all roads lead to Rome
Friday, August 21st, 2009Rome, Italy
yea, even the bumpy, patched, pitted, potholed ones. At least that’s the one we came in to the great city on. Not that we have made it right in to town. We’re basking in the shade of the only large tree in a campervan park, which doubles as a used car sales yard (or maybe it’s the other way round, a secondhand dealer making a bit more money on the side from motorhomers). It’s the first time we’ve had to pay for accommodation in about a month, but this is only 10km from the Colosseum, so that’s to be expected, and if you average out the cost over a whole month, these days at 16 euros a day are not too bad at all. In fact, even without doing creative accounting, it’s still cheaper than camping in New Zealand!
But back to those roads, or the one we travelled, anyway.
Even though we were already high in the mountains, the first half hour was straight upwards. Well, not straight, of course – it wound back and forth and turned so many corners Grandpa felt we were going in a circle! Having done some long hours in the mountains, we were perplexed at the queasy stomachs in both vehicles! The only other queasy mountain drive was when the gas was leaking!! Cresting the hill, we encountered a jumble of road signs….all of these appeared within a kilometre or so.
* Windy (first syllable rhymes with wine, not win, although later there will be a sign depicting lots of blowing across a bridge)
* Deer crossing 1.3km (how someone works out the point three, I’m not sure)
* Bumpy (just in case we hadn’t noticed, I think)
* Rocks falling (we’re almost immune to seeing this one – it’ everywhere)
* But this last one was a bit disconcerting…in the middle of the yellow triangle was a black car….underneath the black car was a black road…..a black road slipping away, just like the rocks falling sign. For some illogical reason, I’d prefer to be hit with a boulder from above than have the road disappear from beneath me!
The road continued.
Along with the ubiquitous olive groves; grey-ish green delicate spindly gnarly trees, the colour reminding us of our feijoa trees, but the form being so different.
And the first-we-have-seen-in-Italy livestock. Gorgeous creamy white cows, hundreds of them, apparently banished from their huge barns, but not straying far from the shade afforded by their dwellings. It was strange to see cattle, not on green grass, but outside their residences, stamping hooves on dry brown dusty hardpacked soil.
Walled villages, presumably medieval, came into view with regularity. From being a speck on a far hill, they turned into being what must have once been a formidable sight, towering up above us, all brown and orange stone and tile, fortresses.
At the edge of one town, caves appeared in the rocks. Natural? manmade? We’re not sure; we didn’t stop to investigate. But obviously famous, judging by the number of cars parked and people wandering around.
We came over the top of another hill and were delighted to see the sea. Blue. Sparkling. Looking cool in the almost oppressive heat. GPS informed us it wasn’t the sea, but a lake. A lake with a completely built-up waterfront. Which meant it was not worth even trying to get to for a lunchtime swim.
We stayed on the road, a rural road that was often littered. The streets in towns too. Surprising, because there are recycling bins in even the most remote “villages” (sometimes where there are only two or three houses, a couple of huge bins sit on the roadside). In fact, the closer to Rome, the more Bangkok-like the litter became.
By mid-afternoon ROMA was on the overhead signs, with ever decreasing distances.
But we were in for a surprise. We had directions to take Exit 24 off the ring road. It’s just that the ring road was a much bigger ring than we anticipated. Thinking we had virtually arrived, we were already imagining pouring cold drinks. But we needed to do another 45km on the ring!!!! And then get lost once. And investigate another hopeful-looking sign. Before finally re-consulting our German handbook and starting over from the ring road exit.
All roads lead to Rome, and we can confirm with utmost confidence, that a mighty big one circles it too!
We’re lacking in the photo department again….if you’d like some pictures, Grandpa put up screeds from our first week in Italy on his recent blogpost here.
Note for our foodies: today’s Italiano-taste was little pieces of “toast”….they are the shape of toast, they are twice-baked, and they come out of the packet Just Like That. You don’t even need a toaster! Of course, they do not smell like toast, and they are very very dry, but we piled on ricotta cheese, prosciutto, fresh tomatoes and basil, a variety of pickled veges – red and yellow peppers, gherkins, cocktail onions, and sliced yellow cheese. Biscottate make a tasty breakfast.
rayres