1 June – A cooler morning and we skyped the girls. We drove thru the beautiful countryside with a village on every hill top. Some great sights but a windy rough road. Well worth the effort however. Our next stop was Lake Bolsena where we camped with a limited view of the lake and had a couple of great swims in coolish water before it clouded over and we had a couple of thunder claps.

2 June - After a sleep in, we cycled to the town of Bolsena where there was a market in the square selling all sorts of crafts and antiques. There was great church here dedicated to a saint/martyr who was only 11 years old. We discovered that it was a local holiday with many families enjoying this great little town and waterfront. After another couple of swims and a lay in the sun we cycled back into town for what we thought was an orchestral evening in the square. It turned out to be the local music school’s break up concert. So much for our Italian. Just when we thought we were making progress reading signs and posters!!

3 June – Another drive thru hill top villages to the last lake before Rome – Lake Bracciano. We are camped right on the lake front with a beautiful view. Some more great swimming! We will catch a bus and a train to Rome tomorrow. We went to the bar where we met 3 NZ shearers from Milton, Napier and Hornby. What a small world! They were working as a gang based on a trailer with folding sides, shearing about 60,000 sheep during the Italian season.

4 June – Off for an early start on the local bus and then the train into Rome. (1 hour trip) We left the train at St Peters and walked into St Peter’s square. What a site. Val and I had visited Rome when I was doing the All Black tour in 2004 but that was November and cold. The square was packed with tourists, locals, nuns and the clergy. The delay to get into the Cathedral was at least 1.5 hours and the queues snaked several times across the square. Cannot imagine what the queues to get into the Vatican were like. Fortunately we had seen it all in 2004 so did not feel we had to queue, and could just wander around taking in the atmosphere. We walked around all the great sites we had enjoyed earlier including St Peter’s Square, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo, Colosseum, and Roman Forum. We used the metro to get to a couple of the sites as we were getting a bit weary. We came back to camp for a well earned swim in the lake. Truly Rome is one of the world’s great cities!!

5 June – A day off!! Some checks of the camper and some cleaning. Unfortunately it started to rain around lunch time so we spent the afternoon reading and planning the next few weeks.

6 June – After a leisurely start we left this camp and drove past Rome around the motorway ring road and south back to the Med. Unfortunately all the free overnight stops we had decided to stay in were either non existent, or dodgy, so we had to go to a camp that was not on our discount card. 27 euro! We will have to get used to these prices later in the high season. There was a gravel beach but we had a nice swim however.

7 June – Onwards south towards Naples. The last part of the drive was not great as we missed a turn off and what, with being held up by a motor accident and some narrow roads, we were delayed about 45 minutes getting back on track and to our camp. The scenery along the coast was great but unfortunately there was a haze which turned to heavy rain. Why they bother painting lines or putting up speed signs on Italian roads is a mystery to us. Everyone travels at what ever speed they want to, 90kms in 50km area, and pass where ever they feel like. This includes up the inside, but everyone seems to make room for them. The rubbish around here is horrendous, piled up all along the roads. Perhaps the Naples rubbish men are on strike but we suspect it is just how it is! Marco (Viv's husband) said that “Italy is wasted on the Italians” and we tend to agree!! We are at a camp at the gates of the Pompeii Archaeological site, right under Mount Vesuvius. We will visit this tomorrow.

8 June – (My Birthday) Off out of our camp gates and straight into the ruins of Pompeii. They had run out of English guide books and maps. We found this out on our reccee yesterday and bought a book from a stall. The whole site is huge. We followed our book as best we could (still getting lost at times). It is amazing to think that the city was buried under 10-20 metres of ash. Walking along the cobbled streets it is easy to imagine what life must have been like for the Romans. Temples, houses (big and small) shops, bath houses, bakeries, a brothel, amphitheatres and a colosseum are all there. Most in remarkably good condition. We spent about 4 hours wandering around and saw a fair bit of the city. Back to the camp for lunch and a rest before boarding a local bus that took us to near the summit of the volcano Mt Vesuvius. After buying a park pass we climbed the last 200 vertical metres to the rim and walked around half of it. What a site. The only sign of activity was some steam and a sulphur smell.

9 June – We had a short drive of only 15 kms to our next camp at Seiano, but it took us about ¾ of an hour as we came thru a very densely populated area with narrow streets and many intersections with the traffic lights not working. This camp is in a little bay surrounded by cliffs but with a great harbour and a couple of nice beaches. We are parked under orange trees and the young guy next door climbed up and got us a few. We walked to the best beach after lunch and had a great swim with many Italian families, mostly mothers and children. In the evening we walked down to a restaurant on the harbour for a birthday tea (a day late) and had some beautiful pizza and great desserts.

10 June – We caught a local bus to our train station and the train to Sorrento where we caught another local bus to Amalfi. The first bus that came was very full (standing room only) so we waited ½ hour for the next bus and got seats on the correct side for the view. The 30 kms takes 1 ½ hours as the road is very narrow and windy. It is not permitted to take campervans on this road and the bus spends much of the trip “pushing” cars backwards to a passing bay. The views are spectacular however, with villages perched on the cliffs, many hotels and great beaches accessed by steps down the cliffs. Most of the people on the bus were tourists and they left the bus at various towns. We stayed on to the town of Amalfi which is the only time the bus is back at sea level. After a walk around the town we bought some pizza and ate it on the public beach and had a great swim. It seems strange that the water is so clear with such a dense population and little regard for cleanliness. The trip back was very crowded but we luckily had seats.

11 June – Heavy rain at breakfast time which sent us inside. This camp is very small and the manager insists on personally parking and unparking everyone. He helped us off our nice site and we set off for the short drive (81 kms) to our next planned camp. The GPS got muddled up as we left a tunnel and we missed the vital turning onto the road we needed. We were back to the narrow roads, cars parked everywhere, and traffic lights not working, of two days ago. It took us ¾ hour to eventually find the autostrada (toll road) which we gratefully took. All went well for the first 40 kms and then we passed a sign which we thought said “Patience for the next 9 kms”. All three lanes of the motorway stopped and then we crawled for the next hour. We thought there must have been a major accident but it turned out it was only road works and the three lanes had to merge into one. Being Italians they have no concept of “Merging like a zip” It was a free for all with cars weaving from lane to lane forcing themselves in to gain 10m. Cars even went up the verge and then tried to push in. It was really very funny. 6 Kms after the road works we left the autostrada and followed a quiet country road to our camp at Paestrum. We are right on a beautiful clean sandy beach which we made the most of. Great swims!!

12 June – A very quiet day. After a big wash and camper checks and cleaning we cycled to the Greek Archaeological site at Paestrum. We did not pay to go in as we could see most of the spectacular temples from the road. It was great to get on our bikes as it seems like ages since we last had a ride. Back to camp for more sunbathing and swimming on the beach.

13 June – I got a phone call (while in the shower), from Nicola to tell us that there had been two more huge earthquakes. Sounds like things may be back to square one again! We set off up a nice wide two laned road following the valleys and hills inland. Lovely country and with not much traffic. What a change from the mayhem of the roads around Naples! This road then turned into a narrow coastal road following the cliffs to our camp at Praia a Mare. It is overcast and this is a tourist town without the tourists. A bit tacky and not very inspiring. We hopped on the bikes and explored the town and beach and, as the sun had come out, decided to have a swim on small pebble beach between the mainland and an island. Quite a nice spot but we think we will move on tomorrow and give ourselves an extra day in Sicily. There is internet here so hopefully we can publish this blog and skype the girls.