little more privacy. After all, the campground is over half empty so I don’t see why this shouldn’t be possible.

You can imagine I was less than amused at this point. This didn’t get any better when we settle in we notice the grass stretches aren’t level at all. In an attempt to get the van level Rhys parks it on the leveling blocks. But this isn’t enough. He has to jack up the van to make it level. To step in and out the van is now such a high step that it feels like a Pilates exercise you normally do in the gym to strengthen your leg muscles.

The icing on the cake is when I go to use the toilet facilities and find out the toilets have no toilet seat, no toilet paper and no soap to wash your hands. What is wrong with this campground / Italians? This campground cost 44 euros a night. 44 euros!!!! Most expensive campground we have ever stayed at. Also the shittiest.

My mood unfortunately didn't get better in the afternoon. When Rhys is at work, I check our bank account and find out the guy we have subletted our apartment to hasn’t paid the rent. It was due on the 27th, so he is already a day late. This was my biggest concern when we decided to sublet it. But we would miss out on too much money not subletting it. The real estate agent had also convinced me that only in very rare occasions the subletter didn’t pay. Would be just our luck that we are this ‘rare occasion’.

I email the real estate agent straight away so they can get on the job of chasing the money. This doesn’t take this feeling of worry away though. This is all I can do for this moment, so I try and make the most of the afternoon. 

I am really curious what the beach is like here, so I change into my bikini and wander down. Its a nice beach with kilometers and kilometers of sun beds and parasols you can hire. I walk over to the life guard and ask him how it works if you just want to lay on the beach instead of paying for a sun bed. He cracks up by my question and asks where I am from. ‘Holland of course’ is what I answer. Somehow he heard ‘London' and I don’t have the heart to correct him. No need to give Dutch a worse reputation for being  cheap then we already have. Let this man think people from London are also cheap. At least then we aren’t the only ones.

Roberto the lifeguard is exactly what you expect from an Italian man, he is a charmer from hell. He has no problem explaining me the beach rules. He also gives some tips for places to visit in Italy. Then has to get back to his post and I walk over to the section on the beach where you are allowed to lay with your towel without having to pay. 

I have just been for a swim and back at my towel when I receive a message from the subletter. He explained why he hadn’t paid yet and promised to pay tomorrow. My mind is a little bit more at ease now I know why he hasn’t paid yet. I can go back to reading my book and enjoying this place as it should: happy and worry free.

My improved mood is only short lived when I walk back to the campground and find out the campground pool is ‘out of order'.  Sure why not, it fits the bill with all the other disappointments so far.

I was so ready for a quiet and relaxing evening.  However, the universe had different plans. While Rhys and I are chilling in the van having our chamomile tea,  his cup somehow fell and hot tea spills on my foot and soaks the bed. The water was still so hot that it burned my foot. I quickly run to the toilet block to cool my foot while Rhys tries to contain the damage and dry out the duvet, the van cushions etc.

I am so ready for a new day! Let’s hope tomorrow will be better.

29 August 2019

Rhys leaves for work early in the morning. But not before asking at the reception if we can move the van to a different spot. I think pulling teeth from a stranger on the street would have been easier than it is for the campground staff to honor our request. The result is that we are staying put and I will forever have my hate on for this place.

I use the morning to do some ‘van chores' and do a hand wash. Its good this place was already ruined for me, otherwise it would have been after the encounter I had with an elderly Italian couple. My Italian is not so good, but what I made of it is that, according to them, I was using the wrong sink to get water for my hand wash. Judging their reaction it was like I had said that their Pope is stupid. I tried to explain I didn’t speak Italian, but that didn’t stop them from verbally attacking me. I should have just walked away, but I didn’t want to be rude. Which doesn’t make sense because they were extremely rude to me, even mimicking me! An elderly woman from around 75 years old! What is wrong with people? I always thought old people were respectful and nice. Even now that I write about it I get angry again and wish I had just given the couple an imaginary finger and walked away. Next time. Although I really hope there won't be a next time.

It was a message from the subletter that cheered me back up. He had transferred the money. Yay!  At least that was sorted out.

After lunch, when the rest of Italy has a siesta because it is too hot to do anything else, I decide this would be a good time to do grocery shopping. There is a Lidl about 5 km from the campground where I cycle to. It’s not far, but when I arrive at the Lidl I conclude that Italian roads and Italian drivers are not made for cyclists. There are hardly any cycle lanes and cars are going way too fast. Plus it’s just too hot to be cycling right now. When in Italy, do as the Italians. I should be at the beach right now having a swim or reading my book and having a cat nap.

