Sorrento to Amalfi

Thursday 4th February
Sorrento to Amalfi
Boy, were we glad that we had hired a car for this stretch of coastline! Ed E, if you are reading this, we know we are pathetic but put it down to age. We left Sorrento and had a glorious drive around the Amalfi coast. Anyone who has been here knows already that it is very beautiful and Alec took so many photos that we now have just had to label them Amalfi coast 1, Amalfi 2 etc etc, as can’t remember where any of them were. We fully intended to have lunch in Positano but there was not an inch of space to park and everywhere was shut. In the end we found a little bar to have a break in, sat in the sunshine and ate our picnic. Rather curiously this lunchtime bar closed from 1-3.00 which you would think might be a good time to eat lunch. However it suited us as we had bought a sandwich with us so didn’t feel at all embarrassed by eating it outside their bar after they had gone home.

Looking north from Sorrento.

Amalfi B&B middle right.

Roadside fruit and veg - whopping great lemons!

The real Amalfi coastline!

We had booked in to a small hotel in Amalfi where we have eaten the best food of our entire trip so far. Rina, the lovely lady who owns it also runs cookery courses and is an expert on anything from this area having been born and bred here. The little hotel is up at least 200 steps from the road so we had to take a deep breath and go up. Luckily she sent someone done to carry our bags. We struggle to carry our panniers ourselves but this bloke just put all of them on his shoulders and set off at a jog. We had a job to keep up carrying nothing and we think we are reasonably fit! She cooked us an absolute feast of Almafian food which consisted of lots of antipasti, marinated anchovies, aubergines, artichokes and many other veg from her garden. Afterwards, a huge bowl of pasta with prawns and courgettes, then more anchovies deep fried with smoked mozzarella, then cake and ice cream, THEN insisted we try her home made limoncello! She has 8 hectares of mixed orchards of olives, citrus fruits, vegetables and even the wine was from her harvest. Having taken no exercise at all we waddled upstairs to bed, replete. We felt reasonably secure that we could call on her husband who is a Dr (heart specialist) if we felt untoward in the middle of the night!

Naples to Sorrento.

Wednesday 3rd February
Naples to Sorrento
Overnight Harriet contacted us having detailed Jim to read Grandpa’s diaries and gave us the names of all the villages around Salerno where he’d been in 1944. So now I’m on a real mission to visit these places and the first and most embarrassing job was to tell our hosts that after only one night we are bailing out as we had so many places to see.Anyway that done we decided to have a wander in the ‘old quarter’ of Naples but no sooner had we started than it began to pour with rain.

A typical street in Naples up which a bus can easily pass a transit van as well as being overtaken by a Smart car at the same time.

We have resisted buying an umbrella on this trip as we really can’t carry anything else, but we had to give in. Even that wasn’t much good so to be frank we didn’t really do Naples justice and beat a hasty and soggy retreat to the car – which is where we met the lady who took us to the Autostrada because her car was parked behind ours!
It took some time to get out of Naples but we managed it although the toll roads kept appearing from nowhere. Then south to Pompeii skirting around Vesuvius which fortunately was behaving today but sadly shrouded in low cloud. Pompeii itself is easy enough to find, it’s just finding somewhere to park that’s tricky. Anyone in their right mind would go in a bus. Eventually an octogenarian with no teeth appeared from nowhere and told us we could park outside a closed pizzeria and charged us 7euros for the pleasure, and no sign of a receipt. It was all so dubious that Vivi never really had time to enjoy the ruins as her mind was permanently focused on what the chances were of us ever seeing the car and our bikes again. Partly because as soon as we had parted with the money he told us we had to be back in 1 1/2 hours as they were locking the place. Pompeii is meant to take about 4 hours so it was a very speedy tour.






The Honorary Arch

Little fountain inside a very large house.









