Road trip: 36 European countries

Day 27 Lake Garda to Vincenza

26/3/2015

The rain continued solidly overnight and all through today. At “Holiday Village Butterfly” the minimal layer of gravel covering the ground on my allotted space had turned to mud and at 10am there was a dog whining incessantly in the caravan awning opposite, where it had been left for the day. I decided it was time to abandon the lake and leave .So the next stop was Vicenza.

Verona or Vicenza? , Mantua or Modena? I’m beginning to get a bit shell-shocked with all these historic Italian cities and have to think hard to remember where I am. What draws me to Vicenza today is its history as the home of the architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), from whom Palladian architecture gets its name. He was extremely busy, for there are a large number of notable Palazzi and other buildings within the city designed by him, and for which the town has set up a dedicated tourist trail. Some of his grander works are villas in the surrounding countryside also.

The campsite for the night is a dedicated camper section in a small park-and-ride car park. It has fresh water and waste drainage but no toilet block. It would be possible to walk into town as it’s not far in actually, but the 24 hour parking ticket thoughtfully provides a free bus ride into town and back for up to 5 people, and I’m happy to save my legs. The Italians really are very campervan friendly. This time I am not spending the night alone in a town car park, for there are about 10 Italian campervans here, which gives a reassuring sense of security in numbers.

Palazzo Cheiricati

I walked the “Itinerario Palladio” through the town, specifically visiting his Palazzo Chiericati, now an art museum, the Palladio Museum in his Palazzo Barbarano, and what is really a stunning gem, his Teatro Olimpico. This was his last, and some consider, his greatest work, which is the interior design of the theatre. It was opened in 1585, and is the oldest roofed theatre in the world. Its design was based on ancient Greek and Roman theatres, where the audience sits on a terrace of steps. Such was Palladio’s status ,even at that time ,the place has not been altered since.

Theatro Olimpico.The stage front.The perspective stage set behind Palladio's front is supposed to be the streets of Thebes.That part was done by Scamozzi,and also has never been altered.

Theatro Olimpico.The stage,and part of the auditorium

After getting the bus back to the carpark I set off to walk a further 1km out of town, to see the Villa Capra, also known as the Villa Rotunda, which I had spotted earlier as I drove into the city in the morning. This is considered one of, if not the , iconic designs of Palladio’s and was started in 1570.It is in a peaceful, slightly raised spot overlooking the countryside. It has a central dome, or rotunda, with a grand porticoed entrance on each of 4 sides. I could enter the small garden and walk around the building and up the steps, but it is privately owned and blinds were down on all the windows. This is another place that I recall seeing on one of Francesco da Mosto’s TV programmes, only then, he was allowed inside as a guest of the aristocratic owner! I had arrived at about 430 and I was the only person there when the old man at the gate made obvious signs that he wanted to lock up, as the clock struck 5

Villa Capra, aka Villa Rotunda .1570

Having walked around both Verona and Vicenza in the rain, I can say that I much preferred Vicenza. It is a reasonably large place, but the core of the city centre streets are pedestrianised which makes for a peaceful unhurried atmosphere. The whole place is much less crowded than Verona. The central open space, Piazza del Signori, which like Verona’s, used to be the Roman forum, is a better, wider space than Verona’s, and has two of Palladio’s great buildings, one on either side, the Loggia del Capitaniato, and the massive Basilica Palladiana. The latter was originally built in the Renaissance period around 1445 but was “modernised” by Palladio in 1546, when he designed a new portico and outer loggia. The unique experience of seeing Palladio’s many buildings as well as some attractive Renaissance ones as well, made for a great afternoon.

Loggia Capitaniato ,Piazza del Signori

Basicata Palladiana,Piazza del Signori

Rokeby Hall,Durham,1730

Out of interest I researched the arrival of Palladian architecture into Britain, as, for the date of the design of the buildings in Vicenza, the mid to late 1500s, they seem to me to be way ahead of their time. Apparently Inigo Jones is credited with being one of the first English architects to design in an early Palladian style around 1620, after visiting Italy. Examples are his Banqueting House at Whitehall, and the Queens’ House at Greenwich.

The style did not, however, really become popular in England until the Georgian period between 1714 and 1830.For my own interest again I have included a picture of Rokeby Hall in County Durham (of Rokeby Venus fame), which I have visited. This was built around 1730 and considered an early example of the architectural fashion in England, more than 150 years after Palladio was designing his buildings in Vicenza!

In the evening ,having had a simple pasta lunch in Vicenza, I decided to “eat in”-Lostintransit, with the help of the delicatessen next door ,can do 3 course suppers, with octopus salad as a starter ,then melanazane alla parmigiana ,with kale tips in oil and garlic, and frittura di verdure(vegetable tempura)all supported by a bottle of Bardolino,a legacy of Lake Garda.

