Adventures of the three in 2015
June 12th-13th, 2015 - Stage 4, heading north to civitavecchia
June 12th
We were quiet for a while after leaving the hospitality of Piaggine. This time we were driving on the opposite side of the mountain compared to when we arrived. It was a different experience with the sense of altitude much more prominent as we came down on good roads, albeit steep and winding. We reached the motorway and were soon heading past Salerno towards an overnight stop.
I'd originally booked to stay at a place no-one in Piaggine seemed to know so was persuaded to change locations to one which was known, namely Civitavecchia. There was little choice given the parameters I always used, however our lodgings at a villa seemed OK on paper.
Our route took us close to and south of Rome. We wondered if we might catch glimpses of anything, however the road system was so tortuous we had to concentrate hard not to take a wrong turn. At one time we were momentarily distracted by planes coming into land at the main airport because they seemed almost possible to touch they were so close.
We had to check in before 4pm at a restaurant in town. Previously when we'd had to use this method our rooms were either in the same building or close by. These lodgings turned out to be 8.5kms from the check in point and in the middle of nowhere. The surroundings weren't very salubrious. Turning off onto a track there was a scrap yard on the corner. Further down there were some houses on plots of land with big gates and guard dogs. We opened our automatic gates and went in to be greeted by three young men sprawled out in a sparsely furnished communal area. We weren't impressed at all and decided to leave our luggage in the car and go back into town to explore and eat.
None of us was really impressed by what we found. The place was run down and mostly shut. At the harbour area we could hear voices below one of the walls and a strong pungent smell wafting upwards. I was reliably informed that it was marijuana and the air was thick with it. I reckon we could've achieved a high on it if we'd hung around. We had a walk around adjacent to the beach where there was the bow of a large boat onto which Jayne and Lourdes climbed to do a Titanic pose.
We didn't see anywhere we wanted to eat, however we did find a shop which sold prepared food so came away with a selection to sit and eat. Then it was back to the villa to eat outside. The guys came out dressed to kill and bade us goodbye as they went out on the pull, successfully as we were to find out in the early hours when they returned with everyone in high spirits. What was interesting though, was that they didn't use the automatic gates as we had. We had a look to see where they'd gone and there was another set of gates on the land which were wide open. So much for security.
The noise the other three lodgers made with their respective pulls when they returned was awful. Nell was sufficiently disturbed to go to the door and seemingly stand guard.
We were awake early the next morning and left right away. We didn't take care to keep quiet either which gave us a small degree of satisfaction.
We may not have enjoyed Civitavechia much, however our next stop was La Spezia and for me, that was a real mouthwatering prospect.
We were quiet for a while after leaving the hospitality of Piaggine. This time we were driving on the opposite side of the mountain compared to when we arrived. It was a different experience with the sense of altitude much more prominent as we came down on good roads, albeit steep and winding. We reached the motorway and were soon heading past Salerno towards an overnight stop.
I'd originally booked to stay at a place no-one in Piaggine seemed to know so was persuaded to change locations to one which was known, namely Civitavecchia. There was little choice given the parameters I always used, however our lodgings at a villa seemed OK on paper.
Our route took us close to and south of Rome. We wondered if we might catch glimpses of anything, however the road system was so tortuous we had to concentrate hard not to take a wrong turn. At one time we were momentarily distracted by planes coming into land at the main airport because they seemed almost possible to touch they were so close.
We had to check in before 4pm at a restaurant in town. Previously when we'd had to use this method our rooms were either in the same building or close by. These lodgings turned out to be 8.5kms from the check in point and in the middle of nowhere. The surroundings weren't very salubrious. Turning off onto a track there was a scrap yard on the corner. Further down there were some houses on plots of land with big gates and guard dogs. We opened our automatic gates and went in to be greeted by three young men sprawled out in a sparsely furnished communal area. We weren't impressed at all and decided to leave our luggage in the car and go back into town to explore and eat.
None of us was really impressed by what we found. The place was run down and mostly shut. At the harbour area we could hear voices below one of the walls and a strong pungent smell wafting upwards. I was reliably informed that it was marijuana and the air was thick with it. I reckon we could've achieved a high on it if we'd hung around. We had a walk around adjacent to the beach where there was the bow of a large boat onto which Jayne and Lourdes climbed to do a Titanic pose.
We didn't see anywhere we wanted to eat, however we did find a shop which sold prepared food so came away with a selection to sit and eat. Then it was back to the villa to eat outside. The guys came out dressed to kill and bade us goodbye as they went out on the pull, successfully as we were to find out in the early hours when they returned with everyone in high spirits. What was interesting though, was that they didn't use the automatic gates as we had. We had a look to see where they'd gone and there was another set of gates on the land which were wide open. So much for security.
The noise the other three lodgers made with their respective pulls when they returned was awful. Nell was sufficiently disturbed to go to the door and seemingly stand guard.
We were awake early the next morning and left right away. We didn't take care to keep quiet either which gave us a small degree of satisfaction.
We may not have enjoyed Civitavechia much, however our next stop was La Spezia and for me, that was a real mouthwatering prospect.