I think it’s fair to say that Naples doesn’t have the best of reputations. A Google search for “Naples Reputation” will return articles like “Why no one wants to travel to Naples” and “Naples: Italy’s scariest city?”. Not wanting to let that put us off, and as it’s only a half hour train journey from Pompeii, … Read more
I’ve wanted to visit Pompeii ever since I was a kid at junior school, so it was great to be able to finally visit today. As the site we’re staying at is directly opposite the entrance for Pompeii, we were in there by 9:30 this morning. Not being lovers of the audio guides, we bought … Read more
As it’s a 250 km journey from Rome to Pompeii, we decided to break the journey up by stopping for the night in Cassino. The dreadful condition of the roads driving into Rome made us decide to take the toll roads. We had a bit of a nightmare getting onto the toll road though. I … Read more
We left Tuscania on Sunday morning and set off for Rome. The main road was the SR2, and it is by far the worst road we’ve driven along, a dreadful surface with potholes everywhere. We’re staying on the Flaminio Village campsite in the suburbs of Rome. The train station is close by, and the 15 … Read more
Our plan on leaving Florence was to visit Siena, staying overnight in a free car park on the edge of the city and taking a bus into town. We’d read that the car park was full during the day, so we arrived late afternoon. Unfortunately, the car park was quite compact, and there were only … Read more
On our way to Florence we made an overnight stop at Vinci, the birthplace of Leonardo. There’s a freebie municipal sosta there with services (no electricity though). We stopped on the way at a Co-op superstore to replenish the fridge, and boy did we regret it. The place was heaving and it was all a bit … Read more
We chose Chifenti as our base for exploring Lucca and Pisa as the sosta there is free (including electricity) and from there you can catch the train to Lucca and Pisa. The sosta is well laid out, and the only downside is that it’s in a bit of a mobile notspot. The drive to Chifenti … Read more
Heading towards Cinque Terre from Bologna, we stopped off at Sala Baganza for the night on Saturday. The sosta there was another freebie, located in a sports complex on the edge of a pretty village. The local football team was playing at home, so I went to watch the 3-3 draw, which was a fair … Read more
We left Venice on a beautiful autumn day, sun shining and clear blue skies after three days of wintery weather. But never mind, we can’t have everything! After an exhausting time in Venice we wanted a couple of days downtime before going to Bologna, so we stopped halfway at a small village called Castelgugliemo which has … Read more
Well, where to start?! We’ve had an amazing (and exhausting) three days in Venice. It’s a city that’s always been on our ‘to do’ list, but I guess we haven’t been before having been put off by how popular and touristy it is, epitomised by cruise liners sailing through the lagoon passing St Mark’s square … Read more