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34. Italy and France to Calais - 27 April to 12 May 2010
There's something about Italy! There's a certain exuberance and energy to daily life and it felt good to be back. We wanted to re-visit the Amalfi Coast and Sorrento, but had decided to take a detour on the way to explore some of the country around the 'in-step' area of the 'boot' while we were so far south.
A fabulous drive across to the northern Ionian coastline in Calabria at a perfect time, with spring flowers across the beautiful Italian countryside until we reached our campsite - Thurium 'campiggio villaggio' - another rather deserted camping village overlooking a rather shabby beach through a high fence. The beaches are less than appealing at this time of the year, though in mid-summer with holiday-makers and warm weather, it is easy to imagine them as popular holiday destinations.
Once in Basilicata we visited Matera, said to be one of the world's oldest towns where the simple natural caves dotting the gorge through the town were adapted to become homes in early times. The now famous 'sassi' area, where stone houses were carved out of the caves and cliffs, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. However, in the 1920s when space ran out, many people were forced to live in the hillside caves in abject poverty until the 1950s, when the government forcefully relocated this 50% of the town's population into new residential areas.
We then travelled to Alberobello in the Trulli area in Puglia, near where the 'heel' and 'instep' meet. Since the 15th Century, Trulli houses were built 'a secco' meaning without use of mortar, with dry local limestone stones one on top of the other. They were originally domed to the ground and built this way to avoid paying taxes for houses to the King of Naples - they could be destroyed easily in case of a royal inspection. Another UNESCO World Heritage site and very popular with tourists - but still .........trulli interesting!!!
Back on the other side of Italy, the Amalfi Coast was stunning again, but confirmed our fears that our vehicle was rather large to be negotiating the narrow, curvy coastal road, and unfortunately we had chosen the May Day weekend to travel through to Sorrento. The coastline was crowded with cars, people and buses everywhere making it impossible to drive through at a leisurely pace, though we did stop at Minori for coffee and Positano for a great lunch. We were unable to stop at Amalfi as there was absolutely no parking left, which was rather disappointing. So once in Sorrento, Brian came up with the idea of renting a motor scooter to ride back down and enjoy another day exploring, but bike riding hasn't been on the agenda since Pilliga and Dirranbandi days, so I wasn't so sure. We decided instead to hire a Smart Car. Great fun and we had a wonderful day exploring the Amalfi Coast even further, even parking at Amalfi and having another great seafood lunch above the beach.
We also loved Sorrento again and the Nube d'Argento camping site was close to the centre and situated on the hillside overlooking the sea. The night we arrived there was such a party atmosphere with families in the streets waiting for a street procession to pass, celebrating the city's patron saint, Sant'Antonino, who is credited with having saved Sorrento during WWII when Salerno and Naples were heavily bombed.
After a few days in Sorrento, we suddenly felt it was time to head for home. Our plan was to leave our car with family on the outskirts of London, and to come back at a later date to see more of Europe. Suddenly now it seemed to have more urgency, missing family and looking forward to seeing everyone again. With Paul and Susan's wedding coming up in October, we wanted to be part of the excitement and planning.
Within a week we had travelled north through Italy and crossed the border into France through the 12km long Frejus Tunnel which cost a staggering 46 euros for our 'just over 2-metre high' vehicle, and then north to Calais where we would catch the ferry across to Dover. We travelled on the auto-routes, hugely expensive but they ate up the kilometres with ease, and we only stopped briefly at the incredible roadside AutoGrilles which sell fuel as well as a wonderful array of sometimes bizarre merchandise. We only travelled the beautiful country roads of Italy and France when we were finding our campsites, sometimes taking a longer route back to the auto-route to experience some of the local fare. A huge contrast to how we had journeyed so far, and hardly doing justice to Italy and France, and we do love travelling in France, but once the decision had been made to go home, our flight was booked and we now had a deadline to travel towards. Not only that, it had also become freezing cold and wet - another reason to move on more quickly.
Our last day in France was our wedding anniversary. We were driving through Champagne and wanted to visit the Mailly champagne house where we had bought champagne and champagne glasses on a previous visit with Craig and Paul in 1999. When we arrived, they were closed until 2 o'clock for lunch and it was 12.30. We decided we could quite easily fill in the time if we could find a nice restaurant for lunch. Nice turned into extraordinary, because in a village not far from Mailly called Sillery, we found a Michelin rated restaurant, Le Relais de Sillery, and in our not-so-flash travelling gear, we enjoyed great hospitality and a really incredible French meal.
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