Ramblings cut short.

Apparently there is going to be a strike in Greek ports on Sunday so my ferry will not be sailing at 9pm but now at 2pm which works for me now I can sleep in a proper bed rather than roughing it on an overnight ferry, excellent I will be able to greet the boys clean, polished and awake. Yesterday I did my final exploration, the weather has at last changed and the little white legs put in an appearance. The people over here seem to walk around with closed faces but engage them in conversation and they smile and open up especially out in the sticks but I suppose that applies to most parts of the world. Today's task was a slow admin session pottering around to get ready for next weeks activity break. I love a good potter. The fridge and larder are now empty so I will be dining at the local bistro tonight I just hope they have some real meat.

Further ramblings.

I have now explored the boot of Italy South of Lecce, I am not excited, a number of the small resorts have space for passing yachts and Castro could be worth a weekend visit but that is about it for me. I am going to try the local wines tomorrow apparently they have a good reputation but I was told this by a local chap so we will see also I will take some photos for the blog but also to show you what the area is like. I must admit I am looking forward to Greece for the kebabs and chops I have just about had enough pasta, pizza and paninis but I cannot fault the wine especially the huge range of good Chianti, if you ever get over here never, never, never drink the super cheap bottles in the supermarkets in fact you are better off buying the five litre plastic containers at least that won't rot your teeth or take the lining off your stomach.

Italian ramblings.

On my way down from the mountains I was passing Foggia when I caught a glimpse of a scantily clad young lady in the layby to my right, very nice I thought but a little further down the road another young lady in a skin tight purple dress and six inch heels was standing in another layby and this was at about midday, where these Layby Lils if so the police who were passing at the same time as me did not seem concerned. I was always under the impression that the Italians had a certain sense of style, now I know I am not known for my sartorial elegance but some of the sights I have seen over here are just amazing. I saw a very skinny young guy yesterday dressed all in black from pixie boots, skin-tight jeans and jacket and the biggest scarf you have ever seen wrapped around his neck topped by a shaved head with a tuft of hair left on top, he looked like a black ice-cream cone. The uniform for mutton just now is heeled pixie boots, black leggings, mini skirt and too tight top with OTT make-up and carefully teased out hair accompanied of course by the regulation huge sunglasses. Yesterday's exploring was cancelled due to pouring rain, so I stocked up with beer and wine at Lidl and read another book, fortunately it stopped raining at 5pm so I at least got out for a walk, I was starting to seize up with all this enforced relaxation. Today I caught the resort shuttle bus into Lecce and I was very glad I had, the traffic was mad and parking legally is impossible which probably explains why locals double park or park on pedestrian crossings etc, if I tried that I would get a ticket as I now know from experience. Lecce old town was interesting a little too baroque and full of tourists for me but after a couple of hours walking the streets I found a street cafe selling local craft beers to while away the time waiting for the shuttle back to the resort, a pleasant people watching spell.

Way down South.

The journey down from the hills on Saturday was very pleasant I think everyone was having a lie in, the hills and hairpins are now behind me, Puglia is a relatively flat and featureless province with long straight roads. My new accommodation leaves a lot to be desired but the one plus is it has the first sprung mattress since arriving in Europe, one of the problems here is limited WiFi so this could limit my blogging. The weather has also slowed me down along with yesterday's Mayday holiday but I plan to explore today.

Why travel too far.

I must admit when I booked this weeks accommodation I did not research it too well, I knew it was in the hills between Rome And Naples so automatically assumed I could just pop down and do Pompeii etc. The reality is that Italian country roads and their attendant speed limits are not conducive to speedy travel so like most things it has taken a while to register in my brain. I will save the Rome and Roman antiquities for a future city break type visit. Today I have been exploring Medieval villages, the fact that these villages were usually built on hilltops and mountainsides escaped me until I started walking their streets, of course present me with a hill and I have to go to the top, but when I did finally reach the church at the top of the village of Pizzone I needed a prolonged break to look at the view. My visit to that village was a delight, I only saw two of the inhabitants and they both said hello. The funkiest thing was hearing the strains of 'Smoke on the water' coming from a little bar that didn't even look open, it certainly put a smile on my face. On a whim I followed the road uphill from Pizzone and ended up in the blind valley that my resort is named after, I only saw one car and two foresters on the way there and back, it was a brilliant experience being so remote, once I got over the worry of being eaten by the local bear population. I was starting to feel persecuted with the amount of cloud and rain I have experienced (nothing like Wales of course) but then I am I the hills above the 1550 foot contour what should I expect at this time of year. This afternoon I heard the music outside and I thought it was the ice cream man but it was the local mobile shop so I went over to buy some of his locally sourced fruit and veg, that was another conversation carried out in mostly sign language I really will have to knuckle down and try to learn some Italian. On my way back to the apartment I followed a lady who was searching in the undergrowth I was a little confused until I realised she was looking for snails, she did offer me some - I think, but I refused politely and hurried on my way. This is a lovely quite part of Italy, as I said earlier I just wish I could communicate a little better because unlike in the tourist areas the local people here have no reason to learn English in fact in one of the villages I visited today the villagers were Albanian refugees from two hundred years ago and their Italian was nearly as bad as mine.

Cultural in Molise.

Today's first call was to the Paleolithic Museum just outside Isernia. My guide book advised that I would need to pre-book but I turned up on the off chance and I was made very welcome, I think the custodian was fed up with all the screaming school parties. One part of the museum is built over an ongoing archeological dig and some of the artefacts they have found are on display in the museum. The site was discovered in 1979 during excavations for a road and the oldest part of the dig has been identified at between 650,000 to 700,000 years ago, the oldest site so far discovered in Europe. The next visit was to a museum in Campobasso but that turned into another farse, it was the lunchtime rush hour and of course there was no parking so I departed rapidly and retired to a ristorante in the country, I asked for a glass of red to go with the meal but the waiter brought me a half litre when I asked him to change it he poured half of it into a litre carafe that a couple of lorry drivers were sharing, simples. The restaurant was next door to my next stop, the Roman town of Saepinum. I nearly had the place to myself there were a few sheep, goats and chickens that kept me company. There are some farms and cottages on the site and some of the old ones have incorporated parts of the original buildings, very relaxing to walk around after my huge lunch.

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.