30th Oct: The Isle of Capri

Well, Sorrento drew us back sooner than we thought, if only to catch the ferry to Capri! A flat calm day was essential as we are not good sea travellers even for the 25 minutes on the hydrofoil. This is the pretty little harbour from where we ascended by funicular to the main town, also called Capri. Capri is a classy, attractive town of small squares and narrow alleyways

The island is 4 miles by 2, so any elevated position gives stunning coastal views. This one, from the edge of Capri town, shows a deep blue sea and, if you can spot it, a turret near the shore was part of the villa where singer Gracie Fields used to live. That won’t mean much if you’re not in our age group, but she became Britain’s highest paid pre-war performer. Husband no.2 died in 1950, so she lived there alone until 1952 when she married a Rumanian-born local who had come to repair her radio!

Then we walked from Capri town, up 1,000 ft to Emperor Tiberius’ palace overlooking the mainland. Tiberius ruled the empire from here for the last 10 years of his life, from AD27 to 37, and it was here that he received the news of Christ’s execution.

This next photo doesn’t look at lot different from one earlier. It would have had great significance had you been one of Tiberius’ victims: they were cast off these vertical cliffs near the palace. Wringing a positive comment from this severe type of justice, it was probably somewhat more effective than ASBOs.


Parts of the island are quite populated, but there are just a few full size roads e.g. between the port and Capri town. The main communication arteries are lanes too narrow for cars. These have good pavement surfaces and take special narrow electrically powered vehicles, as in the example below. As with the APE 50’s, are we looking at the future?


Capri did have a certain magic but we needed more time to savour the quieter parts of the island.

27th Oct: Come Back to Sorrento!

Yes, beautiful climate, lovely cliff-top views, handsome town etc., but not exactly dragging us back. Did we miss something?

Now this below is much more interesting. Jane’s really taken with it. These small 50cc transports are to be found all over Italy. It’s called an APE 50, steered with motorbike handlebars, and designed for driver only but frequently accommodates two Italians. So, scrap our fancy cars & let’s all have one of these. At a stroke, it’s the energy crisis solved, speeding offences solved, junk transportation problems solved. It’s also the ultimate social leveller. (Metallic paint, turbo, 3 wheel drive versions, all not allowed, but perhaps a covered wagon version to transport the family would be permissible).

25th Oct: Up Pompeii!

We’re now staying near Sorrento and today visited Pompeii: 20 minutes on the train.

The scale of Pompeii was far greater than we expected, as was the state of preservation, all due to being covered by 6 metres of volcanic ash. The culprit was Mt. Vesuvius, shown in the background and me in the forum. Doesn’t look very threatening, does it? (The volcano, not me!)

The town was laid out on a grid system and what you see here is the main shopping street, complete with traffic calming measures! These big stones were actually stepping stones for pedestrians to cross the street in wet weather leaving gaps sufficient for cartwheels to pass.

This is an example of a shop selling food. The food was stored in jars sunk into the counter top and could, if necessary, be kept warm by heating the jar from underneath. Fast food Pompeii style. We weren’t able to determine where the Clarks shoes agency was.

The houses & gardens of the wealthy were lavishly decorated. These are some examples of the murals.


Can't decide if this guy is having a sly fag or picking his nose.









Building Methods. What looked to be solid stone usually wasn’t. They built most structures in brick, or a mixture of brick and stone, and then faced that over with mortar and/ or plaster. The decaying wall photo shows how these layers are built up.


Entertainment: the Coliseum. This is the oldest one known, and you can see its’ interior scale with reference to the two modern-day posers.

The exterior of the building should be even more awe-inspiring, but actually looks like a disused victorian railway viaduct.

Finale: an atmospheric temple, jazzed up a bit by the photo-programme.





In summary, Pompeii was a most impressive place.

20th Oct: Italians Observed

Except in the cities, the Italians don’t seem to go in much for normal width pavements. It could be because, even when provided, the locals walk in the road. The Council therefore constructs a pavement one foot wide, thereby discharging their duty, but making it more comfortable to walk in the road. The chicken or the egg?