I am a little disappointed by this Lidl. After my excellent shopping at Aldi I was hoping this would be the same but it wasn’t. They even had a lot of the same products as the Lidl at home. But I was looking for the authentic Italian products. In saying that, I did buy some Gouda cheese that I was quite happy with.

Back at the campground I have my somewhat late siesta and go for a much needed cooling down swim in the ocean. Rhys calls at the end of the afternoon that one of his motoGP riders and the entire team are going out to dinner and we are invited also. This will be a good opportunity for me to meet the people Rhys works so I am super excited.

30 August 2019

Dinner last night was really nice. The people Rhys works with were are all super nice and now I have got some faces that go with the names. Some of them are Italian and they give us some excellent tips on places to visit on our Italy road trip.

In the morning I do some more research on Italy and the highlights you supposedly HAVE to see. It’s nice just sitting by the camper until the campground is treating me to children’s music they play over speakers that are installed all over the campground. It’s for the children’s entertainment, but everyone can ‘enjoy’ it.

Yesterday we got new opposite neighbours. It’s a German couple from around our age. The opening of their camper faces ours, because of the ridiculous layout of this campground. So if we both sit outside we sit maybe 2 m away from each other. Zero privacy. They are also chilling at their camper in the morning when the children’s music comes on. Like me, they aren’t big fans of the music. To cover up the noise however, they decide to play Craig David on their own stereo. The fact that is was Craig David was bad enough. It was so much worse that they played ‘7 days', one of his hits from the year 2000, on repeat. I was expecting the Spice Girls next.

In the afternoon I continue my Italy research and when Rhys gets of work early we go to the beach together for some chill time.

In the evening there is more campground entertainment with music played over the speakers. In the Netherlands this would probably start at 7 PM and finish at 9 PM. Here however, it starts at 9 PM and lasted till midnight. Parents with small children don't seem worried at all. The kids are all still up, even though it’s late. I guess their daily routine is a little different than ours and kids will catch up on sleep in tomorrows siesta.

It’s quite a challenge trying to go to sleep with this noise. We have excellent earplugs but even they don't block it entirely. It’s a good thing we continue our travels tomorrow and leave this campground behind to never return.

31 August 2019

Back on the road, I am so excited! We drive a couple hours south, following the coast. At dinner with Rhys his team, a colleague showed us pictures from a beach called spiaggia delle due sorelle (beach of the two sisters). It’s a post-card-perfect beach with clear bright blue water and can only be reached by boat or kayak. It looked so good and Rhys his colleague was so enthusiastic about it, that we have decided to check it out for ourselves. We drive to Portonovo, a place where we can hopefully hire a kayak.

Portonovo is cranking! It is very popular, but so far I have only seen Italian number plates. That’s the bonus of getting tips from locals, you go places the Lonelyplanet hasn’t discovered (yet). Portonovo is tiny, we have to park outside the town on a P+R situation. All very well organised with a free bus dropping us of in town. From there it’s only a short walk to the kayak hire place. Yes, they still have a two person kayak available!

It takes an hour by kayak to the two sisters beach. The coastline is gorgeous with the mountain reaching all the way to the sea side. We kayak past all these beautiful hidden beaches. The waves are quite big though and there are these massive jelly fish floating at the surface. I am sitting in the front of the kayak and a lot of waves crash into me. I am terrified a jellyfish will be dropped into the kayak by the waves and somehow land on me. Somehow during the kayak trip a picture was taken of my while I am spotting the jelly fish and you can see the fear in my eyes. Its quite hilarious.

In no time we reach the two sisters: two massive rock formations just off the coast. We can even kayak between them, it’s really cool. The (pebble) beach starts right after the two sisters. Even though you can only come here by boat or kayak the beach is packed with people. A ferry arrives and it must have been the last one for the day, because everybody was rushing to get on board. Suddenly we have the beach (almost) to ourselves.

It’s an incredible beach with the clearest water. I am so happy we got this tip of Rhys his colleague. We stay here until the sun disappears behind the mountain and then start our kayak trip back.

The way there was really easy, but the way back certainty wasn’t. We had a strong headwind and the waves got even bigger. We peddled and peddled but weren’t making much progress. I was still squealing, being terrified of the jellyfish. It was definitely an adventure, another highlight of this trip.

Around dinner time we drove from Portonovo to Ancona, in search of a free camp spot that our book advertises. It turns out to be in the parking lot of Auchan, the massive supermarket we fell in love with in Hungary. I can’t believe our luck! We park the van and spend the next hour in Auchan, doing some excellent shopping. The money we save on campground cost is instantly spent on luxury Italian products and other groceries.