Day 26 Mantua to Lake Garda and Verona

25/3/2015

today's route ( 38 km )

The attractions of Gardaland are many...

It rained and rained all day today. I had worked out that I would move on to a campsite, “Holiday village Butterfly” on the shore of Lake Garda, with a view to exploring ,or even circumnavigating, the lake. It is only a short drive from Mantua, and when I arrived at Pescheira del Garda the weather was so poor that sightseeing round the lake held no appeal. Neither did visiting any of the several theme parks near here. (The largest, ‘Gardaland’ is apparently Europe’s most visited theme park after Disneyland, Paris. There is also ‘Canevaworld’, ‘Movie Land Studios’ and several other attractions)

Pescheira del Garda is a nice little place, a resort town and ferry station, at the south end of the lake. It has a small ,strange, old town, which occupies the centre of a fortress on an island, split in half by the river Mincio as it leaves the lake(perhaps that should be two islands, then) ,and a ferry dock ,and there are yachts moored up all along the waterfront.

The fortress of Pescheira del Garda

The waterfront.The campsite is at the end of the avenue of trees on the right.

Tourists queuing to polish the statue of Juliet

One advantage of the campsite’s location is that it is just 10 minutes’ walk to the train station, so I caught a train into Verona for the afternoon, a 15 minute ride. It is quite a big and busy city and doesn’t have any camping spots in the city itself. There are some historic features remaining in the old city, which occupies a loop of the river Adige. The Roman amphitheatre remains, perhaps on a par with that at Arles, and they stage operas in it now. In the Piazza del Erbe, the centre square of the old city, and what was originally the Roman forum, there are the usual set of Renaissance city buildings, but there are no big spaces and it all seems a bit cramped. Just off this square is “Juliet’s house” with a balcony, obviously a completely fictitious place but which attracts tourists like flies. Apparently they have a staff of agony aunts who respond to the thousands of letters people in need of love send in. I couldn’t resist a peep at this spectacle-I noticed that there is a bronze statue of Juliet which has had its right boob polished shiny by all the tourists having their photo taken with her!

Verona's Roman amphitheatre

The Castelvecchio

I visited the city art museum in the Castelvecchio. This building was heavily damaged in the war and its famous bridge destroyed, but it has been rebuilt. It is interesting that the rulers of these cities seemed to fear plots and rebellions from their own people more than attacks from other states (although there was plenty of that too). The Scaligeri family, whose domain this was, built their castle on the edge of the city, with its own bridge leading to a fort the other side of the bridge, so they could escape into the countryside if things got sticky in town.

I had to do a double-take at one picture in the museum. For a moment I thought this painting of a smiling child holding a stick man drawing was a Banksy, slipped in to the exhibition, but it was painted around 1520 !

The rain took the gloss off the city a bit and I felt that 3 hours had been enough when I caught the train back to the lake again. In the evening I had the choice of the campsite restaurant, although in this case it was dead and didn’t look up to much, being in a wet marquee: I didn’t need much persuasion to ignore the 10% discount offer I’d been given .Fortunately there was plenty of choice outside the gates and I settled for a lively restaurant in a large converted boatshed, with a huge fire going at one end. Interestingly the clientele consisted mostly of several big all male parties. Perhaps sailors or water sportsmen?

Day 25 Ferrara to Mantua

24/3/2015

today's route (90km)

Next stop Modena or Mantua? Mantua won the toss, and a good choice it turned out to be,although I know I have missed much of interest in Modena.

I took the direct local road from Ferrara, by crossing to the north bank of the Po, then turning west and driving with the Po to my left for 50km.This area is absolutely and completely flat, the highest point, rather disconcertingly, being the river Po itself, which is contained with massive earth embankments, the tops of which are higher than all the surrounding houses and farm buildings.

The old city of Mantua is surrounded on 3 sides by an artificial lake, created as a defence, and crossed by two causeways. I dropped the van off at the municipal camper spot, which is on the shore of the lake facing the city. It is fully automated,15 Euro for 24 hours. You take a ticket at the barrier and pay at a machine before exit , like a car park. The price includes electricity, and the toilet and shower block ,which is centrally heated and very clean, is accessed by using your parking ticket in a scanner at the door.

The lake has constrained the growth of the city so it remains a pleasantly small place that you can walk across. Approaching across the causeway is an attractive walk, as you come nearer to the cluster of domes and towers. There is a lot to see: the city was the territory of the Gonzaga family for several centuries

Mantua, from the causeway I walked across

The Ducal Palace

I visited the Ducal palace, on Piazza Sordello, which is a massive complex, on numerous quadrangles ,added to between the 14th and 17th centuries by generations of rulers and apparently the biggest residence in Italy after the Vatican There are some 500 rooms, although just 35 are open to the public. The rooms vary in their decoration, but many of the walls with renaissance frescos were re- decorated over the years and some rooms are now in the style of the Napoleonic era or the subsequent period of Austrian occupation.

