A little bit of cycling heaven and life on a campsite

We arrived at Campsite Beauregard at Marseillan-Plage on Friday hoping to stay for at least three nights but we were informed at reception they were only able to offer us one night, but there was a good possibility that a place would arise if we went back to the reception in the afternoon to find out if anyone had checked out. Eventually after three different pitches on three days, we were able to settle in for longer stay of a week and at last we had found a place with all the things we enjoy whilst we are away - plenty of places to visit on dedicated cycle tracks, lovely hot weather, a fantastic wide beach and a few handy shops to keep us supplied with food (not much to ask for is it!)

The harbour town of Sete (also known as little Venice) was a within cycling distance and we made the 26 mile round trip twice in the week, the second time we visited we stopped for lunch in a restaurant on the bustling harbour front, feeling a bit decadent having a three course meal in the middle of the day! But it was delicious and very enjoyable, we finished with our own coffee (we often take our flask out with us) on the route home sitting looking out across the bay watching the boats. The cycling was relatively easy as the track was mainly flat and, of course, traffic free.

Yummy lunch!

Marseillaise-Plage may not be everyone's cup of tea, it certainly lacks any of the authentic frenchness we love of their little villages, but the low rise shops and restaurants are not too tacky and meet the needs of the thousands of campers staying in the area (there are 16 campsites!), but the ten mile stretch of wide sandy beach from Sete to Cap D'Agde with the clear Mediterranean Sea is unbeatable.

And what of living all this time on campsites? Many of you reading this may have never stayed on a campsite especially a continental one. When you stay on a campsite a little bit of scratchy grass becomes your home for a few days (or many weeks or even months with some people) you invariably have neighbours who don't speak the same language (it's a treat when you meet other people from the UK). At Beauregard it's a bit like little Amsterdam there are so many Dutch people, but they make nice neighbours as they are friendly and usually speak English. 

They tend to spend their time reading their Kindle when they're not on the beach. The French people are less likely to speak English so our conversation is limited to Bonjour or Bon Soir (and wishing I could speak better French!) There are other nationalities- Germans, Belgians, Swiss but they generally keep themselves to themselves.

For your daily constitution the shower blocks usually have plenty of hot water but the push button timer and small cubicles drive you mad! The toilets are mostly standard but you have to watch out on some sites for the squat style they take some getting used to! Toilet paper supplied is a luxury so you have to go with toilet roll tucked under your arm (or discreetly in a bag like we do!)

There are sinks for washing up and separate ones to wash your clothes and most sites will usually have a washing machine, charging anything from 3 to 7€, drying your clothes on a makeshift washing line is not usually a problem if the weather is fine.

The French take their caravan holidays very seriously and will often be away in their vans for months on end, they make sure they have their home comforts though and often have a full size fridge, a microwave and a TV all set up in the awning of their van - home from home!

Campsite life can be very sociable and we meet lots of new and interesting people or sometimes we just have each other for company, whatever, we just enjoy being away and the whole experience of travel to new places.

The French have really got it right when it comes to cycling, the tracks around Marseillan are just wonderful with two lanes for the cyclists and usually a separate pavement for pedestrians, we spend our time out on the tracks with a picnic, our flask in the backpack and then we're out for the day exploring. Some days we might go to the beach after our cycle ride as the sun stays hot until after 6pm. It seems an idyllic life but we both feel we need to move on after a few days we are so used to never staying in one place for long, strange really... 

Time now to begin planning our route home so the next move will be heading north to Millau the home of the famous world's highest suspension bridge, the valley beneath is supposed to be worth visiting. 

Along the Med coast we go.....

After much deliberation and changing our minds about where to go for the next few weeks we decided to head along the coast road to the Cote D'Azur in France. But before that we had our last stop in Italy at the campsite Fossa Lupara at Sestri Levante, an amazing smallish campsite right next to the motorway but shielded from the noise of the traffic by the high noise control fences. It was in fact a haven of tranquility apart from the hourly chime of the church clock, the bird song and the sounds from the other campers.

Danilo the campsite manager was extremely helpful in telling us about the local area and any excursions we might like. The town of Sestri Levante is a 15 minute cycle ride away and is typical rather old fashioned Italian resort with two wide sandy beaches and a harbour area. We spent our time here cycling to beach to have a picnic lunch and a relax in the sun (as long as the numerous beach sellers don't bother you!) The sizzling heat continued but peppered with the occasional storm which sent everyone scurrying for cover from the rain.

