Campsites,Italy # 4of13

On our first visit to Rome, we easily found Camping Monte Antenne in Villa Ada on Via Salario, but just as we entered the campsite our VW Camper Van ran out of gasoline. How’s that for dumb? If it had to happen, it couldn’t have happened at a better place, and a kind lady from England provided transportation to the station and back. We still have receipt No. 14687, dated Aug. 25, 1970, that shows we paid 2850 lire ($2) for the RV and four people (Emmy, daughter Linda, friend Linda, and me), two nights in Rome. Per person, per night, 25¢.

The campsite owner at Pescara, on the Adriatic Sea, was a member of the Italian Army, and he and his wife had just opened this campsite. They hope it will make them a good living when he retires in a few years.

How did the city planners, in several centuries BC, know just where to place Pompeii so that 2,000+ years later it would be at an off-ramp of the Autostrada, next to a railway station, hotels, and the campsite? Ancient Pompeii is just a block away. The campsite has a few rooms for rent, by the hour. Housing is very scarce, most young people don’t have their own apartment. We saw well dressed couples in nice cars waiting to rent a room in the Pompeii campground for an hour, or maybe after such a long wait, just a few minutes. How romantic!

At the campsite named “Mozzarella ‘d Buffalo,” just south of Salerno, Emmy ordered some Mozzarella cheese, and was given a lump of soft white cheese, in water in a plastic bag. Really fresh Mozzarella, we were just across the street from a herd of buffalo, and the supply of buffalo milk. Our camping spot was so close to the water that when we went to bed we could hear the waves of the Tyrrhenian Sea quietly lapping the shore. With a light April shower besprinkling the tin roof of the RV, this was the epitome of a romantic Italian vacation spot. The next morning the nearby hills were frosted with a fresh mantle of snow.

One year, while visiting Florence, the campsite was full and we were directed to Camping Panoramico in Fiesole. The four mile drive to Fiesole was narrow, twisty, steep — it’s hard to believe that we never left town. From the campsite we looked over the Arno River Valley with the domes and towers of Florence spread out below, especially the Campanile and the huge dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. Fantastic!