The remains of Pisanello's fresco "The tournament"

The famous wedding room with 15th century frescos by Mantegna was unfortunately closed for restoration. In some of the rooms the more recent layers have been painstakingly removed, and the result of this was the revealing of one of Pisanello’s original frescos from 1433,”The Tournament”. Adjacent to the palace is an additional and massive brick-built castle , in the same style as the one in Ferrara ,but that was closed for renovations too.

The Rotunda of S Lorenzo....

...a Byzantine era chapel,1086

Having safely deposited the van, and having arrived at my destination a little earlier today, I was able to enjoy a good lunch. I tried some Mantua specialities, firstly Tortellini di Zucca , pasta filled with sweet pumpkin and amaretti paste, served in butter with a bit of sage. The next course was Stracotto, tender meat stew cooked for 8 hours, and served with polenta. Traditionally this was made with donkey meat, but the menu said mine was beef (I think!).Later I picked up a further local speciality, giant Mantua biscuits called Torta Sbrisolona from a cake shop. They are very thick crumbly cookies filled with nuts, some of them as big as a dinner plate, and have the texture of a sweet crumble topping.

Torta Sbrisolona

To walk this meal off I set off across town to visit the Palazzo Te. This was built by the Duke Frederico II Gonzaga between 1525 -1535 as a secondary residence and pleasure palace. In an early version of work-life balance he set it up formally for periods of official relaxation once the affairs of state were complete. It is situated on what used to be the island of Te just 2 km from his main palace. Because this was built and decorated over a short period as a single entity its frescos in all the rooms are all original and intact, and are stunning. Some of the rooms are decorated with bacchanalian scenes, no doubt to stimulate the Duke’s relaxations.

Frescos in the Hall of Psyche,1533

The gods on Mt Olympus, the ceiling of the Room of Giants

One of the amazing rooms was the “Room of Giants” decorated in floor to ceiling with a 360 degree trompe d’oeil view of the world crashing in on the giants who used to rule it, as the Gods on Mount Olympus (on the ceiling) take revenge for the giants’ plot to overthrow them (from Ovid’s Metamorphosis).I suddenly realised on seeing it that I had seen it before on Francesco Da Mosto’s Italy Top to Toe series.

The Room of the Giants

As well as this, the Palace was hosting an exhibition by the Chinese dissident artist Ai WeiWei, and two other contemporary Chinese artists.

The architectural style of the Palazzo looked way ahead of its time to my English eye, as such neoclassical styles didn’t take off in English architecture till 2 centuries later.

Overall, Mantua is a very attractive place , with lots to see, and absolutely no souvenir shops or tourist tat to be seen.

Day 24 San Marino to Ferrara

23/3/2015

today's route ( 180km )

Ferrara claims to be ‘the city of the Renaissance’

This was today’s destination. The route was simple, motorway all the way, turning right at Bologna. It was a 170 km, boring, motorway drive. On joining the motorway near Rimini, I was at the start of the flat plain of the Po delta: the land was completely flat, and although on the motorway I initially passed attractive prolonged areas of orchards, coming into bloom, soon I was passing constant light industry. The Po valley is Italy’s industrial heartland, and this was in evidence by the motorway as I drove past Bologna, and Imola.

Ferrara has an historic university, founded in 1391, although this achievement is beaten by Exeter College, Oxford, which was founded in 1314 and just enjoyed its septcentennial .(Of course both these foundations are trumped by the oldest University in the world, Bologna, founded in 1088)

Ferrara 's wall

Ferrara is completely flat, and has a medieval grid system of streets that was laid out in the Renaissance and is apparently Italy’s only major city plan not to be based on that of a Roman city predecessor. The old city is completely surrounded by an extensive 16th century wall. Despite the busy exterior, the area within the walls is a haven of peace and even has some areas of fields and park, which were previously the historic cemetery and Jewish cemetery areas.

Along the top of the massive wall

The walls themselves now have a nice cycle track all around their outside, and the bastions are a walker’s and jogger’s domain. The city is a cycling city, with old ladies sedately pedalling by on the straight, flat streets. The place reminds me of Lucca, which has a similar wall system that you can cycle round. The whole place has a different air to the hill cities I have seen lately. I checked into the municipal campsite,'Campeggio Estense' which is just outside the walls and adjacent to the university sports grounds. This seems to be off the tourist trail and there was just one other occupant of the site. The field was very boggy and wet following some recent rain, and I was warned to be careful only to park one of the bays where raised platforms of large grade gravel had recently been created. The hire of a bike was offered but I decided to walk into town. I seem to be walking at least 4-5 miles per day trekking between campsites and the sights, and I’m feeling quite fit. The blisters that appeared in the first week of walking around points of interest have long gone.

