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7-17OCT2004 I took the night ferry from Ignoumenitsa to Brindisi and arrived at dawn.  Everytime I get to a new country I´m faced with the challenge of figuring out where to eat.  In Italy, in the early morning, nothing was open except bars.  I rode on looking for a place to eat.  

As I rode, I saw some really interesting stone houses with conical stone roofs.  I was really curious about them.  I usually try to stay off the main roads and choose secondary roads that go through small towns.  I navigate by following signs to the next town rather than by highway number.  

I was parked by the side of the road in Cisternino, studying my map and looking lost when Jola asked if I needed help.  She gave me directions to put me back on the right road and then asked If I´d like to join her and her husband for a cup of coffee.   I said yes and followed her down a back road to their farmhouse.

Goffredo and Jola (Dutch) are remodeling a farmhouse into a B&B.  They gave me a cup of really good coffee and then threw in breakfast.  I chatted the morning away about their plans.  When they invited me to stay awhile, I said I would if I could help.

The next day Goffredo and I built the Great Wall of Cisternino ate some great food and drank plenty of red wine.  Jola is a people magnet and so there were a constant stream of visitors.

They put me up in a part of the farmhouse that was 300-400 years old and had been the wine pressing room.  Shaped like a truncated pyramid on the outside, inside it was vaulted with beautiful white stone.  I slept like a baby.

I kept intending to go but the company was so enjoyable that I stayed for three nights.  I helped trim trees and generally relaxed.  I´d been traveling without a break for some time and it felt really good to get off TBGS and do some manual labor.  

They´re going to have a beautiful B&B.  It´s situated in a valley dotted with truli (the name for the conical stone houses).  There are some holiday homes made from converted truli but most of the time the valley is almost deserted.  The light is very special there and there is a great feeling of peace.

As if to provide contrast, the night after I left Cisternino was one of the worst of my trip.  I tried to find a campground between Salerno and Naples but all were closed for the season.  I fell back on the tried and true service station trick.  But this time there was no soft spongy grass only a concrete pad next to the station.  During the night there was a big rainstorm and the spot I chose became a river.   I spent the night floating around in my tent on the air mattress.  The rain continued in the morning and I had to pack a soggy tent for the first time on the trip.  Yuck!  A few hours later I stopped for coffee and the sun shone long enough to dry everything out.

All roads may lead to Rome but not very many lead out.

I arrived in Rome looking for the Colliseum and the Forum.  Traffic was outrageous.  Italians in general are very aggressive drivers but Romans are really something else...especially the motorcycle and scooter drivers.  After dodging my way to the ruins I tried to extricate myself from Rome.  Not so easy.  I ended up at the Vatican by mistake and then toured a few suburbs before finally finding the ring road...which was bumper to bumper.  

With great relief, I found a campground on SP1 north of Rome.  The next morning when I left I made a big error.  I forgot to pick up my passport.  I didn´t discover this until I arrived in Florence.  With the help of the campground there I arranged to have it maile to another campground near Genoa.  

I tried to enjoy the sights of Florence but I couldn´t find them.  I stopped along the way to marvel at the Leaning Tower of Pisa and took the obligatory photo of me holding up the tower.  

Then the adventure started.  I´d been traveling on SP1, a major national highway.  The signs keep trying to lure you onto the tollway but I evaded them by chugging at 20-30km-h through one small town after the next.  My destination, Valdeiva Marina campground was near Cinque Terre.  I reasoned it must be next to the ocean and so when offered the scenic route in La Spezia, I took the coast road.  What a road!  It makes the stretch of coast highway north of San Francisco look dull in comparison.   Cliffs with steep drops to the blue Med below, winding one lane road with hairpin curves, hills covered with vineyards on rock terraces made this one of the most breathtaking scenes I´ve come across on the trip.  Things were going well and I was wearing one of those special smiles that motorcycle riders get when the road is just right when it started to get dark...and then it started to rain.  My map was not too clear about the roads and so I stopped and asked for directions.   The helpful locals sent me on a circutious route back to the motorway.  If I´d stayed on the coast road I could have arrived in a half hour.  Instead, it took me nearly two hours of cold, miserable, dangerous riding to get to Valdeiva.  

The rain was coming down, the roads were poorly marked and under construction and the traffic was crazy.  I was very nearly pronged by a car over the line on a hairpin curve.  His brakes and my reflexes saved me a nasty crash.  In the dark, in the rain, the visor of my motorcycle helmet makes the road very obscure.  So, I had no choice but to lift the visor and get a face full of rain just so I could see.   I finally made it to  the tollway and from the tollway to the campground and was happy to have survived.  I stayed there for three nights to dry out and wait for my passport.

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