Cool Calming Campania

We left the campsite in Rome at lunchtime and drove 60km to our next stop in Campania, the region immediately south of Lazio which marks the real beginning of Southern Italy.

Wild Camp 25: Rocca di Pappa 

A quiet car park in a small town high up in the mountains. We walked Oscar when we arrived and came across a large park. It was a hive of activity with groups of children playing, parents chatting over coffee and a gardener mowing the grass. We sat on a bench and watched as lots of dogs came and went one after another, we looked around for their owners as they went to leave the park but soon realised that they were all strays. They trotted into the park, had a little play and got some attention from the children and when they'd finished they just trotted off out of the gates on their own. One of the strays was a big fat beagle, we named him Cooper. He resembled a squashed beer barrel on legs.
 

Oscar and his new pals

Cooper the beer barrel Beagle

It was strange to see that amount of stray dogs running around doing as they pleased and nobody even batting an eyelid, evidently they have no dog catchers or kennels here. We wanted to put a lead on Cooper and take him home with us, although Oscar took a slight disliking too him in protest so we decided against it. When we left the park we walked around town to see what was going on, it was mostly small bars packed full with groups of old men chatting loudly and playing cards and the odd fruit and veg shop. The weather turned with little warning so we stopped at the local supermarket for supplies and headed back to the camper. We shared a Conad party mix, a pizza and played a few games of cards.

The famous Conad Party Mix  

Wild Camp 26: Pomezia
We woke the next morning to heavy rain and decided to have a duvet day, we excitedly gathered our duvet and the laptop ready to settle on the sofa and watch a few films. Substituting breakfast for biscuits we went to put the stove on for a cup of tea. Typical for us, no gas!! There was nothing coming through from the bottle. Jac braved the weather to check the bottle and the pipe for a blockage but couldn't see anything. Our duvet day in ruins we decided to get dressed and find the nearest Tourist Information Office in the hope they might be able to help us.

En route we bumped into a shop owner in the village, her English was excellent and she offered to help. She sent her husband to take a look whilst she rang around to find a workshop for us. Her husband came back as baffled as we were so she sent us 15km down the road to a Camper Service Garage.  We arrived at the garage around 11am and explained our problem. We helpfully gave a demonstration to highlight our problem and low and behold, the gas had miraculously started working again, hugely embarrassing. As we were there and not wishing to waste anyone's time we got them to fix a few minor problems, a leaking skylight, a broken fan and a dodgy fridge.

Whilst we were waiting we chatted with a young boy named Sean. He was 6 years old and could speak English, Italian, French, Spanish, Greek and Mexican. He was extremely intelligent and had a vivid imagination. He told us lots of story's, one about his dead cat who sadly passed away after the family car drove over its paw, one about his friends from all over the world, Julian from Collumbia, Daniel from Poland and Emily from China. He told us about when he visited the Jurassic coast in England and how he and his best friend were plucked from their tents by a Spineasaurus, the largest of all dinosaurs, they were only able to escape by jumping from the nest hundreds of metres high in a tree when the creature fell asleep.

With the help of Sean's story's the afternoon flew by and the work was done before we knew it. We set off for our wild camp 20 minutes down the road. The wild camp was a basic gravel car park next to a private airfield. We were sheltered by hundreds of solar panels which meant it was cool for Oscar. We managed to get some wifi and spent the next couple of days relaxing, catching up with family and watching military fighter jets zoom past us at the speed of light. Oscar spent the majority of the next few days sleeping.

Oscar napping, for a change

Wild Camp 27: Sermoneta
70km south of Pomezia a beautiful little village half way up a hillside. The wild camp was a car park outside the village with amazing views, it reminded us a little of Portsdown Hill albeit with slightly brighter landscapes.

Sermoneta

 

 

The wild camp at Sermoneta

We took a 15 minute stroll into the village to look for a Tourist Information Office, It was filled with narrow winding alley ways and lots of little shops selling hand made ornaments and trinkets and lovely little patisseries and sweet shops which all had small trays of tasters outside making the streets smell like sugar.

Archways and alleys filled the village

The old bell tower, now a house

There had been a wedding and they were just finishing their photos when we arrived, there were people everywhere and one of the bars in the village had drinks and snacks waiting for all the guests after the ceremony. We were tempted to sneak in but as we were dressed in flip flops and shorts we thought we might stand out a little too much and thought better of it. Jac spotted a slingshot in one of the shops, he didn't stop talking about it until we went back and bought it. Sightseeing was over and Jac was desperate to get back to the camper to test his new toy. He didn't speak a word for half an hour, instead he sat in a chair firing stones at a lamp post, his fun was short lived, after 10 shots he broke the slingshot, he looked genuinely distraught and threw it in the bin.

Watching the sunset at Sermoneta

Wild Camp 28: Suio

This should have been a relatively short drive to the next spot in Gaeta, a picturesque spot along the coast, however when we arrived there was nowhere to park, we tried three other spots and managed to get ourselves stuck in a maze of narrow winding streets before giving up and leaving the town altogether. We drove 160km before we finally found somewhere suitable at around 10pm. A quiet grassy area, with pitches separated by orange trees. We paid 10€ for the night and were given access to a thermal pool although we decided against using it as it was a scorching day and the thought of a hot bath in the sunshine made us feel queasy. We opted for a walk 1.5km into the town where we passed stalls selling monkey nuts and ice creams. We set off mid afternoon the following day for our final stop before Pompei.

Wild Camp 29: Santa Maria Capua Vetere
79km south of Suio we reached our next stop. A large car park for cars and campers and a camper service area. It was fairly busy here with people coming and going until quite late. Keen to get an early start the following morning we had dinner and got an early night.