External walls to Pompeii




It is not a place to visit in the rain, February probably isn’t such a good month either as a lot of the exhibits are closed for renovation (or just closed). Also at the end of the day it is just a very old town with every building demolished to about head height but anything with a brick or stone archway has survived. There are some ghoulish bodies mummified in volcanic ash and even a dog which looks as if it died very uncomfortably.
Some of the buildings go back to 300BC ,and still had their wall paintings and murals intact which was interesting and the fast food outlet, public latrines and brothel are let’s face it a ‘must see’ for anyone.







Ghoulish human torso mummified in volcanic ash.





A poor old dog, his head is upside-down facing to the right at the bottom, the two black circles don't seem to be anything relevant!









The High Street - 2000+ years old!










A mural in one of the houses.





So we left and found our toothless octogenarian grinning broadly, several more cars had been lured into his web, our car was fine and once again we had to say to ourselves – what a jolly decent chap!!
In the rain we then set off to try and find somewhere to stay in Sorrento and that is where the kind man lead us halfway around the town to deposit us at the Hilton which looked very nice but as Vivi has said previously at 220 euros a night B&B wasn’t within our budget! Eventually we found the Deluxe Hostel Ulisse which had everything we needed including underground parking and was just fine.

Cassino to Naples

Tuesday 2nd February
Cassino to Naples.
We awoke (very early) to hear the Abbey bells summoning the monks to morning prayer, a very pleasant experience especially since there was no way we down in the town could ever get there in time.
The Museum was closed until March (unless you have a prearranged party of at least 20) and no amount of wheedling and pleading would get us in, which was a major blow as there were so many questions we wanted answered. We set off for Naples feeling fed up, via Caserta where the there is the Reggia de Caserta – a Royal palace and the Italian equivalent of Versailles. The trouble with Italy is that the traffic moves so fast and in such an unstoppable stream that it’s very hard to pull up and just look at something. Also car parking for important sites is either nonexistent or miles away. So we shot past the place twice and are ashamed to say – kept going. Vivi said we will just have to do Versailles and try and imagine Caserta at the same time.The adrenaline really flows driving in Naples but once used to the fact that traffic lights, pedestrian crossings are only there to be used by foreigners, it becomes quite easy. Eye contact and use of the horn is all important and it seems to flow quite well. We stayed in a b and b in a flat which is part of the most beautiful old palace on the Riviera, so the view from our attic bedroom was glorious.
A very handsome lion in Napoli.



View from our B&B
bedroom window.







The entrance to the Palazzo.

The Palazzo had been home to 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the writer and poet, and he had loved it so much his heart is buried in the garden. Our hosts looked after us beautifully and gave lots of advice on where we should go and what to see. We managed to find a secure car park which was a relief too. The first question everyone asks is “have you parked the car somewhere secure.” So the rental people probably weren’t over reacting. The car park was up the narrowest of alleys and probably was once a house or store and some very ingenious Italians now used it to park literally hundreds of cars by pushing then into position as no one could open the doors once they are stacked! We spent rather longer there than we’d expected because there was an old man with a plastic bag full of what I’d expected to be goldfish – the sort you win at a fair, but this was the Italian variation and it was full of sea horses – very sweet but we don’t think they were going back into the sea.! The area was pure artisan and the alleyway was lined with furniture restorers, upholsterers, toy makers, framers electrical repairers and a baker. Most of the inhabitants on this stretch of coast have been very helpful and friendly. One lady led us all the way out of the city to the Autostrada, another man on a motorbike showed us how to get to another hotel as his was shut (we didn’t like to tell him that 5* were not quite in our budget so had to wait until he had gone) once inside the 5* they rang around other hotels to see which were open, all so kind. The only one we weren’t so fond of managed to add an extra 20% to our supper bill through ‘cover, service and tax charges’ and there was no arguing with him. We wanted to ring Olivia so went to the British Bar where we could Skype from. It is difficult to have a private conversation on a computer using speaker phone so everyone around probably knew that Olivia and Simon had decided against visiting Naples last summer! Sitting in the pub was rather nostalgic as there were lots of posters of Bass Ireland to remind me of my father, and Alec sank 2 pints of Guinness, declared them marvelous and remembered how much he loves the Dewlish Oak.

