Devall Travels

One of the day trips we took from Sorrento in May 2009 was to the Greek temple site at Paestum . This site pre-dates the Roman Empire by quite a long time. What is amazing it that the structures of the three temples are in such amazing condition and are in a very small area. Looking at the road map we decided to go the loner way around and avoid the Amalfi Coast Drive (ACD)! The reasons for this are that we had already done it one way as far as Ravello, and the fact that although the view of the sea on the right of you as you head east is spectacular, the road is jammed packed at every town with coaches and the occasional truck! So we chose a route that would go up through Sorrento, Pompeii and across the top of the peninsular via Salerno. This is actually the way that Google maps sends travellers now. The first stop was to take in the spectacular view of Vietri sul Mare on the opposite end of the ACD to Sorrento. It was sunny and we stopped briefly on the overlook off the road. Vietri...

Our room @ Casale Antonietta, Sorrento Back then I was a budding blogger of my travels and tended to write very little.  Verbosity was learned over the years. I saw an article about agritourism in Italy and how the market has blossomed in the Noughties and was now well established for those that wanted to be away from the city centre or beach location hotels. We stayed at Casale Antonietta in May 2009.  The place was a converted farm that was accessed by a very narrow lane, where even in a Fiat Punto we had to pull in the door mirrors to get past.  I had ordered a Fiat Panda from the rental company at Naples Airport but they did me a favour with a "free" upgrade to a bigger car. Fiat Punto T-Jet 1.4  My Tripadvisor review from 2009 Peaceful with excellent service I booked this place as I didn't want a town centre hotel with all the associated noise and parking difficulties. We weren't disappointed. It is easy to find and the bus stop is a short walk and is signposted...

 I was reading a blog entry on one of the blogs I follow, "Key West Diary", and the latest post is about crossing the state on US41 -  https://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2021/01/alligator-alley.html It brought a couple of memories of when I did it in 1991 and when Claire and I did it a few years back on route from Punta Gorda to Weston. In December 1991 I was staying with a work colleague and friend, Carole Belcher,  in the south of Miami in Cutler I had the loan of a Kawasaki Z750 twin from her neighbour I only knew as Sgt Steve.  He was in the air force based at Homestead. I had already done a trip to Key West and decided a longer trip to Sarasota to see where my Cavalcade had come from was the next trip.  Remember in 1991 there was no internet. On the Key West trip.... I set off along US41 stopping at various places to check out the Everglades.  One stop was because I saw a large alligator on the opposite side of the water filled ditch.  He...

La Manga for a holiday. Back in those days I worked a normal workers contract.  Management hadn't tried to force us to have school holidays and so we could go when we felt like it. La Manga (Google Maps) We stayed in a timeshare right at the end of the spit the furthest away from the nalnd end where you access the  one road along the spit. This old lighthouse is at the end of the spit of land where there is a gap from the open ses into the Mar Menor. From this base it meant a long drive to get to the mainland a head any where. It was a holiday and supposed to be relaxing! One such trip was to Cabo Palos.  For a paddle in the sea, proper sea not Mar Menor, and linch at the Miramar restaurant.  We ate here a few times when not self catering. We did most of the shopping for foods locally. Getting off the spit was a long drive. Another of the trips out was a short run to Cartagena. It was hot and a nice walk around to see the sites and of course the submarine. Wedne...