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Published: August 16th 2018
Italian Cave
Looks a lot like other caves. However, this was the first cave tour where no one spoke English. it was Awesome!Day 36 - Italian Countryside
Our Italian countryside driving day started out like any of our other driving days this trip, with a frantic and slightly frustrating trip to the rental office. Luckily, our flat in Rome was only a few blocks from a major street. After hauling our luggage down 5 flights of marble stairs, we only had to carry them for a few minutes over the rough, cobblestone streets to the nearby bus stop. Cobblestones are not kind to rolling luggage. When our bus finally came, and we made it to the rental car offices at the central Rome train station, we were first in line… at the rental desk… where the power was out. After waiting a while in the hot building, we got signed in, and had to walk another quarter mile to the actual location of the rental cars, then find the lift and take it up to the 7th floor.
Tony finally got into the driver’s seat of the manual transmission Fiat 500, with the rest of us squeezed in-between luggage. Tony hadn’t driven a manual car in years, so he got to refresh his muscle memory in
Driving in Italy
At least it was on the American side. Tony can't imagine trying to manually shift with his left hand. a very crowded parking structure with tight turns and lots of moving vehicles. No problems at all! We then got to experience morning rush hour in downtown Rome, along with (what everyone who has been here describes as) the world’s craziest drivers, where lanes are more of a suggestion, really. No problems at all! Within 30 minutes we were out on the highway, headed south towards our destination, the Pastena Caves. Google being Google took us on a number of shortcuts (which did not correspond to the signs pointing the other direction), but we saw some more sheep and skinny roads, and eventually made it to the cave entrance in time for the first tour of the day (1030am).
The Pastena caves were, in our opinion, a slightly above average set of caves overall. Neither the guide, nor anyone else on the tour, spoke English (or admitted to it). The guide handed us a pre-printed, laminated sheet with all of the room descriptions and the cave rules. We had already had fun with google and translated all of the signs while waiting for the guide.
The one somewhat unique feature of the cave is that
Echoing Entrance
The many pigeons made for an eerie sound coming out of the cave. one of the rooms had a very deep, clear pool in it (some parts were 17m deep). The tour took us on elevated metal stairs and walkways over the lake which were all slick with moisture. Another neat feature is that this cave is also connected with another cave about 4 miles away through an underwater channel, and may be connected to an even larger complex which is being actively explored.
The cave experience was enjoyable, and we were hungry, but there were no open cafes in the immediate area, so we picked up snacks (Pringles!!!). We decided to head to the nearby town, Pastena, to eat at a well reviewed restaurant. What we didn’t realize was that Pastena was on a hill.
Pastena is perhaps one our favorite villages we have ever visited. It is contained on a hill in the Italian countryside south of Rome. The town has a series of small, twisty, cobblestoned streets and tall, skinny houses and business. Google wanted us to drive up the small, twisty, cobblestoned streets to a restaurant, but Tony said no, and found a flat, wide, parking area off of the main
Deep Pool
You can see the bottom easily... it's 17m deep (That's 50 feet) road, somewhat straight, and not quite as skinny. We then walked up the small, twisty, cobblestoned street to the fabulous Ristorante Mattarocci, where no one spoke English. We stumbled through our order, took in the fabulous hilltop views, ate our wonderful meal, left a large tip, and headed off towards the coast.
Our general plan for the rest of the day was to go to the coast, drive down it, find interesting things, and then be at the airport on time. As usual, our lack of specific planning let to a perfectly enjoyable day.
We saw, on the map, a monument with the name Temple to Jupiter, so we figured that was a great spot to stop. The temple was a lot of fun, built at the top of a cliff overlooking a wide area of Italian coastline. Much of the site was ruins (typical), but since this site is less visited, you are allowed to walk into and on top of the ruins (not typical). The views were amazing, the history was pretty neat (talks of cults and a Roman version of the great oracle), and Michelle had a great time
Skinny Streets
Actually, this was one of the wider, main streets. in her purple Camp Jupiter (SPQR) shirt. We think this area (Terracina) would be an excellent place to come back for a week or so for beach and outdoor fun.
After leaving Terracina, we drove along the coast for a while. We discovered a very very long beach that was not very crowded. Even though we were on our way to the airport, we decided to take a walk along the warm sand and dip our toes into the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, I think we are definitely going to come back!
An uneventful drive back to the airport, and an uneventful trip back to the flat in London on the, now familiar, Piccadilly and Jubilee lines finished off our happy Italian adventure.
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