Gaeta to Cassino (and Montecassino)

American warship moves out of Gaeta on manoeuvres.

Monday 1st February
Gaeta to Cassino
‘Cassino is on’ as the weather has cleared and the snow inland not as bad as we’d feared. We hired a Ford Focus Estate car (fits 2 bikes) from Holiday Auto rentals who have a deal with Europcar who fortunately have an office in Gaeta. We turned up at the appointed time and pointed excitedly at a Focus parked outside to be told ‘oh that’s not it’, yours is over there. Two cars up the street was an Alfa Romeo hatchback about as big as motor bike side car but clearly the pride of the fleet. Would I be able to get two bikes into that I asked? I’ve never seen such a horrified look on anyone’s face before.
Just at the point when I thought they were going to say – tough, can’t help you are on your own now, they said they might be able to procure a Golf if I waited 5 minutes. And sure enough a brand new Golf appeared. The fun really started when I said I wanted to hand it back in Salerno.”Oooh no you can’t take it to Salerno it must be taken to somewhere about 200 miles further south”. To cut a long story short you can’t insure a hire car Golf for ‘theft’ anywhere in, around or even near to Naples. You can buy the cover for 35 euros a day but as the chap kindly pointed out there wouldn’t be much point as it wouldn’t work. I began to shake with fear, what are we doing going to a place where you are so likely to be mugged you can’t even insure against it. Anyway there was nothing for it so we set off with the bikes in the back thinking we could barter them if our lives were ever seriously threatened.

The view from the top of Montecassino.

Montecassino from Cassino town.

Arriving in Cassino is quite impressive, the Monastery is very high above the city and against a clear blue sky and a snowy backdrop it looked spectacular. My dad mentions it often in his diary so it must have been the same in 1944 although a little less hospitable! Driving up to the top one begins to realize it isn’t just high, it’s very high and at the top the view is spectacular and it becomes obvious why it was of such strategic importance and so difficult to capture.

The monastery which is enormous was completely flattened by the allies in 1944 and has been painstakingly rebuilt and is absolutely beautiful. Presumably it was put back pretty much as it had been or the old monks would have been terribly confused. The cathedral has an eerie calm, stillness and silence and you definitely feel quite close to ‘our maker’ up there. Below on a hill facing the Abbey is the Polish Cemetery – a huge gash of white gravestones to remind us it was the Polish Army who eventually captured the mountain. There is also the usual supply of things tourists can’t live without. Honey, grappa, brandy, delicious chocolates, herbal remedies (nothing for baldness – I and 'others' will be sad to note) soap, postcards religious artefacts – yes you could spend a lot of time up there!
We spent the night in Cassino planning to go to Naples tomorrow but to visit the Cassino War Museum first.


The ceiling in the cathedral.

Piazza in front of the Montecassino Cathedral.

Dawn at Gaeta.

Itri to Gaeta

Sunday 31st January
Itri to Gaeta
Winter has gripped Lazio and the hills inland are well dusted with snow. 10 minutes after we set off this morning we had to take shelter under a cork tree for some time as it hailed and sleeted. Countless pickups, vans and trucks went past us and unlike the experiences of our ‘inspirer’ Edward Enfield, not one of them took pity and offered us a ride. Our host had said that it was ‘upstairs’ all the way to Itri and it really felt like it. By the time we arrived I felt as though St Peter might have been waiting for me at the top of the stairs, my heart had been so well exercised! There is a stunning old castle and we wandered up a narrow cobbled alleyway to ‘almost’ the top when we found a charming restaurant built into a cave in the rock wall which was willing to make us a latte. So all of a sudden, being frozen and very wet, we reckoned we had more important things to do.
It was then time to head back to the coast and either Gaeta or Formia. They look to be about the same size only Gaeta has a peninsula, a cathedral, an American warship and currently and exhibition of Raffaello and Tiziano. So Gaeta got it.

