After a week in Rome enduring a couple of days rain we enjoy the trip south towards Napoli under bright blue skies, although we are chasing the rain clouds, it seems as though all the bad weather following us has now overtaken us and we are chasing it.As we approach Naples we are overcome with a remarkable amount of rubbish piles on the sides of the roads due to a recent garbage collectors strike. It was very disturbing to actually see how much rubbish can be discarded in such a short time, some of the locals tried burning the piles only to make the situation much smellier. I would hate to be the person who has to eventually clean up this mess especially after a few inches of rain.As we approached Mt Vesuvius the jet black rain clouds were pushing out into the sea and a huge rainbow invited us towards Pompeii. Little did we know what effect the storm had conjured up for us, We entered the outskirts of Pompeii down what we imagined must have been the back roads as there seemed to be no drainage and the potholes were big enough to swallow a small car. Then as we ventured further down this road we realised we were on the truck route as semi trailers raced at us through the potholes spraying all the vehicles in there path. Eventually the potholes full of water united to become one and we found ourselves driving down a creek bumper to bumper as locals waded there way home from there days work.Like magic the water disappeared as we found our way into the Centro shopping area where the drainage was much better and the roads although cobbled much smoother.We spent the next day under perfect skies in the Lost (now found) City of Pompeii.Walking around the city for 5 and a half hours we wondered at the reclaimed buildings, artwork still painted on the walls and ancient graffiti. They really did have a fixation on nudity and there are remnants of explicit activities can still be recognied in all areas of the city.This is a highlight of Italy and a must if you are in the area.As we leave Pompeii we head for the coast, well sorry garmin but you have got your work cut out for you if you want to find a suitable roads for this leg, we encountered narrow, busy, congested motor scooter infested roads that our camper could only just squeeze through so we were glad when we arrived at a campground near Sorrento some 20 kilometers away 3 hours later.Here we met an expat Australian woman at the swimming pool coaching the local kids for an upcoming sports carnival, she invited Cointha and Daniel to race her student for a bit of fun. She lived in Positano which was our next destination so we picked her brain for local knowledge which proved to be very handy indeed.The road to Positano was around the edge of a cliff and due to a landslide we found ourselves tangled up in bumper to bumper traffic once again.
It was Debs birthday, so we parked on the outskirts of Positano as advised by the swimming coach and walked into town down some very steep roads and steps. We celebrated Debbies birthday at a lovely ristorante overlooking the sea, the food was superb and local wine was probably an extravagance as we did not consider the walk back up the ravine to the motor home. Debbie had a wonderful day taking in the scenery just as she had imagined it in the books she had been reading which was what inspired us to come to this area.There are no camping places in Positano as it is similar to the Cinque Terre and the steps and stairs we descended down to the village were much more difficult on the way back so exhausted after a great walk, meal and picking up some lovely souvenirs we push further south along The Amalfi Coast Well I thought the drive to Positano and the Verdon gorge were narrow, if you find your self in this part of the world and you like a challenging drive, then you must drive The Amalfi Coast. The scenery is amazing (when I am allowed to look, a phrase I here constantly from Deb while squeezing our motor home around these roads is wow that’s beautiful but don’t you look Bruce) and the roads very challenging. We were to here later in our journey that motor homes are banned from The Amalfi Coast which explained why all of a sudden we had not seen one for a couple of days, yet tourist coaches are still allowed, in fact we followed one for about 10 miles as he stopped and backed up to get around corners and blew his horn to force oncoming traffic to back up out of his way.The road is remarkable as it snakes it’s way around the cliffs and hangs in the air over gorges held up by who knows what, it would be interesting to go below and see the foundations of these roads that seem to have no access for maintenance yet they seem to be in remarkable condition.After a fantastic days driving we pull in at Paestum home of some wonderful ancient Greek ruins 3000 years old.We are going to spend a couple of days here enjoying the sun and the beach, after a week of exploring ruins, museums, culture and incredible art work we need a couple of veg out days.

Debbie in front of Dionysiac rites some art work on the walls of The Villa of the Mystries built in 200 BC at Pompeii