Last chapter of Italy (for now)

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This blog begins in Montelcino, a very beautiful part of Tuscany, known for the excellent wine Brunello. We spent the first afternoon wandering the town including the fortress/wine cellar, and wine tasting in small wine shops up and down the winding, steep cobbled streets. The next day we did a self directed tour of local wineries, just dropping by and seeing who was home really - not very difficult when there were over 200 close by. We had mixed fortunes - some were very hospitable with one grandma showing us her impressive cellar and plying us with homemade salami and bread. But on another occasion we were cornered by snarling dogs on a farm property. In all we visited 6 very different wineries and came away with a bottle of local vino from each. And Chris tried Grappa for the first time (Grappa is a traditional Italian digestive liquor made from grape skins and it is lethal). The local wine is made from red Sangiovese grapes. The Brunello is the best wine aged for three years in oak, and the Rosso di Montelcino is aged for less time but is a very good drinking wine nonetheless.



We travelled onward in an easterly direction stopping in at Bagno Vignoni, a small town with a natural and mystical hot spring, and then Pienza, perched on a hill top and rammed full of boutique gourmet stores where we sampled and bought homemade Pecorino cheese. Our evening destination was Montelpuciano who greeted us with misty rain, an advantage if you prefer quiet cobbled streets. The town winds up to a large piazza which holds a cathedral and grand public offices. Then for something completely different we set our sat nav for Lake Bolsena. Battling inclement weather we made the most of our stay visiting nearby Orvieto with its incredible Cathedral and walking and cycling around the area (in high winds!) Now we were in Umbria the agriturismo laws had relaxed somewhat and we were able to stay overnight in the campervan and eat at a winery/agriturismo up in the hills overlooking Lake Bolsena. We had a four course meal with their wine and some Grappa to finish.

Heading South we set up at a campsite outside of Rome and spent the next four days seeing nearly everything on our hit list. Too much to go into detail but we saw the mighty ruins of the Roman Empire like the Colloseum and surrounds, Vatican City including the Sistine Chapel, lots of famous fountains and piazzas, grand churches and of course teeming street life. We ate amazing gelato, pizza and pasta too. It's an incredible vibrant city which you could spend much longer exploring.

But we had other plans -specifically ill-fated Pompeii. After a nightmare drive which included a coastal section of Naples where no road rules apply, we squeezed into a pitch at a campsite on the doorstep of the ruins. For those who don't know Pompeii was a thriving Roman town completely covered by the volcanic eruption from Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, and it's only been since 1700s that excavations have taken place. It's a fascinating experience to walk through a Roman town and see where everything was placed and how people lived. It also brought together a lot of what we'd seen as fragments of the whole in other cities. A lot of the mosaics, frescoes and sculptures from Pompeii are held at the archaeological museum in Naples so this was a good reason to visit the next day. Another good reason was to see for ourselves how mental the city was as we'd heard some unflattering stories. And eat Napolese famous pizza. With garbage strewn streets, crumbling buildings, wayward scooters and groups of loitering men, Naples seemed intimidating at first but we came to see that it was also friendly, exciting and distinctly Italian. We had the best pizza and excellent espresso, visited the museum and caught the tail end of the fresh food market before getting the rickety train back to our campsite at Pompeii.

Our final Italian destination is Paestum, site of ancient human settlements and Greek and Roman temples from as far back as 600 BC. The campsite is by a lovely sandy beach and one of the best we've stayed at. Always ready to sample local fare, we've picked up a huge ball of buffalo mozzarella from a farm. Tomorrow night we take the ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik, Croatia.

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Comments

[Janet]

Fab photos as usual. Not many pictures of shorts and T.s hope the weather isn't too disappointing. some of the buildings and statues etc look huge. How did they do that!!

[Sheila]

Rome and south
Love the stories and the photos. If it's not too late to remind you, don't miss the museum at Paestum which is right next to the site for the awesome painted tombs. I've done lots of drawings of Paestum which I'll show you when you return. And if you can drag yourself away from the beach take a bike ride up to Carpaccio which overlooks the plain, It is a crumbling town with some abandoned palaces, very atmospheric and slightly different from the Renaissance type old towns. One of the photos looks like Todi - is it? Lots of lovexx

[Sheila]

Sorry - I hadn\'t scrolled down to the end of your photos - you DID go to the museum. That\'s the way to be buried with paintings of feasts and fun all around you. Great.

[John]

The Rickety Train
Wot, no photo of the train? Glad to hear you are enjoying everything.

[meg]

what is this sculpture?!!