Gaeta entering from the Itri road.



Itri castle











Unique garden design and recycling.

Itri and the via Appia on right and remains of a Roman bridge on the hill to left.

View up to the castle










The road from Itri to the coast is very different to the road from Sperlonga to Itri. On the positive side it is ‘downhill all the way’ (To quote Mr Enfield) on the downside it is a racetrack and Sunday seems to be the day the boys come out to see what their cars really can do. It is all okay unless you inadvertently swerve to avoid a dead dog/cat (of which there are many) or pothole at the same time as someone is passing full speed. Entering Gaeta through the dock area is also an experience not to be repeated as there seem to be a lot of people with not enough to do hanging around outside bars and derelict buildings. So we peddled on, had lunch in town at a place venerating the Buffalo Mozzarella and then went to see the exhibition – which was closed!! No, only joking, but it didn’t open until 5pm so we found a hotel, unpacked and went back looking like normal people and not cyclists.
The exhibition was in the cathedral and the pictures all belonged to the Catholic Church. Unexpectedly (how stupid are we) they were therefore almost entirely of religious subjects. However there were a few we liked including one by Rubens of a young boy who had the stroppiest look on his face imaginable and that was in 1500 and something. Does anything change!! A very mournful picture of Mary by Titian and a minute painting of the baby Jesus by Raphael made all the more poignant by our having seen his tomb in the Pantheon last Monday.
The next part of our plan is to visit Monte Cassino, but the snow is making our getting up to the Abbey on the top look increasingly unlikely. My Dad wrote in his war diaries about passing it on their way north, so if possible it’s a must see.

Terracina to Itri via Sperlonga

Saturday 30th January.
Terracina to Itri
We woke up to a beautiful morning and headed off towards Sperlonga.
But not before the manager (a keen cyclist) had insisted on giving us a high carbohydrate feast which took a long time and three cappuccinos to force down – we wobbled away replete. Sperlonga is an old coastal town with numerous Roman monuments and justly regards itself as another Amalfi. (We misheard this and thought she’d said that word they don’t mention and is associated with Cosy Nostrils, and wondered whether we should give the place a wide berth)

Temple Giove Anxur above Terracina

Rock face above Terracina with Roman houses about halfway up - How??

The reason we wanted to go there was to see what remains of Tiberius’ villa which is just outside of the town. We were casting around as one does in the centre of town and asked some policemen where the ruins were and also the route for Gaeta. Both in that direction they told us, but added (in direct contrast to the police in Terracina) that it was not safe to take a bicycle along that road, there are 4kms of tunnels and solid heavy traffic. The alternative was to Itri which is a small town ten miles inland and up what would appear on the map as vertical slopes. Then you can turn back to the coast and arrive at Gaeta. 2 sides of a triangle and we only had time to do one, plus we weren’t certain that we had the stamina to get over the hills anyway.
In a bar on a piazza at the top of Sperlonga the waitress, the owner and a German girl also having a cup coffee told us that it was steep but not far and that there was plenty of accommodation in Itri, and then seeing the looks on our faces went the extra mile for us and called a hotel to make sure it was open, confirmed a price, and warned them that we might be showing up. They also made some delicious rustic bread, Parma ham and smoked cheese sandwiches for us which we took to sustain ourselves on the journey.
As it turned out the climb was massive but you can say one thing for Roman road builders, they knew how to keep the gradient as shallow as possible. For the first time in weeks the world was utterly silent – this being a little used route. The only sound we thought coming from the bells on a herd of goats but actually they were horses grazing on the mountainside with bells around their necks.

The line from left to right is the road we took to Itri.

If you think that looks flat - it is an optical illusion!