After our shopping spree we cook dinner and enjoy it in the parking lot. What a strange place to stay for the night, but at the same time also quite cool. And the perfect evening for a day I loved every minute of.

01 Sept 2019

Today we visited beautiful castle ruins, called Rocca Calascio. Construction of the fortress started in the tenth century as a single watchtowers, on top of a mountain (1400 m). A walled courtyard with four cylindrical towers at the corners was added in the thirteenth century. It was badly damaged by a earthquake in 1461. I had read about it while doing some Italy research. It looked cool and the area is known for good hiking so we put it our to do/see list.

What I didn’t realise was that it was in a super random and remote place. The first part of our trip getting there was via the Italian toll road. Then we left the high way and drove for maybe 20 km on a regional road. But it wouldn't be TomTom navigation if, even if its for part of the journey, the TomTom sends you on this super random route. Usually there isn’t even a sign on the side of the road with the name of the place you want to go to. Just so you would have some confidence that what the TomTom is telling you to do makes sense. This has happened almost every day, also today. We took a random exit of the regional road and drove this zig zag road through the middle of nowhere for the last 15 km or so. On our way we saw only one remote house. The owner probably saw us as those dumb tourist who followed their navigation blindly. But we made it to Calascio, this tiny town build in the hills. We weren’t the only ones who made it here. The town was overflowing with people. It was even difficult to find a place to park. But we just did like the locals: ignore the ‘no parking’ sign, easy peasy.

After our lunch we started the hike uphill towards the castle. The hike was relatively easy but very very hot. As we hike this path up the hill,  lizards keep crossing the path in front of us trying to find a hiding spot. We also see these black crickets with red wings. I have never seen them before but they are beautiful.

After about 3 km we have made it to this little, super picturesque village at the bottom of the castle ruins. The village still has the old cobble stones and super narrow streets. You have to walk through the village to get to the castle ruins. Locals are selling souvenirs on little stands. Then as you walk out of the village you get to the castle ruins.

The castle ruins are amazing. The main frame is still standing, but the structures that were built around it have collapsed. There is also a little chapel near the castle that is still in really good condition. It was thought to be built by a family between the 16th and 17th century to thank the Madonna because they successfully fought of enemies of their property.

We walk around the castle to admire it and search for the best angle to photograph it. This proves to be a challenge. We arrived at the castle around at the same time as this other couple and somehow we walk the same route and this couple shows up in every photo I take. I thought we finally lost them, but when I tried taking a photo of Rhys with the castle in the background, this couple moves into the shot about 5 meters behind Rhys to take selfies. Annoying photo bombers!

We had planned to hike into the hills surrounding the castle, but an unexpected thunderstorm changed our plans. Instead we hiked back to the van and looked for a place to sleep for the night. Good thing we did because about 30 min after arriving  back at the van we had torrential rain and thunderstorm. We parked in a parking lot in the next town over and were trying to decide if we could and would sleep there. After going back and forth on staying or finding a campground we finally decided to check into a nearby campground.

02 sept 2019

So glad we decided to go to the campground. Best sleep we have had so far. As we were still quite high (1250 m) and it had rained in the evening, it was not so hot anymore. All the other nights were almost uncomfortable going to sleep because the van was like a sauna (luxury problem, I know). It was also super quiet! That is something you start to appreciate when you sleep in all these different places and often have to sleep with earplugs in.

We took it easy in the morning. Skyped with family,  got the van in order, chilled for a bit. At 12 we set off towards the coast again and drove 200 km further south. We were headed to the national park ‘gargano'. We had chosen a place called San Giovanni Rotondo om the edge of the park, because our camping book showed lots of good camping spots in this place.

Getting there was again a very interesting trip. We feel like we are getting to see the ‘real Italy’ now: towns that look poorly maintained and you rather drive through than stay for too long. Stray dogs, so much rubbish on the side of the road and in the bushes. But also about a million olive trees.

When we arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo it was one sign after another advertising camper parking area's. There were several parking lots alone devoted to campers on this street we drove through. Must be a popular place. We googled and tried to reason it but we couldn’t see why this was. To us also this place looked like you should be driving through and this is exactly what we did. Sorry San Giovanni Rotondo. Instead we drove all the way through the national park to the coast and found an amazing campground right on the beach.