Castello Estense

The iconic structure in the city is the castle, Castelo Estense. (The name has the same origins as that of the Villa d’Este in Tivoli, the Este family having seemingly got everywhere).The buildings of the city are all made of brick, there being no stone available locally, and the castle (and the city walls) are no exception. It is a strange looking construction, from a distance looking like a modern industrial site, an impression supported by its current areas of scaffolding for restoration; up close, however, you can see the decorative detail, and the moat, and inside it is decorated as a palace. The story goes that when the local people rioted in the 14th century, fed up with constant flooding (60% of the province is below sea level) the Duke temporarily placated the mob by handing over an official as a scapegoat, who was torn apart by the crowd. After this the Duke decided he need a more secure residence so the castle was built. It was another of these places which flourished in the Renaissance period, the likes of Piero della Francesca, Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci being employed by the rulers on various projects. I went around the castle, which was fairly interesting.

The Duomo of S. Giorgio,12th century

Piazza Trento e Trieste:The Duomo (right) and Palazzo Municipale at the end. At some stage in its history the Duomo has had a row of shops tacked onto its side.

Other palaces and museums were unfortunately closed for the usual Monday break, and the 12th century Duomo was also closed for some sort of work ,so I had to content myself with viewing most the sights from the outside, although actually it is easy to “do “ the city in an afternoon.

In the evening, to get some “action” I headed over the road to the bar in the University sports centre and golf club, open to the public, where I had a couple of beers. At one point I went to the bar to ask if they had any crisps or nuts, and was pleasantly surprised to be given a massive salad bowl of both, for nothing, which I ate in entirety, and then back at the van later found I needed little supper . Not a very good diet!

Day 23 Urbania ,to Urbino ,then on to the Republic of San Marino

22/3/2015

Today's route ( 95 km)

I am now in Italy’s last remaining city state, San Marino.

I spent an uneventful night in the deserted bus station car park in Urbania, but I was a little surprised when I pulled the curtains in the morning to find the car park, having been empty the night before, was now full ,and a busy Sunday morning market going on !

Setting off, in a few minutes I was in Urbino. This is a small place, but of great interest because it had a brief spell of prosperity during the renaissance, before becoming a backwater, and because of this its unified town plan and architecture of the period remain pretty much untouched. It does host a university, but its particular feature is the Ducal Palace, built by Duke Frederico da Montefeltro in the mid-1400s.We all recognise him from his famous side profile portrait by Piero della Francesca, which is in the Uffizi, Florence. He gathered together scholars, architects and artists of the period. The city walls were designed by Leonardo da Vinci. The painter Raphael was born here, his father responsible for many of the frescos in the palace, now mostly disappeared.

Lostintransit (bottom centre)dwarfed by the Ducal palace, Urbino

To walk up into the city involves a very steep climb, but as it was an extremely chilly morning, threatening rain, the effort was welcome. The Palace, a massive edifice when seen from below the city, is actually on a human scale inside. I was interested to see a room named “The King of England’s room” where James III (sic) had stayed. There was of course no such king and ”James III” was the Old Pretender, the father of Bonnie Prince Charlie (the Young Pretender), who had taken refuge in Italy around 1600.His mother had been Mary of Modena,who was the Italian second wife of James II

Renaissance streets of Urbino. Above, the Ducal Palace, which looks rather less immense when seen from the street outside, than it does from below the town.

Piero della Francesca's Madonna di Senigallia

There was the usual quantity of religious art from the 15th century, but I was pleased to see a couple of Piero della Francesca’s smaller paintings.I had followed his trail round Umbria 18 months ago-his frescos in the Azezzo Duomo, and pictures in Sansepulco, and Monterchi (the Madonna del Parto), so I’ve now added some more to the tally. I’m not sure whether they were as good as the one they had to flog off in Downton Abbey, though!

One of the main treasures, Raphael’s ‘La Muta’ was unfortunately away on loan.

San Marino ,from its highest point on Monte Titano

Before I left Urbino I had a Sunday lunch of roast lamb chops with rosemary and roast potatoes served with a free view of the palace, although the food, while good, did take ages to come. As I ate, the promised rain arrived. I then headed on for San Marino but I chickened out of the direct 40 km route the satnav wanted to take me across the hills, guessing that because the as-the-crow flies distance was half that ,it would involve considerable hairpinning climbs. Instead I took the easy route down to the coast motorway, along that a bit until just short of Rimini, then up the main road to San Marino, which was 70km but it was an easy drive. I am staying on San Marino’s only campsite(so far as I know),"Campsite Centro Vacanze San Marino".As no buses run here on Sundays, I drove up the hill towards the old walled citadel, the main point of interest ; this is perched on a steep mountain, Monte Titano.

