After arriving on the Adriatic Coast we spent the night. The weather had improved markedly – standing on the beach at night we could see a massive thunder storm way off on the horizon with the sky lighting up every 30 seconds or so with sheet and forked lighting, however we could hear no thunder so it was way off in the distance.

The campsite seem to be a family concern with Papa, who must have been 80 plus but still on duty – he offered to open the barrier and we both nearly jumped out of the van to help him move the heavy barrier as he slowly swung it open.

The following morning we continued our journey south through Puglia. We choose a coastal route and the stretch between Peschici and Vieste was stunning with again lots of climbing and descending along switchback roads cut into the hills along the coast.

Another twisty road

This stretch reminded us of a mini Ocean Road along the Victoria coast in Australia. Our greatest achievement (or rather Sharon’s) was when an Italian driver pulled over to the side of the road to allow us to overtake as we were travelling much faster.

We arrived at a campsite just north of Bari where we planned to stay the night after 2 days of what in retrospect seemed fairly full on if not enjoyable driving. Our current view on driving here is that it’s a game of chicken! Our TomTom (or Dumb Dumb as a friend has previously named such devices) directs us down streets where you would struggle to get a bike let alone a van and gradually sucks us into such situations to add to the fun.

Trulli house

We have decided to slow the pace over the next few days now that we are in the deep south where we figure the weather is best and this morning head across to Alberobello which is a UNESCO heritage site full of Trulli (Hobbit) houses.

Campsite friends (at dinner time anyway!)

We find a campsite just outside of town which is virtually deserted – only one other camper (VW T3) – the lady running the site speaks both Italian and English but decides Sharon’s Italian is better than her English and conducts all future conversations in Italian regardless! After setting up we decide to stroll down to the town only to be passed by the lady that runs the campsite who offers us a lift. We figure this could be interesting but it turns out she is one of the very cautious Italian drivers.

The town itself falls into two distinct halves – the touristy bit where it seems that all of the Trulli houses have been turned into tourist gift shops and the streets are filled with the occupants of local coach tours,  and the bit across the main square where people actually live which is far quieter and to us more interesting.

On Monday we decide to descend into the heel of Italy with our destination being Gallipoli before we start heading across down into Calabria. We end up staying at a Sosta which is a sort of glorified campervan car park with some basic facilities and thus cheaper than a campsite. This particular one was located close to the beach and run by an old guy who had lots of rules e.g. “No extravagant shampoo” and “No dogs or cats to be washed in the shower”.

Matera

The following day we started to make our way across to the toe of Italy via Matera – a UNESCO world heritage site where the houses have evolved out of the original cave dwellings.  It includes an ancient hand dug terracotta lined 5 million litre water reservoir.

We then head down to the coast to take it easy for a couple of days (and do a large load of washing!) and come up with a loose plan for the next week. The beachside campsite we have ended up on is deserted there must be several hundred pitches and we are one of four on the site with a pitch right on the beach.

Life’s a beach

Our big debate is whether we have enough time to get to Sicily. At the moment we feel that we won’t have time to get around the whole island but may have time to get to Mt Etna and ascend the volcano – still debating.