Another day in Paradise?
Dave the motorhome is itching to get moving, he’s getting a bit bored and cold sitting still at Camping Flaminio just outside Rome (N41.95879, E12.48152).
Having travelled halfway across Europe and back this week unsurprisingly Jay was happy to chill out and relax today. It’s the festival of the Immaculate Conception today, so while The Pope was blessing a church in town, we were using the public holiday wisely; to titivate our website. The public holiday also explains why there are now around 50 Italian motorhomes parked around us keeping Dave company – good job we got here early and got a good pitch!
Jay working hard on our site – the cable leads to our wifi dongle which is stuck to a stick on the front of Dave, it gets a better signal there!
You might have noticed we’ve introduced a bit of colour to some of the pages and we now have a snazzy new logo – what do you think?
We’ve moved stuff around a bit in the menus across the top, so now it should be easier to find stuff :
Home – Is an introduction to the site and how to get around it.
Daily Blog – is where you are now, our regular update section
Our Route – shows you where we’ve been
Guides and Reviews – here you’ll find guides to motorhoming, country guides, reviews of the kit we use and a map of all the aires (motorhome parkings) across Europe.
Inspiration – Look here for blogs of fellow travellers, books that have inspired us to travel (and those that have made it possible), some of the many, many photos we’ve taken on the trip (I really need to update these, sorry) and a link to our You Tube channel which holds all the videos we take.
About us – I know we talk about ourselves all the time, but if you’re new to the site you might want to know who on earth we are so that’s here, along with how to contact us, random musings we have on the road and another link to our You Tube channel.
Our Shop – Last but not least, you can find out more information about the book (soon to be books) we’ve written while on the road!).
As we often tweet relevant news stories or motorhoming related articles we’ve added a twitter feed to the side bar or the site, so you can see what I’ve been tweeting about.
We’ve been for a walk around the site and Charlie has done some major tennis ball chasing. He has, ahem, acquired one of the balls that has ventured over from the tennis courts next door. The tent area of the campsite is littered with them, so a warning to anyone thinking of camping here in the summer, bring a hard hat! To thaw out we cracked open another bottle from our Gluhwein stash – which is now only one bottle, so not really a stash, must stock up again!
Hmmm – Christmas is coming, the Gluhwein is getting warm.
Tonight we were treated to a free fireworks display from somewhere nearby, Charlie retreated to his safe zone under the table while I nipped out to try and take some snaps – they do these things always end by the time you’ve finally found the camera and your shoes?
Fireworks over Dave who is all wrapped up for the night
Speaking of shoes, well boots actually, Jay’s walking boots have finally been relegated to the bin after weeks of being glued back together and leaking – he bought some new ones when he was in the UK.
Jay’s boots finally get flung
It’s been a strangely busy day, sure we could have gone into Rome, but we’re making the most of our free day – the site offered 7 days for the price of 6 – by hanging around here. The wifi is still bust though, so when we check out tomorrow we’ll be haggling for a refund. Tomorrow we head south. We haven’t actually planned where we’re going – Sicily eventually, via Pompeii, Naples, Sorrento and a couple of other places – any suggestions gladly received!
Ju x
Hi guys,
we went straight to Naples/Pompeii after Rome. Naples is an easy to access on public transport from Pompeii. Only advice if you go straihgt to Pompeii pay the 2euro for the toll around Naples. The roads are a nightmare around Naples and Pompeii – infact the worse we have experienced anywhere yet. Beware of pick pockets & bag snatckers at Naples train station – apart from that Naples was better than we expected and well worth a visit. Pompeii is ofcause awesome and you can drive Dave up the volcano and then climb to the crater if you wish.
Fantastic information, much appreciated, that sounds like €2 well spent! Can’t wait to see Pompeii and maybe Herculaneum too, it’s like a dream coming true getting to see all these places. Naples sounds worth a trip too; we’ll hold onto our stuff like limpets. Cheers again, Jay
Love the new look website – easier to negotiate!Naples is a really filthy place, but I would go back,just to visit the Naples Museum ((Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli)It is huge!It has lots of relics from Pompeii and amazing statues.And very cheap to get in! Pompeii was fascinating, but we found Herculeaneum much more so, since most of it is still in situ and not behind glass cases in a museum! Take your camera, but hold it tight ;) xx
Thanks Pamela
We’ll certainly be holding onto the camera after the pickpocketing incident on Wednesday! False wallet will be called upon for additional duties across southern Italy no doubt.
Julie
Pompeii, Vesuvius, Sorrento and Positano are all worth a visit…… very narrow roads everywhere so ignore the suggestions of your satnav. We were in a tiny Fiat and roads were too narrow so Dave would find it just too stressful! Didn’t see many campsites but I’m sure that out of season you will find places to park up. We stayed in Sorrento… try the Panetteria-Pizzeria Franco
Corso Italia 265, Sorrento, Italy… for a cheap local pizza.
So envious of your travels right now!
Thanks Mandy
We don’t trust our satnav (aka Shat-nav) on the best roads, so looks like me and her will have plenty of arguments to come as we get further south!
Julie
Hi u 2
Had to “paw’s” for thought, but love the new logo.
Home is where the Christmas Tree and lights are, loving them.
Now there lies a question, where do u hope to land for Xmas day? And what will it be in the oven? Hope Charlie’s sent his letter to Santa.
Safe journeys.
Hi Steph
Thanks for the nice comments about our new logo. For Christmas we’re aiming for Sicily, plan to find a campsite and settle in for a couple of days and Skype friends and family. As for Christmas dinner, last year we had a BBQ and it will probably be the same again this year as Dave is oven less. The BBQ is a gas one and can be an oven, albeit an outdoors one. As for what’s going in/on it? We’ll have to see what Lidl has in stock, as it will be meat of some sort – hopefully a bird – along with some roast spuds, can’t wait.
I’m also saving the mince pies Jay brought back from the UK for a Christmas treat, smothered in mascarpone – yum!
Ju x
I remember being quite scared at Naples train station several years ago – a very dodgy place indeed. But I did survive unscathed, you just have to have your wits about you all the time. Pozzuoli was lovely, Vesuvius was interesting, and I also spent a great few days on the little island of Procida out in the bay. But from memory I can’t imagine it being very mobile home-friend; it’s quite small and I don’t remember there being many roads!
Cheers Craig, good to hear from you. I’m going into Naples armed with a bazooka. Rome train station seemed bad enough, police everywhere, but still dodgy-looking blokes staring over your shoulder at the cash machine. Maybe our savage guard dog will keep the baddies at bay? Thanks for the advice, we’re pretty clueless about where we’re going, as ever, so it’s all handy. Just working out where to head to next, Monte Cassino looks like a go-er, although we’ve read that 6 months of Allied battering pretty much rendered it back to dust. Jay