Roming in Rome...

Rome. We were here for about 3 days and everyday we made our way into Rome via the train and free shurùttle bus that the campsite did. We arrived about a 20 minute walk from the Colleseum along one road which was their main shopping road so was a pretty good walk in - not via any shady back alleys or anything. We did see these sailors on our walk in, now if this isnt dodgy I dont know what is...



So yeah, the first day we went in to see and visit the Colleseum. We went via a place called "the Museum of the Unknown Soldier" or something like that. This is it from the outside...



Went for a walk about in there, but as everything was in Italian couldnt really extract any information here. We did climb up to the roof where we got some brilliant views of Rome however. Here is the Colleseum zoomed in from up top...



So managed to get our "European Under 25 discount" in the Colleseum, dont know if ive mentioned that before or not, but we have used it a fair bit so far getting in for half the price in places. We may get stung for our expensive car insurance, but we save our money on museum fees, everyones a winner. It is also quietly satisfying watching the Chinese Tourists with their Nikon Cameras and 73 metre lenses having to pay full price. Mwahahaha. Right. Here is the Collesuem from outside as modelled by Rebecca, I have tried to lose her belive me I have, she just follows me everywhere!



And the Collesuem (I bet I am spelling this totally wrong...sorry Rome!) from inside...



Infact the Sun was at that point when you cant take a good photo (or I cant) so didnt get many great ones in here. It was really cool inside. Its one of those places that was guaranteed a great place and didnt really kick up any surpises. Again, I think Becky was getting urges o act like a lion in the arena floor bit.

We also checked out Vatican City which was really cool. I dont know what the deal is with this place regarding Coutry status, but I am saying its one on its own (like Monaco) so in this case this was Country Numero 8 I believe. This was all good too. We were looking out for the Pope but other than on Calendars and Mugs and Tea Towels i couldt see his face...



This is a photo of one of the bridges just before we got to Vatican City...



Walking around Rome is pretty awesome in its self. It is a pretty massive place with loads of squares and buitiful buildings. It is a place that ther is still so much left to see, similar to Paris really.

Here are the Spanish steps and also a view from the top of the steps...





We did go into a place next to a church called the Cappuccin Crypt in Rome which we read about where the bones of 40,000 monks have been used to decorate that place. It was all very strange. There were about 6 different rooms each decorated head to toe in bones.We couldnt take photos in there but you can check it out on the internet.

We did go to see other sites in Rome as we walked about from one end to the other nearly each day, but I have only uploaded a few photos from here so that is the lot from Rome.

From rome we travelled via a place Called Adrianas Villa just outside Tivoli. It is a massive Roman Villa with loads of different remains of buildings and baths all around it. It was a bit different to anything that we have done so far and pretty good too. Very massive, and by the time we walked all around it we felt pretty knackered.

Heres a couple of snaps from it...





We had a long drive (for us) towards Pompeii after this, and whilst we're on the topic of ruins and all that, it blends in very well...



Our site at Pompeii was so close it worked out really well. The whole site here too was massive as well. Here is the culprit for the whole affair at Pompeii, Mr Mount Vesuvius (or Vesooooovius if you're from Norfolk)...



There was some really cool stuff here which they have dug up from the volcanic ash. Its crazy that even thoughits so old some things just dont change.Such as the high street on it where you could see the bank and pubs and stuff. There werent any internet cafes, but they did have casts of people that were covered in the ash who were making whoopee!

Before we got to Pompeii, we had to get some food in and did this outside Naples. Initially we were thinking that we would go here also. However after people advising us not to bother I am proper chuffed we didnt. From driving around it and going into the super market, we couldnt have got out of there sooner. I have never seen so much rubbish on the roads and it was just one of those places where people seem to have sofas and fridges in their front gardens!

We did go to the Amalfi Coast and were here for 3 days. Our site was at the top of a tiny private little beach, and this was the location where I used Dora (the Dinghy). It was pretty awesome. The roads around it were pretty scary, but was definatley worth the drive. This is me having a little paddle...



So, from Amalfi Coast, as I mentioned in the post before hand I believe, we had 11 days of nothing but as Franky likes to say "Relax". Not much happened in these days apart from, me putting sun tan lotion on Beckys back and shoulders, reading, sleeping and eating. I have in fact, and you probably wont beleive this read all of my books and am now onto reading Beckys chick books. Those Beano magasines that I bought just dont take long to read.

This was where we were for 4 days and 4 nights, where someone called, and you will never beliee this "LUIGI" showed us to our pitch. Becky fancied Luigi...so did I...



This is on the Adriatic coast side of Italy, and is on a strip of land that has the Lake Varona on one side and the Adriatic sea on the other. It is very becutiful.

After this place we were going to head to another beach stop, however when we got there it looked pretty tacky and decided that we would pass and head further inland and north as the drive wasnt too bad.

Boy were we glad we didnt stay here. We found Camp Heavan. This was out site for another four days and four nights...



It was a couple of miles away from a place called Visso in Umbria. It was absolutely awesome. They had a couple of pools too, so that put the cherry on the cake...



This was a view along the way to the site...