03 Sept 2019

We woke up not only to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach, but also the sound of thunderstorm. In these last two weeks we have had more thunderstorms than in about 2 years in The Netherlands. Usually only in the night, but looking at the forecast this was not going to be just a morning shower. Bummer. Just when we are at the beach we cannot enjoy it. Still, we weren’t going to let this day go to waist. At the end of the morning, after the torrential rain had stopped, we drove to the closest town called Peschici. We found a hairdresser and Rhys made an appointment to have his hair cut later in the afternoon. The hairdresser was in suburbia and a couple of houses down and old Italian lady was  cooking something in this massive pot just on the side walk. As we drove by she took the lid of the pot and got this enormous wooden spoon to stir the food with. Honestly we have never seen such a big spoon. It was the size of a shovel or a paddle for a kayak. We should have taken a photo as proof.

From the hairdresser we drove into the city center and parked the van. Just as we were going to head into town the torrential rain started again. We waited for a while but it looked like it wasn’t going to stop any time soon. In the meantime we had researched Italian restaurants that had gluten free pizzas on the menu and there were a couple close by! Our craving for real Italian pizzas took over: we put our rain jackets on and we headed into town. It was still raining super heavy. Water was flowing through the streets like a river. Our shoes were soaked immediately. Also our pants didn’t stay dry. Local street vendors had traded their normal beach merchandize for umbrellas and probably did good business.

It took a bit of searching but we found an Italian restaurant selling gluten free pizzas. At this point I had already forgotten about my wet feet and pants. The pizza was amazing. Maybe even better than Rhys’s regular pizza. Rainy day or not, having real Italian pizza is still fantastico!

After lunch  Rhys got his haircut and we had a quick look in town  then headed back to our campground. When we arrived back we find out that other campers have parked in our spot. Even though we left our bicycles and a mat behind, clearly marking it. This is unacceptable camping behavior from a Czech couple. We were the bigger people  and parked somewhere else. Although when I saw them I couldn’t help myself and gave them, what Rhys calls ‘the bitch stare'.

04 Sept 2019

The weather gods were very kind to us today: we woke up with the sun shining on the van and clear blue sky, yay! Rhys started the day with a morning workout: running on the beach and doing sit-ups etc.  I like exercising but this was a bit too sporty for me. I cleaned our little house in the meantime. When Rhys was finished with his workout we had a morning swim in the sea. There were big waves and someone had left a half broken body board behind. Good enough for us to have some fun with! The feeling when the wave pushes you all the way to the beach, it is awesome.

Back at the van we made breakfast and enjoyed the view and the sun. Great start of the day.

The rest of the day was as good as the morning. Around lunchtime we set off to Vieste, a little town about 50 min drive from the campground. We took the scenic route, one that zigzagged along the coast and spoiled us with amazing views on the coast and sea below. Along the way there were locals selling their fresh and local produce. We stopped at one of the stands. The man looked like the farmer himself. He didn’t speak any English but let us taste the olive oil on some bread, his sun dried tomatoes in oil and some capers. Everything was delicious. We bought the sundries tomatoes because they were so good! Can’t compare it to what you buy in the supermarket.

Vieste is a very pretty town right on the coast. We arrived just before siesta time (somewhere between 14.00 and 16.00 hour), when all the stores close for a couple of hours. We decided to have our own siesta at a beautiful beach in town. Our plan was to have a look around town once the stores opened up again. However, we enjoyed our beach time so much that we didn’t go back into town but drove back to the campground around dinnertime. 

To end this great day we had pancakes and watched a beautiful sunset on the beach.

05 Sept 2019

As per our normal morning routine we took it easy. Breakfast, exercise, getting the van in order, have a swim in the sea. Around lunchtime we set off to our next destination: the Amalfi coast. Famous for its coastal road. This meant crossing the ‘boot’ to the other side. We weren’t in a rush so decided to avoid the toll roads for once and see what that was like. It was..... interesting again. The landscape kept changing every 100km or so. We went from real dry to more green and different soil it seemed (less rocky) and more mountainous instead of hills. The road conditions were absolutely shocking. Potholes, cracks, just altogether terrible. Also, we saw these girls on the side of the road selling themselves. It was maybe 15.00 o clock. They were sitting on a stretch of a couple kilometers. In the full sun, just a chair and some water bottles. The first couple were fully clothed, but the last woman we saw just stood there in here underwear. That was a brutal reality check. Italy is beautiful but life is tough for some Italians. 

At the end of the afternoon we arrived at the Amalfi coast. We checked into a beautiful campground that was again right on the seaside. As we checked in we saw you could hire scooters, which is popular to ride the famous coastal road with. You can also do it by car, but campers are not allowed on this road. This is because the road is very narrow and consists of about 5000 (sharp) turns. The scooter hire sounded awesome and would be perfect for us. We have put it in the planning for tomorrow.

