Roadtripping

Getting a little behind with these updates! We pretty much had 2 days on the road, staying overnight in a gorgeous bnb on the outskirts of the small town of Atina. The road tolls are very expensive here in Italy so we have turned on the 'avoid toll roads' option on our GPS and although it takes longer to get from point A to point B, the landscape is a lot nicer than simply driving along the autostrada. It also allows us to go off the beaten track a little if we see something we want to explore. Like this little lake we could see in the distance, so off we go in search of it. It was very inviting but do you think I can remember the name of it - unfortunately not! There were people wakeboarding, someone was paddle boarding, there was a group camping on the side of the lake, and there were a couple of areas where you could hire kayaks, pedal boats, paddle boards, etc. I imagine weekends would be very busy here.
Also, what is it with all these vapor trails we are seeing here in Italy? Every time we look into the sky there are numerous trails, not just as a once-off but frequently.
We arrived at our bnb early afternoon, so we had time to chill out a bit by the pool before heading into town. We drove into the old town looking for somewhere to have dinner but that was a bit of an exercise mid-week. It was quite early by Italian standards (no-one generally eats before 8 pm at the very earliest) so we found a bar in the piazza to have a drink and while away the time. Drinks were finished and still nothing so we headed into the new part of town and drove around for about 10 minutes before we found a wee pizza place that was open - whew, we're not going hungry tonight after all 😉.
Maybe our host did think that we had missed out on dinner because the next morning we were treated to a scrumptious breakfast that consisted of everything you could think of - cereal, yoghurt, ham, cheese, tomatoes, boiled eggs, pastries, croissants, toast, juices ... there was so much for just the two of us. Our host was the sweetest lady who tried really hard to engage with us even though her English was a little broken. It was quite sad to leave this bnb.
Our next stop was Napoli (Naples) but I don't really have too much to say about this stop. In fact we didn't even stop, we drove into the centre of town and drove straight out again. The place was not a good advert for Italy and the driving, holy moly what a terrifying experience that was. The amount of traffic is insane and there didn't appear to be any road rules. It simply seemed to be a free-for-all (scooters, cars, vans, trucks). We were talking to a local person that night about the traffic in Napoli and their response was "if you can drive in Napoli you can drive anywhere in the world". It's not an experience I wish to repeat!Leia mais