The Palazzo Publico

I missed out on the cable car up to the city as the campervan carpark was a couple of hairpin bends higher up the hill than the base of the cable car, but fortunately from where I parked there were a series of lifts up the cliff to the little walled city. This is obviously just a tourist attraction now. It is a picturesque town, with very steep winding lanes. Apart from restaurants, there were nothing but souvenir shops, shops selling replica weapons of all types and dangerous looking knives, and, for some reason I can’t explain, optician’s shops. San Marino gets Unesco World Heritage status because of its history as one of the world’s oldest republics and representative democracies. The little fortress ,La Rocca, perched right on top of the mountain peak, was actually in the mist as I climbed the final ladder in the top tower, but in the distance I could see the sea at Rimini. On a clear day you are supposed to be able to see the Croatian coast.

Day 22 Rome to Tivoli,then Urbania(the Marche)

21/3/2015

today's route (350 km)

Before I left the Rome area I wanted to visit Tivoli in the hills just to the east of Rome. There are two sights of note there, first of all the Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa) which was a huge palace complex built in the 2nd century. It has been studied for some centuries and was one of the sources of classical architecture which the neoclassical architects of the Renaissance learnt from. To the untrained eye it is definitely just a ruin of brick walls, admittedly some of them very big, but the complex stretches over a huge site of 300 acres, and is surrounded by olive orchards .It is not particularly well interpreted for the visitor, apart from a model, but you can walk over the whole site , which has many huge parts of building still standing ,scattered around ,and to me it seemed as if you might be wandering over a 'romantic ruin' ,through the olive trees, almost as visitors on the grand tour must have done 300 years ago.

Hadrian's villa then.........

......and now.

The second place I visited was the Villa D’Este , built by Cardinal D’Este in the mid-16th century, and particularly famous for its water garden. Some of the stone and statuary for this were actually taken from the Villa Adriana, although a form of crude archaeology and recording was also undertaken by the cardinal too. The Renaissance Villa itself is not in great repair, and is empty, but has many rooms colourfully decorated in relatively work-a-day 16th century frescos, which although no doubt interesting ,fell a bit flat on me after the Vatican. It is the water features and garden which make the villa famous, and is listed by Unesco as a world heritage site because of its huge influence on future garden design, through the Renaissance , and onwards. I had wondered about staying the night in Tivoli, but the town itself is not a particularly nice place. From a distance it seems to be an old hill town, but on drawing nearer the buildings on the hill turn out to be modern apartment blocks.

Le Cento Fontane,"the hundred fountains"

The fountain of Neptune

Fontana dell'Ovato ,"The oval fountain"

My trip to Tivoli was not without incident, as I fell foul of the Motorway toll system, like so many appear to do. The Rome ring road motorways are not tolled, so I joined the system without the need to pick up a ticket. As I approached the ticket barriers near Tivoli, at the start of the tolled section, and where I should have collected a ticket to continue, I instead decided to come off the motorway at that point and took the sliproad off to the right before the toll booths. This led down not to a way off the motorway but to another toll booth section, but only for those paying, not collecting tickets!. So I was stuck. I put on the flashers, while I wondered what to do. The last time ,some years ago ,in Portugal I went through a telepass channel by mistake(there is no barrier in these lanes)I collected a fine at the other end equal to the toll for the longest motorway drive I could have managed, so I didn’t want to repeat that. At that moment a Police car pulled up and advised me to go through the telepass channel but first ring the assistance bell on a little post (which I didn’t know existed)I did get a voice at the other end , but it didn’t seem to understand my problem. In the end I just went through. When I came off the motorway just 5km later, luckily there was a manned toll booth. When I tried to explain the issue, I was resigned to my fate when a charge of 75 Euro appeared on the screen. He looked at my number plate, tapped into his computer, and obviously found where I did join the system as he then just asked me for 1 Euro 80 c. But then I was given a long printout, saying I still owed 73 Euro 20c which must be paid within 2 weeks: But it does state the toll station where I made my mistake, and one of the payment options is to pay at any toll booth-so I am guessing that he would have asked for the whole 75 Euro then and there if I really was supposed to pay it.Watch this space …

My next destination is to be Urbino, before moving on to San Marino, so I decided that I might as well get most of the distance covered this afternoon, and thus drove a total of 350 km. I retraced my steps up the A1 motorway, skirted Arezzo, and then passed the little village in Umbria where I spent a pleasant week two autumns ago, Monterchi, before heading over the hills from Sansepulcro.There is a good but very mountainous road that climbs east over a high pass in the Apennines, where there was just the faint vestige of snow left, before making a long descent to Urbania, a small town 20km short of Urbino, and I am using Urbania as an overnight stop as it has a free dedicated camper stop. “Urbania” sounds as if it should feature in some dystopic film by Fritz Lang ,but was named in the 16th century not after its neighbour, Urbino, but after the Pope at the time ,Pope Urban. It is a mostly modern town, and not very exciting but does have the Duke of Urbino’s old summer residence. The camper stop has free electricity, if I were to need it (I have learnt that I can do without), and waste dumps, but it is by a main road and shares the car park with the bus station. But every place is the same when you’re inside the van!

