Italian byways and flyways

Montone To Pompeii.



A(nother) hillside village
along the way



A journey that Keith would loved to have driven! While the lesser highways we began on are great for scenery and using the gears for “real driving”, they are not good for getting to your destination in a hurry (and it is easy to do not hurry here). Now, I have written a lot of words on this blog about the need to “take time”, but it is a long way from Montone to Castellammare di Stabia (near Sorrento) which was our base for visiting Pompeii. Can’t tell you how far it was in km, but it was from 11am to 6pm in hours, with a couple of toilet stops. After reaching Terni on the E45 (I missed the turn to go by Assisi again, but it was quite dull and hazy and we doubt it would have been visible on the hillside) we headed for Rieti, via a scenic back road we managed to find. From there we headed to L’Aquilla … again, not quite by design but it was by this time very sunny and the autumn hues in the mountain countryside were something to behold. However, we were getting a little concerned at how much time the nice views were chewing up because Sorrento still seemed a long way off.

So, after getting lost in demolition areas via various detours in L’Aquilla, we finally made it onto the tollroad and we sped off towards Naples, via Rome. It looked much quicker to take lesser roads but they turned out to be far less direct. So “speed off” we did – at least for us … rarely more than 120km/h and that was in the slow lane! We had long ago decided on this trip, and had it confirmed again, that the most impatient and speedy drivers in the fast lane (tailgating takes on a whole new meaning) were headed by Audis, closely followed by BMWs with VWs not too far behind them. On this trip however, the top place was taken by Porsche … we only saw two of them but it was not for very long … if they were not approaching 200km/h I was not going 120km/h!

The other amazing thing of note about the tollways was the incredible experience of coming out of a tunnel (doing 120km/h) and having the sensation of soaring across a gorge or valley. They have these magnificent bridges spanning a gorge or valley that “take you to other side” and when you look down there is no water or river, just trees and farms and valley or gorge … none of this winding up and down the side of the mountain business thank you very much … we don’t pay for that!

Crowne Plaza room looking
onto our terrace &
Mediterranean!

Anyway, we managed to arrive around Naples and the end of the tollway right as a torrential downpour hit so any sighting of Versuvius was heavily masked for our arrival. Made Naples look even more gloomy and grimy than it already is – though that is as view from the freeway … we thought the whole area down here was a lot like a low rise Hong Kong … shabby and crowded with loads of narrow streets and crazy drivers. However, we did find the Crowne Plaza. It was a most welcome sight at the end of a day on which we saw a lot of Italy from the car. Check the room out ...

 
Thanks to Lisa for being able to stay in such a gorgeous location, and being spoiled with an upgrade to a Terrace room (no matter if you had nothing to do with it Lis, just take the accolade). We had a couple of really nice dinners and breakfasts to enjoy the magnificent panorama from the dining room across Gulfo di Napoli in the shadow of Versuvius. Quite something! Even in the gloom of our first view it was imposing ...

Versuvius from our Terrace just after
a very large thunderstorm