411. Tight

Pompei

Camp to LPG

After breakfast, basking in the sun, Roman and I headed for the gas bottle place recommended by the camp manager. We bought our current ten kilogram gas bottle in Morocco and only use it for cooking on the stove and in the oven. Mostly it is just the oven which we use most days as the two inductive hobs in the awning do the stove cooking while we are ensconced in camp. Each time we need gas we have to discard our existing bottle as there is no standard. We set off for the half hour drive there and back not at all sure if our destination would supply gas at all after yesterday's experience.

Panda

The roads were tiny and the Disco ain't. Lots of blind corners and the roads are only two Pandas wide at best, often narrowing to single lane. Pandas, Fiestas and Bambinas definitely have small mans disease and make a lot of noise, though not enough to shift a Disco. Frustratingly for them, I am in holiday smile and wave mode. Arriving at an incredibly run down yard full of dead trucks and gear I did spot a large, above ground, LPG tank and a man at a loading bay. He took our bottle and filled it without comment and dispatched us to the office where a friendly chap charged twelve euros for our ten kilograms of butane. I couldn't believe my luck. The traffic was grid-locked and I think the round trip took us about two hours. I have no idea how anybody gets things done in places like this.

Resewing the awning where some of the tie downs had ripped off in the strong winds and discovered that eleven people had died hereabouts during the storm, mostly by falling trees. I wasn't surprised.

410. Blown

Pompei

The trains behind are almost silent

A day in the pit today with rain storms sweeping through and a wind to behold. The local entertainment, watching the awnings on the restaurant on the road above the camp shred themselves.

The wind was so strong that it ripped a couple of anchors off the awning so made for interesting repairs with me resewing them on with sailmakers thread and needle while everything flapped.

I bet the farm on this one to win on eBay

Introduced the children to Pit. They were very dubious and declared it on sight "a boring old game from the olden days". Much coercion required to get them playing and they were instantly hooked shouting their bids, like the olden days.

The camp manager gave us an address for a gas supplier but the weather is too much to venture out with trees shedding limbs. Luckily we are at the end of the camp near a high wall which is sheltering us quite well. 

409. Ruined

Pompei

Ancient Pompei, across the road

It is all fenced off, of course
€15 pp entry

A day in as promised for the children after a few days out in Rome then travelling. Silence prevailed with three of the four reading HP Deathly Hallows, one reading as a paperback and the other two reading on laptop, books borrowed from the Maidenhead library.

Fitted the replacement kitchen tap with quite a bit of fuss, removing the oven and ancillaries in the process. Now enjoying having a working tap again after a week. We have run out of gas so after Googling it Roman, Fyfe and I headed out and failed to find a supplier. Each country has different bottles so we will be buying the third replacement bottle for the trip. Traffic here would grow very tedious if one lived here but is interesting for us visitors.  

Stone roads look great but are a bouncy ride

408. Downwind

Pompei

Rome to Pompai

Loading up

Statics forever replacing tourers

After a few weeks on site the pack up is always big including loading the boat which I had offloaded prior to departing for NZ.

Was pleased to make the motorway as we were only doing about fifty on the secondary roads as they were so rough, or so we thought till we got to Pompai. The road into the campsite was steep and the campsite tiny. We dragged the caravan in leaving good scratch marks on the concrete drive then had quite tight negotiating to do. The manager was very concerned that we didn't take two spaces as he was convinced the camp was going to fill but, to he credit, ended up putting us in a really good spot down the back (the camp didn't fill). Glad we arrived in time to do it all in daylight. The day temperature here is in the low twenties so very pleasant.

A day at camp tomorrow to regroup.

407. Colour burst

Vatican City

Took a punt and paid the online scalpers "Skip the Line" for two thirty. Downloaded the Parclick App and booked parking nearby, cheaper and a lot faster than public transport. Driving the Disco doesn't stop the locals trying to intimidate me with their Bambinas and Pandas (when they are following and want me to go faster I can only see their roof - not intimidating).

This static carving appeared before we got up. Like all campsites
this one is filling with permanent statics.

Lucky we skipped the absent queue
Paid for Audio guides, always a good move

Tapestries

Everything is dark to the naked eye
The Vatican Pinacoteca is essentially a paintings gallery
iPhone snap as one sees it

The camera really brings things up.
No flash allowed
All photos are with Fyfe's SLR

The tapestries were almost un-viewable to the naked eye

A plaster model for a bronze cast
This Pinacoteca Vaticana museum was built in the nineteen thirties and incredibly opulent,
marble everywhere 

Plaster works for Bronze

Me and Roman

Fyfe and Roman

Had forgotten that this was here - massive.
Audrey bought a jigsaw of it
The Garden of Eden

Marble everywhere 

Floor detail 

On and on forever

The removal of the penises in the fifteen hundreds
and the replacement with fig leaves, offensive.
Overdue for restoration

Ceilings and more ceilings

Carte Geografiche

Corsica

The Sistine Chapel was bigger than I expected and much more colourful.
The Last Judgement

Iris was thrilled to see this

Michael Angelo's Creation ceiling, remarkable.
Luckily it wasn't crowded so we were able to
sit back in the seats around the edge and view at our leisure

Fyfe with Venice
There were lots of old globes with NZ absent

Ceiling of the Pope's signing room

The ceilings, stunning

There was a whole gallery of modern art but I was at saturation.
I am frequently aware how wasted this opportunity is
on a pleb like me!

Henry Matisse 

Wassily Kandinsky Sunday-Old Russia 1904

Edvard Munch Old Man Praying 1902

The Vatican Gardens are tranquil 

In 1932, architect Giuseppe Momo designed this double helix staircase. 

It is composed of two staircases which theoretically allow people to go up and down

without crossing each other. 

Theoretical because this staircase is now only the exit from The Vatican Museums 

Roman and Fyfe descending.
The steps get closer so the slope gets steeper, like a sea shell.
The first step is about ten metres long.

Audrey

You can see it getting steeper.
From here onto the street

Too much to see, too much to put in blog - shattered