{"id":10361,"date":"2024-10-04T21:10:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T20:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/?p=10361"},"modified":"2024-10-04T22:37:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T21:37:56","slug":"day-61-leaving-naples-and-a-bit-of-lucca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/04\/day-61-leaving-naples-and-a-bit-of-lucca\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 61 – Leaving Naples and a bit of Lucca"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So, we\u2019re on the way home! We\u2019re heading north now, and going to be taking big chunks out of the 2,500km we have to get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Today\u2019s Route<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We had a spectacular thunderstorm roll through the bay of Naples last night, from about 11 until 1 – sheet and fork lightning. The wind got up too, which rattled the pop top a bit, and it was a good job we packed the awning, chairs, tables and bikes away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was dry, if a little muddy when we got up at 7:30. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first job of the day was to wipe the pop top and front screen cover down so they didn\u2019t get stowed wet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a shower and some brecky we were ready to hit the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villa Julia was one of our better campsite finds. There are sites that are also bang on the front door of the Pompei site. But they looked hideous. Villa Julia was a 10 minute bike ride away, but there was loads of space between vans and around the site, and the loos and showers were on a constant cleaning cycle. Though, to be fair, they needed to be as the site was either dusty, or muddy, depending on the weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spacious plots at Villa Julia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Villa Julia reception<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a day of contrasts in many ways. Naples is a southern Italian city, 3rd largest in Italy. Lucca is a tourist trap (Sue says not, but I think it feels like Bath) in the more affluent north. Naples for us was (partly) characterized by the mess, typified by this shot only a few hundred meters from our campsite. It was the worst we saw, but not by much\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fly tipping<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First stop was to see if we could buy an exchange gas bottle for the van from Boutique del Campeggiatore in Portici, about 30 minutes up the autostrada and exactly where we needed to be going anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boutique del Campeggiatore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Outside Boutique del Campeggiatore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Inside Boutique del Campeggiatore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Boutique del Campeggiatore had nothing on what I\u2019d think of as a camping shop, like Atwoll\u2019s, for instance. But luckily for us they had the Camping Gaz 907 bottle that we needed and so we paid for an exchange (\u20ac39.50) and exchanged the bottles in the car park. Good value we thought. The staff were very friendly and the woman spoke good English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we went in search of a supermarket and some diesel. The supermarket was a bust. It was the biggest (Sole355) we could find on our route out of Naples, but when we got there it was a mall type experience and there was only a multi-storey to park in. With the size of the van and the bikes on the back we decided it wasn\u2019t worth the risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next to the mall was a petrol station, not cheap, but we needed to get moving, so we paid about \u20ac1.6\/L instead of about 10 cents cheaper elsewhere. But that\u2019s ok, some you win, some you lose. The machine at the station was an automated payment system. It nearly worked for us, but the payment didn\u2019t authorize on the first go and I hadn\u2019t clocked that the pump was a locking type, not the \u201cmust hold\u201d ones we have in the UK. The attendant sorted us in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next it was ttime to much some miles. We headed for on the Autostrada and punched in Florence (Fiorenze).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

473km!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nav said 473km to Florence. And we knew we\u2019d need to go another 50 or 60k past there too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I took the first shift and we headed north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we headed up, past Rome, the scenery became greener. And I would say the roads were better and cleaner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
We did 3 of these autostrada stops<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We found the autostrada stops to be clean and friendly. In two of them (AutoCafe) they had two dedicated campervan\/motorhome parking spaces, and grey water drains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There wasn\u2019t much to report in the 574km autostrada run. 2 hold ups, one for an accident and one for roadworks. It rained for a few km twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every 90 minutes or so we stopped for a wee, a drink and to stretch our legs. So by the time we got to the Florence area at about 4, we\u2019d each done 2 stints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sue then did some rootling around on Park4Night and found a parking only campervan stop in Lucca. The stop is behind an auto repair garage at Via Augusto Passaglia 318 in Lucca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campervan parking is in a courtyard at the back of the garage (you drive through it) and there\u2019s space for about a dozen 6 or 7 meter motor homes. It was nearly full when we arrived but fortunately had space for one more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then headed into the town. This was a bonus stop. We hadn\u2019t planned to be going anywhere particularly interesting for our stop over tonight. But we decided it was better to at least get a flavour than just sit in the van. Sue had also been recommended it by a good friend and Lucca was well worth the trouble to get out and about in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Walking around Lucca in the early evening<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And then we got lucky. We\u2019d not done any research on Lucca and so we just wandering around. We saw an oval plaza on the map and decided to see if there were any restaurants there, Piazza dell Anfiteatro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turned out it was JUST a piazza of restaurants. It\u2019s about 60 or 80m on the long side of an oval, but there must be 20 restaurants. The second one we looked at, da Gherado, said it did homemade Gluten Free pasta and pizza, so that was a no-brainer, we had to stop\u2026 and bugger my Paleo-Keto diet\u2026 for another night! \ud83e\udd23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The toilets were upstairs <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Restaurants as far as the eye could see<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