On our last night here just as we had dozed off, we were awaken by the noise of the bin by our pitch being rumaged through and the contents thrown about. Having read earlier in a leaflet on the area about a big old Yogi Bear that had been seen, we straight away thought that here he was. The noise went and then came back again a little bit after. Having needing the toilet (I already needed to go, I wasnt that scared!) when a bear is outside made it a bit awkward. becky needed to go also, so we stuck together and took a camera and a stick. God knows why! Here is Bear Hunter Becky Holmes on our 2am mission to find Yogi...



After this, we kept lookout for him to return, but personally I think that he saw how "Pro" we were and realised that he may get caught so never returned. We didnt actually see him, but we did take some pictures of his devistating mess that he caused...





I think he was 7 going on 8 feet tall!

Unfortunately we had to leave this site. We then went to a really lovely place called Assisi. This is is from the ground...



It was a really cool place. They had an earthquake in '97 i think and it destroyed a lot of the buildings but they said that they have recently rennovated all of them. Whether it was this nice before or not I dont know, but I was very impressed with it. Here is a picture of the Basilica of St Francis...



From the top you get some awesome views of the whole country side too.

That is it for now again. we are currently in Bologna, and will be heading to Padova, then Venice and then it is Slovenia for our next weeks worth of itinery.

Hope that everyone is keeping well.

X

When in Rome...

OK, before I begin, we have now planned the rest of our time away and where we will be going so if you are interested it is...(after Italy)
Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic then back to Holland. We booked our Ferry the other day so it will be October the 16th when our feet and tyres land onto good old English soil.

After Lake Como we drove to Pisa but not direct, oh no. We went via a place called Montecreto. Mainly because of the distance and not wanting to push the van too hard. So we stopped over in this place after getting there fairly late ish. It was a lovely area and the views were awesome for ages. In the winter I assume it is a busy ski resort, but when we were there it was really quiet and when we walked into the local town all the people were like zombies from Shaun of the Dead. I think they all must have been at least 87 years old. We left here fairly early-ish and heading for Pisa.

I wasn't really expecting a great deal from Pisa. Obviously fully aware that there is the leaning tower but what else is there...who knows. Well after reading the endless "theres more to Pisa than just a tower" brochures, it sounded like it could be pretty good, but to be honest after going there I do just think there is only a leaning tower there and they are very much milking that fact. Lots of cheap tack being sold and loads of American tourists taking their photos where they are pretending to hold the weight of the tower...those Yanks, they crack me up!



I am glad we went there, but not one of the places at the top of the list of "Best Places of the 5 months"

We went to Florence next and got to the site, which in our book said that "Florence is set out like a tapestry below" and this was bang on the money. It had a great view over Florence. Here is the tapestry view...



As we're on the view of it, here are others at different times of the day...







In Florence we checked out the Cathedral which is the 4th Largest in the world (I seem to be saying this about every Cathedral, I think people are lying to me!) but from the outside it did look really cool. So much detail on it with loads of statues and paintings on the outside.

I couldnt get it all in so heres the majority of it...



Here is some of the paintings on the inside of the Dome...



We did go in here, but there was a massie queue initially so we strolled about then went back later when there wasnt one. Florence was a lovely place with the usual loads of really nice squares and stuff about and after strolling about a bt we decided after passing all the awesome looking restaurants that we would have some dinner out so we headed back where Becky began her 5 hour getting ready routine and went back in later on. Im only joking it was only 4 hours! We had a lovely meal. Good old Italian Pizza! And also its really cheap too...compared to France anyway.

Next stop was Sienna. We stayed in a placxe called Sovicille which was 8km away and we could get the bus in from here. We did walk to Sovicille from our site but there wasnt much going n here. It was a really small place. There were loads of Germans playiong football with a very mouthy coach shouting at them but I dont think this was typical for the little quiet village. Here is Sovicille anyhow...



We did have a few days chilling here and the heat has been proper imnmense! About 40 degrees everyday. We have been generally leaving things a bit later on in the day as when we get in there early the Italians are all sleeping or lazing abut, so we have klately been going in at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon then staying in places til a bit later in the evening. We did get the bus into Sienna...







Sienna was also very cool. Had lunch in the square and checked out all the little back streets. There were no pavements aruond here so evcerywhere we walked we had to look over our shoulders to make sure that no crazy Italians would run us over!

After all of this we thought we deserved some relaxing time so headed for LAke Trasemeno where we spent 4 nights here...



and other than Becky burning her eyelids from too much sun bathing we didnt really do too much. We did go into the local village place which was called, Castiglione Del Lago. It was a proper old place up the top of a steep hill which had some great views over the lake.



We did also have a mssive storm ther one night and I was sure that the awning was going to fly away. It didnt. The eveingins also gave some quality views over the lake too.





Next from here was Rome, and although I have put some of the pictures on the internet I havent done them all, so I will put these ones on the next time I update here.

We are currently in the Amalfi Coast which is all good. We are moving on tomorrow to the other side of Italy and have 8 days of nothiohng but beach places to enjoy so im sure there is some time when I can update this again as we have also been to Pompeii and other places that need to be on here.

Anyways, I bought a rubber dinghy for EUR 10 from the carrefour and have been taking it on many voyages but many voyages are still needed so best get Dora (she has Explore 200 written on her, so I thought Dora the Explora - anyway have talked more about a rubber dinghy than anything else)

Bye.

X