Once again we were impressed by the hospitality of the campsite staff with expresso on the house on our first morning and a small carton of milk on the next morning, it seems the Italians are generous people and like to give a little gift. Almost all the Italian campsites we visited we have found to be friendly and hospitable from the outset.

We left Italy on Saturday thinking it would be a quieter day on the road but travelling along the coast road from Genoa to Nice was not a pleasant experience! It was busy, the most expensive Italian toll payment at 27.50€, only two lanes for most of the way and had more tunnels than you could keep count of. Eventually we arrived at campsite Les Pecheurs at Roquebrune near Frejus on the Cote D'Azur. Our intention being to get out on our bikes into the peaceful French back roads to discover the sleepy little villages. Sadly, over the couple of days we were there we didn't really find too much of that - being so close to the coast the roads were pretty busy.

On our first night we had a huge thunderstorm in the early hours of the morning, a months worth of rain fell in half a hour and we woke later to find our van marooned in a very large puddle of water! Luckily it dried up over the next couple of days so we could get the van off the pitch without it sinking in the sandy mud.

One of our cycle outings was moderately successful as we did find some beautiful scenery and quiet villages although the route culminated in cycling a few miles along a busy main road. What I hate most about that is the feeling you are going to get sucked under the wheels of a gigantic juggernaut at any moment, I just put my head down and cycle as fast as I can to get home! And after 36 miles of cycling that day we were ready to get back and relax in the sunshine.

Our next stop was just an hours drive west along the coast towards Marseille, a campsite we chose for it's closer proximity to the coast. Although it was a near a busy motorway Campsite Campasun L'Esprit du Sud was a friendly and well run site with a lovely swimming pool and a short cycle ride to the pretty town of Sanury sur Mer which actually boasted a coastal cycle track as well as a very attractive coastline. Here we could cycle along the coast, relax on the beach or swim in the pool and enjoy the glorious South of France sunshine for a while. At last the storms of the last week seem to have passed over.

The only downside of the site was the constant drone of the motorway traffic in the background and the very busy road we had to cycle to get to the seafront, we have really enjoyed our holiday but crave a day or two of traffic free cycling. We knew this part of the south of France would be busy and avoided the major resorts like St Tropez and St Morritz but perhaps didn't realise just how busy it would be!

So after a few days here once again we move on further westwards along the coast to pastures new in search of the perfect campsite. Did we find it? Well you'll have to wait and see won't you?

Faraway and into the mountains

We always feel sad to leave a site where we have enjoyed ourselves but no matter how much we like it we are usually ready to move on after 3 or 4 nights having explored the area and 'seen the sights'.

Our next campsite was Campeggio Villagio San Giusto up a narrow winding road that took us on top of the world! There were wonderful views from the site. We had planned to stay nearer to the town of Vinci on a camperstop but when we arrived we found it had been invaded by itinerants (travellers) and we would not have felt safe - who knows we might wake up in the morning with our wheels missing and the bikes taken off the back?!!!

The campsite staff were friendly and they offered a shuttle into town for 10€ return so we were able to visit the Museo de Leonardino - not a bad thing to do considering the temperature was soaring to 35* during the day.

Leonardo was an amazing man, not only a gifted artist (Mona Lisa) but his studies of the human form and engineering designs were hundreds of years ahead of his time. The museum was absolutely fascinating, it made me feel like he was able to see into the future -on display were wooden models of his machines and inventions including his conception of a car, flying machines and war machinery like a machine gun. 

The drawing of a bicycle was undiscovered for over 300 years, eventually found stuck between two pages in his book. His visions from the fifteenth century were mind-blowing!

After a hot and sticky night we packed up a picnic and with a map loaned from the reception we set out into the hills and trudged up to the summit of the hill to an archeological site of an Etrusian settlement from the 7th century BC. 

We then followed the path around the top of the hill stopping for a picnic in a shady spot along the way. 

We only met a few people during our hike, one man with a very excitable dog said wild boar and we later saw  a sign indicating they were in the area - all the ominous rustling in the hedgerows made us a trifle jumpy - was it a wild boar, a snake or just a harmless lizard?

When we got back to the site we really appreciated a cold drink and a cool shower - the heat was sizzling!

 We had a terrible nights sleep with music from a local restaurant playing until 5am - not what you expect when you're tucked away in the hills supposedly 'far from the madding crowd'

In the morning as we were just leaving we encountered a very distressed English couple, they had lost their passports when checking in the night before and were very anxious about having to go to the consulate in Rome. When I went to reception to pay I mentioned it and apparently they had been found on the ground and handed in. Keith ran back to their camper to tell them and they were so delighted they hugged and kissed us both with relief!!

We decided to be a bit more adventurous for our next stop and chose a campsite in the Tuscan hills, campsite Le Fonti. Once we left the motorway heading towards Genova we wound up a long mountain road for 50km, the heavy snow in the winter had damaged the road surface so much that it was a tricky drive with hairpin bends, steep drops and potholes that you could lose a small child in. The tortuous drive was worth it when we got there as the area was beautiful and the views from our pitch across the mountains were stunning.

We had a fabulous stay here for 2 days, walking in the mountains ( lovely but for the 4 mile uphill climb) and exploring the local village where people looked at us because we were tourists.

The drop in temperature was quite a relief but we did end up stuck in the van for the afternoon in a thunderstorm. We were ready to get back to the heat so on Wednesday we headed to the coast slowly working our way back north towards Genoa. 

Onwards and upwards...... (In a North Westerly direction actually!)

It's the first of June, we have been away for a month and we are looking for peace and tranquility, we find it in the form of Camping Monte de Sole a campsite buried in the countryside about 50km north of Rome and close to a city perched on a hilltop called Narni.

And what a wonderful three days we had and what lovely people we met.

It all started when we arrived  being greeting by our campsite owner Angela Rosa - a charming lady who spoke excellent English and was exceedingly welcoming.

Pitched opposite us was a lovely family in their motorhome - Dan and Grace with their 3 young boys and another one on the way in 3 months - now that's what I call adventurous! They were on their way back from Sicily. Sadly for the little ones the lovely site pool was yet to be opened as it's too early in the season despite the temperature going up to over 30* during our stay, but they did enjoy the playground. Dan and Grace are seasoned travellers having toured Europe and beyond on their motorbike before the kids arrived, so took the whole adventure in their stride; I have to say I find looking after the 2 of us tiring enough so I don't know how they did it!

Our first day we cycled to Narni - a fascinating old city atop a hill with an imposing castle at the very top. Everywhere were ancient buildings, fountains and churches and we were well informed with the useful booklet given to us by Angela Rosa.

Later  that day Paul arrived in his motorhome and we soon got chatting, he is travelling on his own, having retired young, sold up, bought a motorhome and now he spends his life touring Europe. Keith and Paul were soon exchanging ideas about all the gadgets you can install in a motorhome, we spent the next 3 evenings supping beer and exchanging travel stories. Over the next few days we also walked to a Roman church and along the forest trail to Narni with Paul.

And then joining us on the site came Tommy his wife Cathy, their daughter Chantel and boyfriend Lee who are touring Europe and Italy in a motorhome having travelled from their home in South Africa (not by Motorhome!) they soon made friends with us all and we heard all about their life in South Africa and all their travelling adventures. Tommy is a Scot but moved to South Africa over 40 years ago but he hasn't lost his Scottish accent and a love for single malt, the family make sure they have regular 'whisky moments' along the way

We all enjoyed their stories and were most amused that in touring Italy they had Pizza in Pisa, Bolognese in Bologna and Parma ham in Parma! Sadly they only stayed one night leaving in the morning to take the motorhome back to Rome and stay in a flat for 4 days before flying home to SA. I wonder what they had to eat in Rome? What do you think?

Keith and Paul having a T-cut moment!!!!!

We enjoyed our stay on this site so much, it was incredibly peaceful as well as having plenty of places to visit nearby, but most of all we enjoyed the company of our new friends. Angela Rosa called our part of the campsite 'Little England'! On our last night she brought over to us a half carafe of delicious chilled white wine to enjoy with our evening meal as a 'Thank you' - what a lovely gesture. I have to say that we have never encountered such friendliness and generosity on campsites in other countries as we have had here in Italy, it has made this trip really special.

Our next stop will be near Florence on a site not far from the town of Vinci - the birthplace of Leonardo Da Vinci

I do like to be beside the seaside.....

Our next stop was a Campsite close to the seaside town of Praia a Mare (La Mantinera). The campsite was very large but full of shabby old static caravans making it hard for us to find a decent pitch. We walked the 300 metres to the sea front but were disappointed to find the road to the beach had litter and discarded rubbish bags everywhere. The beach itself was pretty enough and lots of preparations were going on for the upcoming summer season and there was a good cycle path going all the way along the beach for about 2 miles so it wasn't all bad. The Italians have their beaches sectioned off and each 'Lido' has their own beach bar and sun beds/ parasols for hire, if you don't want to use a Lido there is still space to lay down a towel for sunbathing, a bit different to our beaches in the UK.

We only stayed here for two nights before moving on, at this point we decided not to continue south to Sicily as after chatting to other motorhomers we discovered the sites were not so good and the rubbish problem was even worse on the island. Our next stop would be further north at a site not far south of Naples. 

This turned out to be a good move as Ferdinando who ran  the campsite (La Foce die Tramonti) looked after us so well and we had a fantastic pitch looking out over the Amalfi Coast- we had a wonderful three days.

We had only just arrived when Ferdinando brought us 'presents' of fresh fruit and 'a egg of the goose' so we had a delicious Spanish omelette that evening with the cold potatoes I already had in the fridge from dinner the night before. Do you know what the name of the fruit is?

The next day we cycled the 7 miles to the Ancient 

Greek site of Poseidania renamed by the Romans as Paestum - the temples date back to 6th century 

BC and were just awesome! 

There was also a museum that held many of the original pottery and paintings excavated from the site.

This painting is from the later Roman settlement on the site, it's called 'The lovers'

Ooh saucy Mrs!!! as Frankie Howard might say.......

Later that day we had pizza cooked and delivered by Ferdinado followed by an amazing sunset

When we go off touring on these long trips our favourite thing to do is to get out on our bikes and explore, unfortunately the only way to do this from this site was along a very busy road complete with crazy Italian drivers and a prostitute standing on the side of the road - not such fun! So although the campsite was great we still had to move on after a few days to find somewhere more tranquil. Another 250 km up the road and we found it!

I'll tell you all about it next time!

And on to Pompei......

We arrived at Camping Pompei on Saturday afternoon, a small family run campsite right opposite the entrance to the Pompei ruins. Having set up pitch we went out to explore, Pompei is a busy tourist area filled with souvenir shops and small restaurants all trying to get your business! But just down the road we did find a good Carrefoure supermarket and a petrol station selling cheap fuel so we could at least stock up during our stay. That evening we had a pizza in the campsite restaurant- thin and crispy base cooked the traditional way in a wood burning oven - delicious!

Sunday morning we went to visit the ruins and I have to say they were not what I expected. Pompei was a much larger city than I thought so the ruins are spread over a huge expanse and the wealth and grandeur of the residents is spectacular. Pompei was a thriving Roman city and was devastated by an earthquake in 62AD, major rebuilding was still taking place in 79AD when Vesuvius erupted and buried the city in volcanic ash and rock that allowed an exceptional preservation of the whole city, unfortunately killing all of the 2000 inhabitants.

We paid for an audio guide and it was certainly well worth the expense, as the detailed information helped to create a picture of what life was like in those times. 

The first place we visited on our 'tour' was the baths - more like a leisure centre really with areas for exercise, massage, hot/cold baths and swimming. The walls were decorated with erotic paintings (more about that later) and the remains visible of the mosaics and marble make you realise that it would have been a luxurious environment for bathing and socialising.

A water feature in the Roman Baths

We then went on to view the Roman forum - their public administration centre, the 'court' where judgement would have been made on criminals (thrown to the lions maybe???) ,
 the public square and the temples.

In this area there was a section which was once the market with a wire mesh  front which allowed you to see the area where many of the pottery urns are stored as well as a few other artefacts including a couple of the plaster casts taken of the bodies found (the only ones we saw - I was expecting to see many more)

Mosaic of Beware of the Dog

We then continued our tour around some of the residential houses and learnt a lot more about what life must have been like for a wealthy Pompean. The existing paintings on the walls were still in some places in good condition.

