Day 50: Pompeii - Mount Vesuvius to Barrea


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Europe » Italy » Abruzzo » Barrea
April 23rd 2011
Published: April 30th 2011
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Rising bright and early we walked off to catch the bus for our excursion up Mount Vesuvius some 500m from our campsite, the trip we had chosen was a 3 hour journey taking us right to the top of the only active volcano in Europe and one of the most dangerous in the world. First stage was a rattley old bus to the entrance to the National Park and then with the usual Italian mucking around and being issued more tickets only to hand them to the guy standing to the guy who issued them in the first place (they seem to have this proclivity with tickets for everything). Finally settling in to the new flash 4 wheel drive bus it was off up to the summit, we thought. The trip was around 15 mins up only to have the driver stop then it was on your bikes guy and trudge the last km or so, uphill all the way. Well after a 15 min climb, 30 for Pam and me, we reached the crater and what a sight the view was, well worth the climb. I could not believe it though they had a souvenir stall at the summit, only the Italians can do this, make you walk the last part of a trip and then try to screw you out of more Euros when you get there, 10 points for trying. Returning down some 90 mins later we returned to the camper around 1.00 for a quick lunch and then hit the road. We had planned to get to Scanno, located in the National Park some 160kms away for the night. Not quite making it as the roads were, shall we say, marginal, very windy and not shown as such on the map and very very steep, it was back into the mountains. Arriving at a little village called Barrea around 6.00 pm we noted a good camper stop coming into town on the left hand side, which was full and then found a nice little spot with room for say 6 campers overlooking the lake just out of town at N 41° 45.232 and E13° 59.305, quiet and with great view.


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