GF Pizza! Awesome!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We then went for a walk\u2026 I bought a Bialetti coffee gizmo (souvenir for the trip) from an official Bialetti store\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

and we got some groceries\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fruit and veg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We then headed back through the streets as the shops were shutting at 8\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lucca by night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And out of the town walls\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Outside the Lucca town walls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back to the van parking lot (on the way the owner of the yard saw us looking lost and shouted directions out of his battered uno!)\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Overnight van parking – Ollie is tucked away, third from the left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The toilets and shower seem better than some of the reviews mentioned, but it is just a yard at the back of an auto shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow we\u2019ve got about 600km to get to France and Avignon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, we\u2019re on the way home! We\u2019re heading north now, and going to be taking big chunks out of the 2,500km we have to get there. We had a spectacular thunderstorm roll through the bay of Naples last night, from about 11 until 1 – sheet and fork lightning. The wind got up too, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2024-summer-holiday-to-greece","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8875.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8yl38-2H7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10320,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/03\/day-69-naples\/","url_meta":{"origin":10361,"position":0},"title":"Day 60 – Naples","author":"John Martin","date":"October 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Not much to report today. We trained it into Naples, wandered around and did the Underground Naples tour. Our start wasn\u2019t too rushed this morning, we were hoping to get the 9:30 train from the Villa Regina train station so we walked the 15 minutes to the station rather than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/746a1934-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10131,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/29\/day-56-paestum-and-travel-to-amalfi\/","url_meta":{"origin":10361,"position":1},"title":"Day 56 – Paestum and travel to Amalfi","author":"John Martin","date":"September 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"So\u2026 this was one of the days I\u2019d been looking forward to. We\u2019d visited Paestum in 2019, and if we were going to be in the area again then it\u2019s somewhere I wouldn\u2019t want to miss. Quite a prominent cell tower on the Agro site The morning started with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_8265.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10250,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/01\/day-58-villa-julia-and-vesuvius\/","url_meta":{"origin":10361,"position":2},"title":"Day 58 – Villa Julia and Vesuvius","author":"John Martin","date":"October 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Today we\u2019ve got a short hop from just north of Amalfi to up to Pompei. We also need to do some shopping and possibly even fit another visit in while we\u2019re at it (turned out to be Vesuvius). First thing at Costiera Amalfitana Don\u2019t enjoy Costiera Amalfitana As we left\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8558.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8558.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8558.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8558.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8558.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/img_8558.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9702,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/13\/day-39-corfu-town\/","url_meta":{"origin":10361,"position":3},"title":"Day 39 – Corfu Town","author":"John Martin","date":"September 13, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Today has been a bit of a bonus day. We hadn\u2019t mentally got an extra day on Corfu so we decided to make the most of it and headed into Corfu Town. We also had an airport pickup to do at 14:30 as Sue\u2019s brother Phil, and wife Linda were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7153.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7153.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7153.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/img_7153.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10449,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/10\/07\/day-64-avignon-to-reims-and-15-seconds-of-fame\/","url_meta":{"origin":10361,"position":4},"title":"Day 64 – Avignon to Reims and 15 Seconds of Fame","author":"John Martin","date":"October 7, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Right, the last full day on tour! Today we\u2019re going to make as much progress up through France as we can, within reason. It had rained over night but the mud outside the van was still pretty resistant under foot - not like the mud bath that was the volcanic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2024 Summer Holiday to Greece"","block_context":{"text":"2024 Summer Holiday to Greece","link":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/category\/travel\/2024-summer-holiday-to-greece\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/heading-into-the-grey-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/heading-into-the-grey-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/heading-into-the-grey-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/heading-into-the-grey-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/heading-into-the-grey-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/heading-into-the-grey-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9536,"url":"https:\/\/purplemeanie.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/09\/06\/day-33-dubrovnik-to-barri\/","url_meta":{"origin":10361,"position":5},"title":"Day 33 – Dubrovnik to Barri","author":"John Martin","date":"September 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Well it was a good job we packed last night! As we went to bed last night I could see sheet lightning filling the sky to the north of us. And as I watched it for the next few hours it seemed not to be getting any closer. 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