By Larry and Joan Dolinski
He returned to reclaim the car and once more set out to follow the drive toward the evening's destination. This time the trip was positively harrowing. The first incident involved an oncoming car rounding a blind curve coming at Larry at high speed in the wrong lane. The driver had to jam on his brakes and swerve to avoid a head-on encounter, and skidded to his right hitting the stone retaining wall (score one for the good guys). The second incident involved a car overtaking Larry, pulling out to pass on another blind curve. That driver reacted to an oncoming car by jerking his wheel to the right, tilting up on 2 wheels, slamming back down and continuing on his way. The third incident was far more benign. It involved a clog in a small town created by two gargantuan tour busses attempting to pass each other in opposite directions. Each bus takes 3/4 of the road width, and there was a long line of honking traffic trailing behind each bus. In accordance with Italian ritual, everyone in town is a traffic director. It took 50 minutes to clear the bottleneck.
Some days later we arrived in Pompei. The next morning, most of the riders chose to trade the day of scheduled bicycling for a day of exploring the ruins of that famous city which had so abruptly been done in by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Since Larry had enjoyed quality visits to Pompei on two prior occasions, he elected to ride the designated route that day. (Less than 50 riders out of 230 biked.) The route meandered all through the city of Naples during the morning rush hour. All of the riders had "war stories" to relate of that "twilight zone" experience. Fortunately none of them were seriously injured.
Our campsite that night was just yards from a beach on a cove. It felt so peaceful to sit on the beach propped up against an upside down row boat listening to the waves breaking on the shore. To one end of the cove lay the ancient ruins of the seaport town of Tiberias. To get there required walking along the beach (over the rocks because of high tide). From the remains of the old pier, one looks across the cove to the medieval city of Sperlonga, perched high on a cliff hanging over the sea.
Next morning was well spent exploring the narrow streets and alleys of Sperlonga before moving on to Lido de Ostia, en route to Rome. Lido de Ostia was the seaport serving the ancient city of Rome. It was an important center of commerce for imported goods. Ships from ports in Europe, Asia, and North Africa would unload onto smaller vessels at the mouth of the estuary. Then these vessels would float the goods up the Tiber River to Lido de Ostia where some of the cargo would be sold in retail stalls at a lovely market place immediately in front of a large (and well preserved) amphitheater; the remainder of it would be distributed to the rest of Rome through wholesalers. The city, while thoroughly ancient, seemed so modern in many ways. There were private homes, vacation homes for the wealthy, theaters, stores, bakeries, cemeteries, administration buildings, parks, etc., etc.
Of Rome, of course, one could write volumes. In many ways it is one of the most remarkable cities in the world. By reason of past ambitious sightseeing, the choice this time around was to savor a couple of local neighborhoods. We walked all through the section of Rome called Trastavere which borders the Tiber River. We also visited the large synagogue which boasts the oldest Jewish congregation in all Europe.
On separate days, we immersed ourselves in the exploration of the medieval cities of Assisi, Urbino, Siena, and San Gimignano. (We added the latter 2 to our personal itinerary in place of Florence which we visited a couple of years ago). Each has something unique and compelling to offer.
Please send corrections, additions, comments and praise to
© 1997-2002 CRW, Inc. All rights reserved. Revised: