(written by Lyn)
Big day of driving planned ahead so we got up nice and early but not quite thinking of the timing as we found ourselves right smack in the middle of Roman rush hour traffic!! Very interesting experience!!
On arriving at Pompeii Tomtom got a little confused and pit us on a deadend dirt track telling us to turn left into someones padlocked driveway. We ignored poor Tom and decided to follow roadsigns instead, the few that we could find.
Relieved at actually finding the ruins, as we drove in a man was ushering us to our carpark. Something in me said this didn't feel right so Craig asked "how much?" "10 euro all day and free if you eat at our restaurant " I made Craig back the car back inspite of cars being behind us! It just felt like a scam... Again!! Southern Italy has felt so much like that. we didn't notice it quite the same up north Italy.
Sure enough up the hill we found the official carpark right next to the entrance and half the price!
We both really enjoyed Pompeii, walking back in time and the sun being out always helps too ;)
'Lonely Planet' book has been our tour guide through this trip and a sentence in there caught my eye about there being an interesting coastline a couple of hours further south, so off we went not realizing what we were about to experience.
The coastline was gorgeous with houses being built right into cliff faces and out over the road. Rugged coastlines made for great photos. The roads got skinnier and windier and traffic got more and more, in both directions. And in the typical Italian arrogance pedestrians and cyclists also decided to share the road that also had cars parked in every available spot.
It was at this point we suddenly appreciated choosing to go for the cheaper smaller car... Our faithful Fiat Panda.
At some points I literally heard Craig gasp and say "ohhhhh nooooo here we go. We're not Gona fit this time!!" and the stupid Italians (as much as we love them) would come round blind corners on OUR side with no where for us to go but down a 300ft drop!
As we finally got back onto the previously hated Autostrade we breathed a sigh of relief at there being two lanes on each side and a monsterous great barrier seperating us down the middle. Craig said it was like skydiving... Crapping yourself while your doing it but once it's over you wanna go right back and do it again!
At this crazy point (5pm) we decided to cross Italy and find the other coastline, making it to Termoli at our latest arrival time yet of 8pm!!
Ah, I remember that road well and we had a tour driver in a van. I have no idea how we made it!!
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