Day 21 Rome

20/3/2015

This train is basically s**t

At last I managed to see the Vatican museums and Sistine chapel, at the fourth attempt (The failed attempts during my previous visits to Rome are long story involving impossible queues and unexpected closures due to obscure religious days)

For those who have not been, the system now is simple but a surprisingly large number of people fail the test. According to one travel guidebook, people have two levels of IQ-those who queue to get in, and those who avoid queuing! One can book online, on the day (I did this, this morning), the reservation document is emailed, with a QR code on it. You then bypass the hoards of touts who accost you as you come near the place and try to sell you tickets for tours which “jump the line”,you bypass the massively long round-the block queue for the ticket office that looks as if it’s a couple of hours long,and literally walk straight in through the door (even bypassing the queue of pre-booked tour groups) and the QR code on your phone/tablet is scanned, and ticket issued.

Selfie?

Just after buying my ticket online, I had a mild panic as I heard that there was an air traffic control strike today in Italy, "part of a widespread general strike”, and I feared Rome public transport would be affected. Fortunately not, so I was able to board the same grubby suburban train as I did yesterday .Even better, the day’s travel card I bought yesterday was actually valid for 24 hours so lasted half of today too. In view of the presence of an increasing number of Welsh rugby fans here for the Italy-Wales Six Nations match tomorrow I wore my England rugby shirt, which brought only silence from the many Welsh I saw, but some extremely positive comments from some English.

One of Raphael's many frescos

I suspect that a lot of people going into the Vatican museums seem to think they are just going to “The Sistine Chapel” and are impatient to push through to reach it ,but there is so much more treasure there to see. It is a large place, with many rooms.There is quite a scrum and at times one must just move at the pace of the crowd, but there are some rewarding detours from the main route that many seem to avoid. There is a huge mass of Eqyptian , Greek and Roman statuary; interestingly though, the nude ones have been affected by a sculptural version of Bowdlerisation, and have all had figleaves attached at some point in their history. Then there are the series of rooms frescoed throughout by Raphael in 1514-17, and then the Borgia apartments , frescoed by Pinturicchio,in 1492-94 . There is a considerable amount of historic religious art as one might expect but also more modern stuff by Chagall, Klee, Van Gogh to name a few. Most of the crowd moved through this without much of a glance

a Pinturicchio fresco in the Borgia apartments

The Hall of Maps. I thought this bore a similarity to the Hall of Battles in the Escorial

I did begin to wonder if the Sistine chapel itself, which is near the end of the tour, might be a mild disappointment after so much else of amazement. But it was absolutely stunning. In fact my personal view was that the famous ceiling by Michaelangelo takes second place to the wall frescos by such as Botticelli and Perugino. What I particularly like about the frescos of this period is how all the people in the scenes are dressed in the fashions, and doing the day to day things that were done contemporary with the paintings, and thus they don’t seem of a particularly religious nature, but rather a graphically clear and beautiful depiction of (generally)wealthy Italian life in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. No photos and no talking allowed here, though!(it being a chapel) Amusingly,as I have found before in very touristy religious sites in Italy, the crowds are shushed by a curator over the loud speaker at intervals;this dampens the hubbub for thirty seconds or so ,before the whispering becomes a crescendo of talking once more, to be shushed again. The noise levels are also not helped by repeated loudspeaker admonishments of people snatching forbidden photos.

Bernini's "Fontana dei Quatro Fiumi" ,Piazza Navona

I wandered through many of the sights in Central Rome, wearing my shoes down a bit in the process. Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Trajan’s column were all great sights. I did drag myself to the Trevi fountain to throw a few more coins in, but the task had to be done metaphorically only, as it was drained dry and undergoing heavy restoration

Day 20 Tuscany to Rome

19/3/2015

Today's route (180km)

I have discovered where all the missing tourists are-Rome!