Near Genoa, on our way to Tuscany, we stopped for lunch in the lorry park of the motorway services. Parked next to us was a lorry driver sat at the side of his vehicle eating his lunch. Having finished his lunch, the lorry driver turned on a water tap that most continental lorries seem to have on the chassis behind the cab, and rinsed his plate and cutlery.
All perfectly usual. But then he extracted his false teeth and rinsed them, very diplomatically- but instead of reinserting them, he put them in the palm of his hand and wandered off through the lorry park. The question is, was he looking for his mates so he could ventriloquise the teeth into telling an “I say, I say, I say” type joke? Unfortunately, we’ll never know!

Oct 18th: Siena

Train again, and a cold but bright day. Perhaps not ideal tripper weather, but we were enchanted. First photo is the central square, the Piazza del Campo, ringed by medieval buildings with 11 streets and passageways feeding into it. The large edifice with the tower is the Town Hall, nearly as splendid as Huntingdon’s Pathfinder house before it was demolished.
Photo 2 is just a typical example of one of the beautiful buildings you stumble across everywhere.

The cathedral was something else. We’ve never seen so many superb examples of different kinds of artistic work. Each of the following is a representation of a fraction of what was in the building:



12 to 14C Cathedral exterior, marble cladding
















Cathedral interior, black and white marble facings







16C Mural depicting Pope








13C Book of Illuminated writing








15- 16C Inlaid marble floor tableau: one of many covering most of the floor space.

Despite containing so many treasures and being such a tourist venue, the town had a real living soul, not at all like some Disney attraction they locked up at 8.00pm and everybody went home. Siena was our favourite place so far.

Oct 15th: Florence2

This visit was devoted to the Uffizi Galley. The tickets were bookable on line at a large premium, but we didn’t have to queue. The gallery itself was stunning: Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael etc.- and they were just the cloakroom attendants! Everything was larger than life, including the price of the coffee at €4.50 each (£4), but a total experience not to be missed.


Photos are unsurprisingly not allowed in the museum itself but from a window between the rooms you could take a good view of the Ponte Vecchio. The lower photo is taken from the coffee shop terrace, over the rooftops of central Florence- a shot worth all of €9?

Oct 10th-14th: Small Towns in Tuscany

Sometimes smaller places give you a better atmosphere of past times than the showcase cities.
San Gimignano is an example. The whole town is 14th C and is all the more authentic for being a little patched up here and there.



Each building is also so different.













These worn steps are from the town of San Miniato. You can picture the medieval townsfolk strolling up and down them of an evening & maybe the odd medieval drunk falling in a heap at the bottom.
Not much has changed!

Oct 11th: Pisa

Couldn’t go to Pisa and not include THE photo. We did resist the tourist’ favourite snapshot: the photo showing the hands of child/partner/friend stretched out supporting the toppling tower. Immense pains were being taken, “in a bit”…”out a bit”…to snap the hands in the precise position to save the precious monument.

This is the actual brass light fitting that Galileo saw swinging back and fore, and deduced that it appeared to take the same time to swing each arc, even as it was slowing down. He turned these observations into formal calculations for the time-swing of the pendulum, the principles of which were applied to create pendulum clocks, the most accurate timepieces in general use until modern times.


Wondrously lifelike, intricate carved figures support the pulpit in Pisa cathedral. The lady’s hand in covering her nakedness shows a very proper modesty. You aren’t allowed to speculate on any other interpretation.

Oct 9th: Florence

Any city that’s named after a character in the Magic Roundabout has to hold high expectations, and Florence didn’t disappoint. Here we have the Ponte Vecchio, and then us in front of a copy of Michelangelo’s David in the Piazza della Signoria. The Piazza itself was full of wonderful statues and palaces. Far too much to do in a day, so further trips on the cards.


We took the train to Florence. Italian trains seem to run reasonably to time but all look in need of tlc and are covered in graffiti- see sad example below. While waiting for the stopping train to take us to Florence, an express thundered through the station, which is on a curve. The express was able to take the bend at such a high speed because the railway lines are set at different heights, so creating a banked track. What a brilliant idea! Our train pulls up a few minutes later. We are now presented with getting into a train with an upward slope of 30 degrees. So much for the banked track! It does hasten the departure of alighting passengers, however, by rolling them straight onto the platform as soon as the doors open.

Oct 4th to Oct 7th: Ciao Italy!

