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Climbing up the Back of Italy’s Leg

We’ve come about a hundred miles north in a direct line, more to the east than west of the country but have driven about twice that by road in order to see a different part of the Apennines.    We stop for a look at the (with English pronunciation) unfortunately named Norcia which is a delightful little place with the walls still completely encircling the town.  Famous for what seems to be everything you’d want to make from a wild boar carcass plus a lot of things you probably wouldn’t care to, it seems that every other shop is decorated with stuffed boar’s heads.  The town also produces some damn fine ice-cream.  Stinco lies nearby so there’s definitely something about the town names here that strike me as amusing. On the way north we stopped at a highly picturesque little (yes, hill town, how did you guess) place which had been hit by an earthquake in 2009.  The 18 metre medieval tower collapsed completely and many other buildings were damaged...
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To the Hills, to the Hills

Unsurprisingly, we have no regrets at leaving Anzio although it did have a lovely ice-cream shop.  We head eastwards into Abruzzo, a mountainous region which is said to be very untouristy and judging by the paucity of campsites listed in our books it is too.   This is considered low season and we saw one site that doesn’t even open until mid-June. It’s a region full of hill towns, often with access by steep narrow roads or long flights of steps.   Originally built for security of course, not just to be awkward.   Goodness knows how isolated people must get when they can’t negotiate the gradients.  Wheelchairs would be death-traps but it would be a quick way to go.   Naturally the way would be downhill.  Most of these villages seem to have no shops but it could be like rural Portugal where you have to be a local to know which house is really a shop.  These are villages to be parked outside of and walked into, or to be mor...
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Eventful Anzio

On our way south we spent a couple of days visiting San Gimignano in Tuscany, seemingly a whole medieval town of follies.  Standing on a hilltop with impressive views anyway, the 14 th century way of outdoing your neighbour was to build a bigger tower than his (or hers).  Although to be honest, in 14 th century Italy it was probably his.  Families outdid each other and at one time there were 72 towers in existence although only 15 now survive.  It really is like a middle ages Manhattan.  Swarming with tourists even in the low season, it has been tarted up to cater for us but remains a beautiful charming place of warmish tan stone, full of interesting alleys and nooks and crannies to explore. Anzio was where the allies, mostly British and United States landed troops to conquer Italy quickly instead of working all the way up from the south and until we got here we had no idea how big an operation it was.  It seems to have been almost like a practice ...
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A Tidy Van is a Happy Van

Well we’re on our first real trip in the new van aiming to get as far south as Rome.  Navigating is not expected to be a problem because as you know “all roads lead to Rome”.   Come on, you didn’t expect good jokes did you ? We did a mountain pass crossing into Italy which was quite gentle compared to some we’ve been over.  Wonderful views, snow at the top and surprisingly warm.  Just a shirt weather.  Well trousers of course.  Our site for the night was grassy and flowery with a view of snow-capped peaks in the near distance and we had a glass or two of bubbly in the sunshine to welcome ourselves here.   There was only one other touring van on site and we couldn’t see it from our spot.  A really good introduction to Italy. The very nature of travelling with our own transport rather than on local public ones means that we have far less contact with the locals.  We meet far fewer people and of course they’re nearly always the ...
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