After a slice of warm pizza in their typical tourist restaurant we carried on and walked around the amphitheatres (there are three!) The people enjoyed being entertained with plays and mimes as well as watching the Gladiators in the main amphitheatre, afterwards they would enjoy takeaway food and a drink in a taverna.

We were disappointed that the largest arena was closed especially as we had to walk quite a way to get to it, but we did sneak in with some other tourists (including a group of Nuns!) over a small fence and up a grassy bank to get in at the back!

It becomes very apparent that our modern life reflects so many aspects of Roman life including the early development of our legal systems, but there are a few huge differences, we saw phallic symbols and erotic paintings in public places and their society was much more permissive and promiscuous. Public toilets were a bench with holes where you might chat with your friends at the same time and great entertainment was had from watching people being torn apart by wild animals or killed in a fight to the death.

At the end of the day my impression was that Pompei is well worth a visit as we were able to gain such a fantastic insight into what life must have been like for a Roman citizen in 79AD but I did feel disappointed that the many treasures and artefacts found when the site was excavated had been removed to Naples museum and there were no replicas or exhibition at the site.

After Rome and Pompei it was time to move to the coast and continue our journey towards Sicily

Rome wasn't toured in a day.....

Hello! Did you wonder where I had got to? The last three campsites had wifi that was quite honestly next to useless, we were lucky to have updated our emails before the signal dropped so uploading my blog was impossible! Luckily we have now landed on a site with stronger wifi so you just might be seeing a few posts in quick succession as we have some catching up to do!

We arrived at Camping Tiber on the outskirts of Rome after an uneventful journey down the motorway, the Italian roads take some getting used to with regard to the crazy driving but at least the tolls are relatively cheap. We had a walk around the site to find a suitable pitch and were surprised to see about ten UK traveller caravans camped up in the central area of the site. We did wonder what they were doing in this part of the world!

The weather was still unsettled but we did get a chance to enjoy a cup of tea in the sunshine during the afternoon before the storm clouds loomed again.

The next morning we took the short ride on the shuttle bus to the train station to catch the train to Rome. We met another English motor homing couple and chatted as we got on the train and it was only once we were on our way that we all realised that we didn't know the name of the station to get off for Central Rome! Eventually we found out from a helpful passenger who didn't speak English but understood our problem! The English couple had toured the Baltic States last year and inspired us to travel to that part of Europe maybe next year.

We arrived at the train terminal and then took an underground to the Coloseum (we bought rover tickets which cost 8€ for the day - very cheap!) we all know what the Coloseum looks like but nothing prepares you for just how enormous it really is! We decided not to join the huge queue to tour the inside and we ignored the ticket touts who offered to get us in -"skip the line" being their favourite catchphrase - it came at a cost though - 80€!

The building is magnificent and would still be complete if it hadn't been plundered at some time for its stones. It could hold 55,000 people all seated according to rank, can you imagine the hustle bustle and the noise of all those people watching the Gladiators fighting each other or the wild animals and the poor people thrown to the lions. We wandered all around the area of the Coloseum and Palantine hill trying to imagine what it must have been like all those years ago.

We sat nearby taking in the ambiance and had some lunch whilst we watched all the other tourists but we also noted the storm clouds looming overhead. And soon it began to spot with rain so we decided to go on the underground across Rome to the Vatican and St Peters square. Whilst we were underground the heavens opened and we were lucky to escape the heavy rain, but when we arrived at our destination the rain hadn't stopped so we hung around and waited for it to ease off. As it happened it was more eventful than expected as we saw a woman chasing a pickpocket through the station and another poor woman falling down the stairs on the slippery wet steps. 

Eventually the rain eased and we set out in our lovely plastic ponchos for St Peter's square. And what a queue to go into the basilica!

I would love to see Michaelangelo's paintings but not enough to wait at least 3 hours in a queue in the rain! Still, we can at least say we have been to the square where the Pope speaks to the people.

We then decided to walk to see the Trevi fountain via the Piazza Navone and it's fabulous fountains designed by Bernini

We never made it to the Trevi fountain as we got lost, tired and footsore so we headed back to the campsite, we later heard from another camper that the Trevi fountain is covered in scaffolding and not working so it wasn't such a bad thing that we never found it!

At the end of the day we felt we had seen quite a few of the important sights of Rome and maybe will return one day to see some more of this wonderful city.

Next stop Pompei!