We arrived yesterday at Montopoli where the site is almost empty, as can be seen from the photo. You won’t be able to see that the caravan aerial is missing, replaced by a small silver lump. That’s half a coke bottle secured by elephant tape. The aerial snapped somewhere en route but, fortunately, was prevented from falling off by the cable, so simply rolled around on the roof. Elephant tape is the most wonderful instant repair solution and secures anything including, presumably, defective elephants.

The weather today was sunny and warm (26º). We spent a lazy day on site followed by a pleasant evening walk up to the picturesque small town of Montopoli (nearly the board game!). We are conveniently located 25 miles from Pisa or Florence and well placed to visit most parts of the region.

June 10th- 16th: France, The Lot Valley

One days drive from Barcelona takes us to Vers. This is a village near Cahors with a municipal campsite on the banks of the river Lot. The photo is taken from the end of the camp where we were pitched. It is a beautiful setting and very peaceful – apart from Friday night when a gang of noisy campers partied until the early hours. They left on Saturday morning after consultation with the warden!

The village above is St Cirq Lapopie, a short drive away from Vers. It clings to the cliffs above the river Lot and is mostly medieval. The houses below are typical. It did have a number of expensive boutique clothes shops, souvenir stores and restaurants, but did not come across as too touristy.

Had to really include the photo below of Cahor’s famous bridge, the Pont Valentré. It dates from the 13th Century and, when we walked over it, we were impressed by how sturdy and well repaired it still was. Half expected a troupe of Knights to come clopping across, but had to make do with a party of schoolchildren.

The weather was a comfortable 25 to 28 degrees maximum. To sum up, this area’s got the Lot! Now, sitting in Calais car ferry port writing this, two days after leaving Vers, temperature 15 degrees, reminds us we’re now back to real Summer weather.

June 9th: Barcelona Part 2

We wanted to get an overall feel of Barcelona, so where better to start than with Gaudi’s architecture, and the city’s no.1 attraction the unfinished cathedral Sagrada Familia. Gaudi worked on this, on and off, for 43 years until his death in 1926 (run over by a tram). He based his designs on natural forms- trees & plants, crystals, shell patterns etc. and work is currently proceeding towards completing the cathedral using these principles. It is planned to finish it by 2030. The next photo shows some tree-like main support pillars that are of the recent construction.


Gaudi’s own work is much more ornate, and presumably accounts for the 43 years he put into it. The photo below illustrates the wealth of detail above the entrance doors in the main facade that is part of the original structure.


More Gaudi below – a block of apartments in the centre of the city. Note the flowing lines and organic appearance. It is remarkable to think this building was constructed in the early 1900’s.


This one below, again, is all curves, but more highly decorated with tiles.



As we said in the previous blog, Barcelona is an elegant city and the final pic of the fountains, and Jane, in the Placa de Catalunya sort of sums it up. Pity about the yellow barrier, but this is a “warts and all “ show, folks.

June 7th: Barcelona

All major ports in Spain seem to claim theirs was the departure point for Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America. Barcelona is no exception and has a huge commemoration column to prove it!

Starting at Christopher Columbus on the waterfront, we walked up the most famous street, which is called the Rambla. There are stalls, artists and street performers everywhere, most quite unusual and amusing, but what a way to earn a living! The clown below roamed around making a nuisance of himself by e.g. putting his wig on bald passers-by and startling women with a whistle. We watched him while having coffee at a pavement café and were much tickled. If not for the clown’s gear, he would surely have been arrested.

The Rambla itself is full of elegant buildings, like the Opera house. The picture below is of a house decorated with classical style figures and objects.

We walked from the Rambla a short way into the Gothic Quarter, the oldest part of the city that houses the cathedral and many lovely squares. The lovely square in the photo below is Jane.

One more for the road: a medieval courtyard with a classical guitarist who was very good. It’s a sad comment that he was getting fewer donations than the clown!

Picasso Museum next stop, but obviously no photos allowed. The museum was laid out in the chronological order of Picasso’s life (1881-1973), from his early roots as a portrait painter through his blue period and on to cubism. Apart from the portraits, we were generally rather baffled by his work, but it was a really interesting experience.
Barcelona came across as a clean, stylish and vibrant city, with plenty to see. We only scratched the surface but we’ll report more after our next visit tomorrow.