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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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Road to Pompeii I have written before in VISA about travelling in Europe with a caravan. Last year I booked a month on the continent, and drove as far south as the Bay of Naples. Inevitably it takes longer than flying, but the advantages are that one can see other places on the way, one does not have to pack everything in a case, and one has one’s own car for use. On the way South I stopped near Saint Quentin, then near Moulins. A lock on a canal at Saint Quentin, whilst it works on the same principle as those on British canals, is larger, power operated and Continental canals are still used commercially. Then to Le Puy en Velay, a very unusual town, where there are several volcanic outcrops from the underlying valley. The Cathedral, with its Black Virgin, is on top of one of these and some of the other outcrops have churches and other monuments. Continuing further south, I stopped again in France at Aix-en Provence. In this area the authorities put signs on roads where deaths have occurred. It would be interesting to know if they have had any effect on road safety. Usually I had been to the Continent in August, when the vines were fully grown and it was a lot warmer. Travelling in April is much more comfortable as one travels south, and the vineyards look very different. I visited the ancient port of Marseille. From here I almost followed the coast to Pisa in Italy. I say almost because the main road is a kilometre or so from the coast, but the coast was visible for a long distance. If one actually followed the coast, the route would be very windy, as the mountains come down to the sea in a large number of ridges. This means that the main road has continual tunnels and viaducts across the valleys. I didn’t actually count them, but there must have been about a hundred tunnels, and viaducts crossing valleys. When I had last visited Pisa, in 1997, the leaning tower was cordoned off, and there were a large number of metal weights on one side of the tower to stop it leaning further. This time they had all gone, and if one paid 15 Euros one could climb to the top, via the spiral staircase which went around the edge of the tower. From Pisa I drove south to Seiano, on the road between Naples and Sorrento, and found a pleasant camp site in the valley. This was very convenient as the local train stopped on the viaduct crossing the valley. This meant that the car had a rest, and I didn't need to worry about parking when I visited Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii and Herculaneum (Ercolano). The ruins of both these cities, destroyed when Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, are close to the railway stations and coaches go up Vesuvius from the latter station. The cathedral in Naples did not stand out like the one in Marseille, but the inside was extremely ornate. My flash was not powerful enough to obtain a good picture. Part of Naples is on a hill, and whilst this can be reached by the ordinary roads, there are several funicular railways between different parts of the upper and lower cities. From the upper city and the castle, great views could be obtained right across the bay. The upper city had far less traffic than the rest of the city. One can easily spend a whole day looking around the city of Pompeii, with its temples, ordinary houses and places of work like bakeries etc. There are also a couple of theatres and a coliseum. I was surprised to see how much of the town was intact, including many walls and some roofs. It was not just like visiting some ruins which just have foundations of buildings left. Special rates could be obtained for visiting several sites, and discounts were available for teachers. As well as the two ruined cities, there are several other smaller ruined sites locally. Oplontis is one such site. There are many other places of interest, including Capri and the Amalfi coast which I did not have time to visit. On the return
journey, I stopped at Rome for a few days. The new Pope had only been
elected about a week before, but there were many pictures of the new Pope,
and they even had rosary beads with his picture for sale. St Peter’s
Square had the evidence of crowds from the previous week, but was relatively
empty. Rome has so many ruined sites in the current city. Like many other
cities, the best way to see its layout is on foot, and one can walk between
most major sites in a few hours. When I had driven to Italy before, I needed several different currencies, but now it is much easier, with the Euro being used almost everywhere. Switzerland still has its own currency, but many places accept the Euro, and so I didn’t need to get any Swiss Francs as I stopped near Lucerne. Even though Switzerland is not in the EU, one can cross the border into France at Basel, without noticing it. Then I returned to Calais via Luxembourg and Arlon. According to Auto-route the total distance of this journey was 4688 km. Inevitably I would have driven much further than this, by local travelling when I stayed somewhere for a few days. First published in VISA issue 66 (Apr 2006) |