It turns out that I did have company at my camper spot last night, as some nocturnal campers turned up at 10pm.When I left at 10am in the morning they hadn’t yet stirred. I joined the A1 motorway, the main motorway south, and headed for Rome,170km.The motorway is a good one with two lanes AND a hard shoulder(It must be a nightmare if you break down in one of the tunnels on the other motorway, with no hard shoulder ;in fact breaking down anywhere on it would be a huge danger)

The A1 follows the Tiber(Tevere) valley down from Umbria to Rome, and the landscape looks much more recognisable as possibly even English, with arable fields in the valley and partially wooded slopes of deciduous trees, yet to gain any leaves, on either side of the river. The Tiber is not a big river, of comparable size ,say,to the Severn before it reaches Gloucester. Notable within this pleasant but fairly unremarkable scenery ,I passed two large old hill towns standing on bastions of cliffs, which look worth a visit. One was Orvieto: I think the other was Orte ,a little further south.

'Camping Flaminio' ,a nice campsite in the outskirts of Rome

Serena the satnav got me through the Rome ring road system reasonably painlessly, although I did go round one bit of flyover three times before I found the right limb to come off on. 'Village Flaminio',the campsite in the northern subburbs of Rome,off the Via Flaminia Nuovo,is the poshest one I’ve been on yet.There is a convenient commuter station(Due Ponti ) 300 yards away that gets me into central Rome in 15 minutes, at the terminus at Piazza del Populo, near the Spanish Steps. The trains consist of the most disgusting grimy graffited set of rolling stock I’ve ever seen. Strangely, apparently one has to ring a bell, as if you were on a bus, if you want to stop at one of the stations on the way back, or you risk missing your stop. At the campsite, classical music plays in the very smart marble fitted toilet and shower block, and there is a bar and an apparently good restaurant. Fortunately with my out- of-season card it’s a very reasonable 16 Euro a night.

No shortage of tourists at the Spanish Steps

In Rome the touts who used to try to sell you sun glasses and leather bags have given up on those and now they all try to sell you are selfie sticks. I’m seriously thinking of getting one just to stop being hassled. I’ve also seen a handful of Welsh rugby fans, here early for the match on Saturday.

I have now knocked the Vatican City off my list of countries but the Vatican museums are shut today for one of those obscure religious days designed to frustrate visitors. I have given myself a full day tomorrow to go back into Rome and have a further look around.

The crew enjoying a bit of shore leave

The Vatican:St Peter's

In the evening I went to explore the campsite restaurant,up a little hill to one side of the resort.It has its own access road so I think is a semi-independent establishment.Inside it was very quiet with two couples eating but seemed very impressive,with a huge pizza oven in which were cooked not just pizzas but actually the speciality of the house which are huge roasts.In a refrigerated display cabinet were huge hauches of half animal,from which a butcher carved your selected cut before initiating roasting in the huge open oven, and then handed your care over to the dinner-jacketed waiting staff. And for a place that clearly had pretty large overheads, I found the menu very reasonable and enjoyed an excellent three course meal. I can only presume that they make their money in the much busier months of the summer yet to come.

Day 19 Siena,to Montalcino,Pienza and Montepulciano

18/3/2015

today's route (90km)

Montalcino

Coffee in Montalcino, lunch in Pienza, and supper in Montepulciano. That was today’s plan: so far I had visited places in Tuscany I have seen before and today I wanted to see something new. These towns are no more than 30km from Siena, and are in the classic Tuscan region of the Crete Senesi ,those little rolling hillocks in an open landscape, each with a house on top surrounded by a few cypresses, and with an avenue of more along the drive, seeming randomly planted but with the effect of perfect beauty. The attractiveness is not by chance, though, for In fact this area, the Val D’Orcia, just south of Pienza, is a World Heritage site. This was one of the first areas when man, in the form of Siennese colonists, in the 14th and 15th centuries, planted and created a landscape specifically with beauty in mind.

Montalcino is a small place, with a single street running along a ridge, a little castle at one end and the church at the other.

The Val D'Orcia, viewed from the Pope's garden

Pienza, at least the old city part of it, is equally small and occupies a similar spot on a ridge. Its particular significance is that Pope Pius II made this (his home town)his summer residence in the 15th century, and built a summer palace, the Piccolomini Palace, named after his surname. At that time the papacy was hereditary, and his son Pope Pius III also lived there. With this and associated buildings, it means that what is essentially a village is stuffed with riches,including some Borgia history, and for this reason is another World Heritage site.This picture shows the only street in old Pienza,the Borgia palace to the left,Palazzo Publico(with tower) and Pallazzo Piccolomini at the end.

The Piccolomini Palace, and tiny cathedral,Pienza

After lunch in a nice little trattoria I visited the palace, last lived in by the Count Piccolomini, the Popes’ descendant, up until WW2.There were some interesting photos on display of his life among Italian society in the 20’s and 30’s,and the Mussolini era. The Count’s son was killed in the war, flying, and the palace was bequeathed to the municipality. It was a cold place, but full of contemporary 15th and 16th century furniture, owned by the family. I had a guided tour all to myself: it was very interesting but the audio guide I was given had a voice like Vincent Price, which didn’t help perk things up, and a little embarrassing as the guide had to trail me round.