06 Sept 2019

We got up early to catch the bus into town, making our way to the scooter rental place. It was 45 euro for the day and luckily they had one for us. A kymco, 125 or 150 cc (not sure). It had done 16.000 km. After the paperwork and instructions on parking we set off. ( parking rules are strange. Because it is so popular they have made designated parking spots for tourists which are indicated by blue lines. You are not allowed to park anywhere else. Locals however are allowed to park anywhere).

It didn’t take long for us to experience the madness of the traffic situations on this coastal road that everyone wrote about. The busyness on this narrow, windy road together with crazy Italian driving, big tour buses and scooters is a recipe for a lot of butt clinching situations. This being said, the scooter was the way to go. We were able to skip traffic jams and get ahead of traffic. Then it was just us and this amazing stretch of road with incredible views on the sea. Rhys was loving it, even if it wasn’t a motorbike. He was still (safely) flying through the corners and racing locals on their scooter.

About 3/4 on the coastal road was a supposedly great hike, called ‘the path of the gods’. With that name it must be good right? So we drove to the start of the hike and it was in fact amazing. It is a cliff top hike with incredible views of the coast. In total the path is I think around 11 km long, but we only had time to do about 1/3 of it. We were running out of daylight and needed to head back to the campground, which was still a 2 hour ride for us.

We made it back to the campground, but didn’t have time to relax and enjoy the incredible day we had. We still had really cool dinner plans: we were meeting up with our friends Marcel and Leonie who are on vacation here and coincidentally are staying in a hotel 300 m from us. They had researched restaurants in the area but nothing stood out. Therefore we decided to just drive to town (Salerno) and see if we could find something. It wasn’t going to be easy, with me needing gluten free options and preferably authentic Italian food (no English menu’s and restaurant full of tourists). Luck was on our side, because guess what... our first restaurant we walked into was? Authentic Italian, no English menu’s and gluten free pizzas. Yes! The waiter (50 – 55 years old), who spoke only a little bit of English, with a super strong accent, guided us through the menu. He recommended different starters and this is what we ordered. All we knew was it was going to be something beef. The waiter didn’t know the English word for cow and used his fingers to imitate horns on his head. Super funny! It turned out to be meatballs with either a Bolognese sauce or with ham inside and cheese sauce. Delicious! For the main course we all ordered pizza of course. Desert was again by recommendation of the waiter. Tiramisu and an unknown dish of a custard-like sauce with pastry. Both really good.

With our bellies full with delicious food and wine we headed back to the campground / hotel. What an amazing and unforgettable day this was. Definitely a highlight.

07 Sept 2019

No time to rest after our busy day yesterday. The scooter needed to be returned by 10 am. On the dot we were back at the rental place. First the girl who helped us yesterday inspected the scooter but looked very unhappy and pissed off. Then she called over her father, the owner of the store and he had a good look at the scooter also. They were discussing in Italian. After a couple of minutes the father came over and said ‘no crash?!’. Maybe they couldn’t believe we didn’t crash or were hoping we would have? But they were openly disappointed. No extra business from us. We thought it was hilarious. We would advice them to work on their poker faces.

With our van still at the campground we needed to take the bus back. Unlucky for us the bus only goes 3 times a day. We had a couple hours to kill till the next bus. We walked around town, did some grocery shopping and then headed to the bus stop. There was a little market nearby where we couldn’t resist buying home made olive spread.

When the bus finally arrived we couldn't pay for a ticket in the bus, we should have bought them somewhere. We didn’t know this, but the bus driver was so nice to let us on anyways.

Rhys works on the van in the afternoon. The van has been making this squeaky noise in the front for a while now and he wants to check it out properly. Over time it got worse and he wants to make sure it is not anything serious.

While Rhys is unbolting one of the tyres, the front shock and some suspension parts, I sit in the sun reading my book. I got this book from work as a present and it’s a camping recipe book. It has some excellent recipes and is given me new ideas for dishes to try.

When Rhys is done checking out the van (he thinks the squeak is nothing serious, he thought it was a dry ball joint) we go for a swim in the sea.

We enjoy an easy evening, tomorrow we plan to hike up Mount Vesuvius. This is the volcano that, when it erupted in the year 79, destroyed the Roman town of Pompeii. Super excited for this hike.

More about this hike, visiting the historical city of Pompeii, my visit of Florence and race weekend in Misano Adriatico in the next blog.

Love,

Rhys and Lucia