Defeated by Naples, again.

This morning the sun was shining through my bedroom window so with my shower and breakfast over I was in the car about to programme the sat nav when I glanced at the clock. 07:30 - nowhere opens before 10am so I was too early for my planned exploration of local sights, damn. OK I plugged Herculaneum into the satnav and off we went, Naples was fun driving, it is amazing how there are not more accidents but that is my UK brain talking. Italians go were they aim and if everyone follows suit and makes allowances for this it works very well, anyway we got very close to the site but there as no parking spaces to be found and then the problems started my satnav got lost, I was travelling down a dual carriageway and she thought we were in a field, eventually after a number of hiccups on her behalf I just headed South with the sun in the left corner of the windscreen and went to Paestum on the recommendation of Saga friend and what a great idea that was, at times I thought I was on the Nile, the temples were just unbelievably well preserved and these were pre Roman structures, thanks for the tip Anne. The journey back to my hotel took a little longer than expected due to a closed motorway but there is always a silver lining and I got to go to a Lidl, where I picked up food for dinner and three lunches plus two bottles of wine for less than a tenner. Loads of photos taken over the past few days but my minimal tech knowledge means I will probably do a picture blog when I get home. My previous experience of Naples was on a motorbike on my way to a posting in Cyprus, I had planned to visit Pompeii then and set off in the morning from Civitavechia, all went well until I arrived just outside Naples when the heavens opened and I bounced from pothole to pothole on the cobbled street in the pouring rain for what seemed like hours only to miss Pompeii altogether until I saw an apparition of a marble hotel on a cliff top in Sorento. I squelched into reception in sodden leathers and boots only to be told................yes sir we have a room for you and a garage for your bike and if you hang your leathers in our boiler room they will be dry by morning, a fellow biker behind the reception desk, as I said there is always a silver lining especially when you least expect it.