Montepulciano

After Pienza I headed for Montepulciano. While this also occupies a ridge, it is quite a bit bigger than the other two towns and involved a stiff walk getting up to the top, and along the whole town. I was intending to stay in the camper spot below the town, but having got there I found that it closed at 7am tomorrow for the weekly market, so not fancying having to get away before 7 ,I moved on. I saved myself 12 Euro in the process, the car park overnight charge, as the next nearest spot I then headed for was a gem, a free, dedicated camper spot in the little town of Torrita di Siena, with water, waste disposal, even with free electricity hook up. I was the only occupant tonight. The town itself has a perfectly decent little Centro Storico (Historic town centre), where all the medieval-looking flags were up for their annual parade on Sunday, but they probably miss out on most of the tourists.

Palazzo Communale, Montepulciano

Great free camper spot in Torrita di Siena, even got its own Cypress trees.

Festival time in Torrita di Sienna

Roman Graffiti in Montepulciano-one for Mary Beard

Day 18 Cinque Terre to Siena, via San Gimignano

17/3/2015

today's route (280km)

Climbing out of Deiva Marina to join the tunnelling A12 motorway high above

With the drizzle forecast to continue another day, but brighter weather on the way ,I decided to use today to travel a distance further south, to Tuscany. Ultimately I’m aiming, of course, for the Vatican City, another country on the list to visit.

The only feasible way out of Deiva Marina was to climb back to the motorway. By the time I left the campsite I still had seen absolutely no sign of anyone, even though I was parked only 20 yards from the reception kiosk. Before leaving I tried ringing the campsite number-no answer-so finally I just had to leave without paying. The showers were hot but there was nobody home!

Quite soon into the journey the motorway actually descended to a narrow coastal plain near La Spezia-so no more tunnels! The mountains were still high to my left (the east) and on each descending ridge from them was perched a hill town. I would imagine that the defensive strategy was that the armies taking the easy route along the plain couldn’t be bothered to slog up the mountains to each little town. At one point the steep jagged mountains had had great slices taken out of them, on the most impossible cliffs and pinnacles. As I momentarily wondered what this was, I passed the sign to Carrara, and realised they were the famous marble quarries.

Very soon I was skirting Pisa. Having visited the leaning tower twice already, and found the rest of Pisa to be rather an unpleasant place, I was happy just to give the tower and Duomo a wave as I passed them . At Pisa I came off the motorway, for now the roads were much more horizontal. For 160 km I paid this time 8 Euro, a cheaper rate: but the man in the toll booth-(at last, a manned toll booth!) was having such a heated argument with a woman in there with him, that I’ve no idea if he charged me the correct rate.

One thing Italian drivers seem incapable of doing is ,when coming down a slip road onto the motorway, is to match their speed to that of the motorway traffic before joining it. A couple of times now a car has been joining the motorway ahead of me .I have slowed a little to let him come on in front of me, but in Italy, they seem to treat the slip road as a junction: stop ,and then join. So on these occasions, I have slowed, the driver on the slip road slows, until we are both nearly stationary. I have given up trying to let them in now. Often you see stationary cars at the end of slip roads, trying to join the motorway.

San Gimignano

I stopped for lunch at San Gimignano, and renewed my acquaintance with the famous towers. I managed to find a free carpark(both in the sense having a space, and there being no charge) The joys of visiting off-season! Together with the British having bombed Genoa cathedral, and the Americans destroying a lot of the murals in the Pisa’s Campo de Miracoli with a bomb, the Germans nearly blew up the towers of San Gimignano ,in the war, to prevent them being used as observation posts, and were only stopped by Maggie Smith and Judy Dench (He’s thinking of the film ‘Tea with Mussolini ’ : Ed)

Actually, for a fantastic description of what the war meant in this area, I recommend reading “War in Val D’Orcia” by Iris Origo, who was an Englishwoman who had married an Italian Count, and together taken on a large farming estate. Her war diary is absolutely fascinating. She risked everything to provide help for a succession of orphaned children, Jews, escaped British POWs, and Italian partisans.

So ,on to Siena, and I stopped in the town’s campsite, Camping Colleverde , a couple of miles out from the centre and caught the bus into town. I visited the Duomo. I have been there before but I had almost forgotten just how breathtaking this 13th century building is. Other than that, I had a good explore and walk around. The weather was just too cold for any of the cafes in the Piazza del Campo (where the Palio is run) to have outside customers, and the excellent ice cream shops had few takers either.