Having climbed over the hill we then had a massive downhill run, there are three bends evident in this photo, I got up to 32mph and scared myself so much I had to get off and lie down!
We had our baguettes looking up at this, the horses were to the right.

But, back in Sperlonga - The bad news was that Tiberius’ villa was now several hundred feet below us and there was absolutely no way we were giving up an inch of our hard won height advantage just to have a look at a pile of old stones!

Tiberius' Villa is beneath the first hill in the distance

Looking down on the villa.

We stayed in a lovely new hotel in the middle of nowhere surrounded by olive groves and steep hills and valleys 2 miles outside Itri. As usual we were the only 2 staying. We went for a walk amongst the olives but retired pretty quickly as every local was out for the last weekend of the shooting season. The noise was overwhelming and every little bird that moved was fired at! Alec couldn’t get over how much ammo they all carry and how much each little bird must cost!
After an initial difference of opinion over how much we would be paying - the price had mysteriously risen 10 euros above that agreed with the girl on the phone. They backed down fairly quickly when we stuck to our guns in our best Italian (Vivi did Italian O level at NFL when she was 15) and looked after us really well. We are beginning to feel a bit fed up having to pay the ‘tourist premium’ everywhere we go. By law they are meant to display prices for all meals in restaurants but the last 3 we have been to don’t have menus and just tell you what is available. It is always delicious. Last night we firmly said that we only wanted a main course but lo and behold the chef/owner produced a ‘surprise’ starter. It was a huge spicy sausage on top of a bed of broccoli, which we had to follow with the steak from the cows that wandered the Itrian hills, which we had ordered. They were having a family party and everyone was having a whale of a time except the Grandmother who was given the job of stoking the fire in a corner. She had her slippers almost in the furnace and sat looking glum fiddling with her rosary beads. All the children and the daughters in law kept as much distance as possible between her and them and were usually sheltering behind a husband as well.

San Felice to Terracina

Friday 29th January.
San Felice to Terracina.
Early to bed does not always mean early to rise but we were down to breakfast by 9.15 and were slightly surprised to find that it was on the patio which being in the shade was actually colder than if we’d been given it on the lawn. We wore every coat and jersey we had and I even wore my beret which surprised Dick M-P when he Skyped us from Athens a few minutes later grumbling about it being cold there too! There is a lot of snow on the surrounding hills and yesterday it had tried to sleet briefly before luckily turning to rain. However it probably keeps us fitter as we cycle much faster to keep warm! At the moment I am wearing both my pairs of cycling trousers and am none too hot. We have passed a lot of fruit and vegetable farms along the route and seen masses of itinerant Indian workers, in fact at times it seems as though the only people on the road on bikes are the Armitages and the Indians.





Hill behind B&B






The B&B!

Today we had a choice of stopping after 15 miles in Terracina or going 30 miles to Gaeta which we are told is pretty. The concern is the big road, which joins the quite small road we are on just after Terracina and just how badly this will affect the volume of traffic. So we’ve stopped in Terracina which is coastal and pleasant and the good news is the police tell us the next stretch of road is OK for cycling.

Harbour with boat and shrimp fisherman we passed on

the way.

Terracina is a large harbour town divided in half by the ‘via Appia’ which anyone who learned Latin at school will remember was built as a trading route in 312BC to link Rome to Capua, Itri and go all the way to Brindisi. It was hot when we arrived so we sat on the beach and had a picnic before going in search of somewhere to stay.

Harbour Terracina

Lunch Terracina beach

We turned down a B&B on the grounds that it was too tacky, didn’t do breakfast and smelt of fags. This is always a gamble because you might not find anything else and have to come back and eat humble pie. Mercifully we found a hotel, open, warm and doing breakfast all for the same price. We were the only people staying in the hotel so were given the best room which overlooked the beach and the islands of Ponza, Ventotene and in the far distance Ischia and Capri. We could watch the rainstorms come and go for miles around us.

Storms coming our way across the bay where we'd had lunch earlier!