Part 3 (18 March - 4 April) From Pisa to Castellabate, Italy

As we drove from Pisa to Florence on the B roads avoiding the toll fees, we were suddenly surprised by a pack of wild Lama’s (yes, the woolly spitting animals, not the comedians) on the side of the road. We stopped for some cool pictures, amazed to see them roam free in the middle of Italy. 

Florence

Relieved that we reached our camping without a scratch because of the crazy Italian way of driving (we found almost no cars in this part of Italy without damage of some sort), we chose to use the public transport to visit the city center. We found Florence to be a beautiful city, full of historical meaning with some breathtaking buildings and sculptures.

We visited many museums, churches and basilicas and felt small next to the enormous statues, paintings and buildings (as we are supposed to, us being good Catholics). We thought that we were visiting the city in low season so we were surprised to find it very crowded. The crowds mainly consisted of school kids on a field trip, which was pretty convenient as we could listen in on the teacher’s historical stories in a way that Nicolette never got at school. Jeroen has enjoyed a better education on these subjects than Nicolette, mainly because of his Latin classes in high school (but surely his love for Asterix and Obelix also has something to do with it J.) So he now has a full time job educating Nicolette as we visit places like Florence, Rome and Pompeii with such a rich history.

Siena

We left Chianti and visited Siena for a walk through the city center, where we enjoyed lunch amidst lots of students on their lunch break at the famous and beautiful square “Il Campo”, where twice each year a truly mad horse race is being held (the race is mad, not the horses) in a tiny arena. There`s a nice vibe in that beautiful small town, highly recommended!

On our way to Rome we stopped at a nature reserve in San Lorenzo Nouvo, half way to Rome from Siena. We again found a sweet spot to camp for the night in a field near Lago di Bolsena, with only a dirt road to reach it and a nice view overlooking the region from up the hill. When Jeroen got out of the car the next morning he had an encounter with a “barking deer” as it is called, which came to investigate what our car was doing in his territory.  

Rome

In Rome we stayed at a very luxurious camping (it`s still vacation guys J) just 4km from the Vatican. We took the bus and the metro to visit the city and walked to the famous Spanish stairs, and we couldn’t believe the crowds there! For our Dutch readers; it kind of looked like Amsterdam on Queens Day! We forgot that it was the weekend before Easter and there were many tourist and officials from all over the world getting ready to see the Popes Urbi et Orbi at the Saint Peter square. This meant long lines at the Vatican, helicopters ferrying people above Rome and loads of military forces in the city, not the best time to visit.

We tried to get a look at the Trevi fountain but because of the crowds this almost impossible and decided to return on Monday; the picture on the left was taken on the much quieter Monday. So we decided to go off the beaten track (in Rome, yeah right) and went to a cinema to see the only English-spoken movie in town, appropriately called “Hail Ceasar”. The movie wasn`t that good, but what did make our evening were a couple of Dutch kids (between 18 and 20 we guess) sitting behind us whom obviously didn’t expect anyone else to speak Dutch. As soon as they sat down the queen-bee of the lot started gossiping about us (and others) complaining loudly about having to look at Jeroen`s bald head (she had a point there J), the fact that we were cozying up to each other (again, she had a point) but then, let’s just say, she took her comments a bit too far: time for action. Jeroen turned around and calmly said in proper Dutch: “Young lady, we are Dutch” then paused briefly to wait for the reaction, which came instantly. The girl sank back in her seat, eyes wide open and put her hand in front of her mouth. As she turned chalk white fearing what would come next, Jeroen continued ”But we really don’t care, enjoy the movie” and turned back around. The comments stopped instantly and we had a good laugh, knowing that she had learned a valuable lesson that evening. 

The next day, just before leaving the city we visited Saint Peter Square to see if we could arrange tickets for the Sistine chapel the next day. It was almost 6 in the evening and we saw people going into the Basilica. We followed this crowd and found that we were immediately granted admission. There was a mass going on we could witness from a short distance. We have visited a lot of beautifully build and decorated churches, but Saint Peters Basilica is absolutely amazing, and being able to attend a mass here certainly is one to strike from our bucket list. 

Pompeii & Herculaneum

In Pompeii we visited the well-preserved ruins of the old city which was devastated by an eruption of mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The place throws you back 2000 years ago, and you can easily imagine what life was like back then: many beautiful mosaiced floors and artifacts, and also grooves carved in the road from the many carriages. Pompeii made a big impression on us, so the next day we visited Herculaneum, a city that had undergone the same disastrous faith as Pompeii, but was even better preserved. What got our imagination going was that a substantial part of the ancient city is still buried under the city of Ercolano, which was build on top of it. The streets in ancient Herculaneum suddenly end into a wall, on top of which the slums of the Ercolano begin. Because excavations of Herculaneum started in the early 1800`s and many of the early finds were stolen or carted off to some private collection one can only imagine the richness of history that is still waiting to be found.