It's driving Jim but, not as we know it

We did not make it to Italy on Saturday as previously predicted. Two reasons
for this! Firstly, the site we were heading for at Albenga has solar heated
showers and it is winter and not very sunny. Secondly, we decided to
continue on the non-toll roads in France for another day to save some more
pennies. We instead made it to a small town called La Motte, northwest of
Frejus not far west of Nice, and another Aire de Service for a free night.
So on Sunday we aimed far and for Rome whilst the roads were quieter. The
Autostrada along the northwest coast of Italy is quite some drive. It is
very up and down and not very straight so our progress was slow initially
and we fell short of Rome and stayed Sunday night at a camper stop at
Orvieto. It was €15 for the night in a large camper car park but it had very
nice powerful and piping hot showers and a good electric hook up so can't
complain.
Yesterday we continued south towards Pompeii. The drive was not too bad but
the air quality was very poor. Almost all the way past Rome and down to
Naples the air was thick with the output from the constant industry and
smoke from farmer's fires. Thankfully it cleared not far from Naples and we
had a 'clear' run through the mayhem that is the motorway past the city. We
only had one near encounter when a 'white van' emerged from an entry on to
the motorway completely oblivious to our presence, or more likely didn't
give a **** that we were there, and thanks to Noddy's brakes a swerve and a
huge slice of good fortune we did not collide. If you haven't driven down
this way before then think of how bad normal Italian drivers drive and
multiply it by 1000, no joke.
Anyway, we made it to the site at Pompeii, a stone throw from the ruins, and
rested for the afternoon and evening as it decided to pour down. Thankfully
today the rain eased off for a while so we were able to visit the majority
of the ruins, vast that they are, and made a good 2 or 3 hours of it before
the ever heavier rain persuaded us to head back to Noddy. We ventured into
the town centre briefly on the way back in search of some food and
eventually bought what I can only describe as large savoury doughnuts, one
filled with ham and mushrooms, the other with ricotta. Back in the dry of
Noddy we filled our bellies, the doughnuts were delicious, and we are now
letting our wet clothes dry off in the bathroom while we doze away the rest
of the day.
Tomorrow we head further south hopefully to Palmi almost in the toenails of
Italy. From there it is just a few miles to Reggio di Calabria where we are
hoping to get a ferry across to Sicily on Wednesday.

Ciao for now.

M&S