Campsites,Italy #13of13

We drove past what looked like a ruin of an Amphitheater in Sutri. It looked rather small, but we are too tired to look more — that is too tired. We were a few miles north of Rome, and didn’t feel like fighting city traffic in late afternoon, so camped near Anguillara, along a lake that is a recreational area.

The scenery near Cannigione, Sardinia, was marvelous, the campsite was just fine. There were many new vacation homes and condos already existing, or being built in the area. Yacht basins have lots of boats and space for more. We tried to get information and a ticket for the ferry to Sicily, but the computer at the local travel office is not working, and they have no idea when it will be up and running. We travel with the idea of (almost) never a reservation, (almost) never an advance ticket purchase, (almost) never a schedule problem, but the boat to Sicily only runs a couple of times each week.

The lady at the tourist office on the Auto Strada near Rome, gave us the addresses of some Chrysler dealers, as we wanted to get the brakes on the Dodge checked. Emmy was tired from our climb to the top of Mt. Vesuvius, earlier today, so following the directions, we found a campsite with very little problem, at about “one o’clock” on the ring road around Rome. The next day it took the Chrysler mechanics an hour to remove the wheels, then they said they would order the parts, and for us to come back in two months. The brake pads looked OK, so I said, “Forget it!” It took another hour to replace the wheels.

In the town of Levanto we found a camping place in a parking lot near the railroad station. A city employee came and collected 15,000 Lire ($10), a lot of money to park in a parking lot with some drinking water nearby, but much cheaper, and not crowded like the campsite we saw a couple of miles away. The next morning we walked across the street to the train station and bought tickets for the train ride to the five little coastal towns called The Cinque Terre (five lands).

We spent the night in Pinata Al Mare, the nearest open campsite, several miles north of Brandisi. The next morning we drove to the dock in Brandisi, found a good parking place and just walked a little and rested a lot, until we boarded SS Valentino and sailed to Greece, camped at the port rail.

There are ferry boats to Sicily only a couple of times a week, and we are waiting to buy our tickets. We spent one night in San Teodoro, Sardinia, then took advantage of the delay and lay on the beach for awhile — what a way to spend a vacation.