Desperate for some activity

We really enjoyed our cultural experience in Rome but we now feel a bit sluggish due to lack of energetic activity. Our bodies are desperate for some power trekking and fresh air from the countryside. So, we have decided to stop in a natural park south of Rome before our next cultural tour around Naples, Pompei and Hercolaneum.

The coastline south of Rome continues to be pretty, not so many cliffs, but endless, long sandy beaches with blue sea all the way along. We slept at an aire at Sperlonga.

This is a posh little resort town, not very accepting of the likes of Dora so we ended up at a car park next to the sports arena where lads were playing football. We nestled in next to an Italian motorhome, thinking this place must accept this sort of thing. They left, leaving us alone, nobody seemed to mind however. GDR

Today is clear and sunny. Nice day for trekking and enjoying the stunning coastal scenery from the top. It is also a nice day for kayaking. Would it not be fun to take the boats out to paddle on these clear and blue waters? We have not done any kayaking since autumn. We miss it.

So we have decided to give kayaking a go, but we need a place to launch the boats, a beach next to a car park where we can leave Dora for a few hours. The problem is that the villages around here are small. Most of the limited parking available for public use is located along the promenade and therefore, chargeable. What is more, these villages seem to be anti-motorhomes. They don’t wanna see big, fat and ugly Doras parked next to the beach, spoiling the landscape.

But we keep trying, one village after another. We have been driving for an hour but we don’t seem to find a suitable place for launching the kayaks. And the places we have found, they are not that nice to paddle around, i.e. harbours or boring and crowded beaches. So we go back to the original plan and try to find this natural park to do some trekking instead. Otherwise, we may end up doing nothing today.

We do not  have much information about this park, only that Formia is the village that sits at the head of the valley and that here, there is a visitor centre where we can get walking information. However, by our experience in Italy so far, visitors centres don’t seem to be open at this time of the year. Moreover, today is Sunday, so no chance.

We arrive at Formia at 11.00 am. We head off to the centre of the village and suddenly we come across a sign to the visitor centre. It is off to the left, up a very steep mountain road. The road is getting narrower and windier. Dora is having trouble going up, she is such a heavy beast.

No more signs to the visitor centre but we continue to go up. We go through another small village with little tiny streets. We are now getting quite stressed. The houses in this village have very low balconies that extend out over the road. We fear that Dora is not going to be able to go through without hitting her head.

In addition, lots of people are walking around slow, which is not helping. Most of them are carrying a branch of an olive tree. Now I realise, it is Pentecostes, the day where christ entered Jerusalem carrying a branch of an olive tree. All these people must have just come out of church carrying this branch proudly, because it has been blessed by the priest.

Poor bloody olive trees in this region, that’s all I can say, they must all be nearly bald. Some of these folks are carrying the odd twig, they are dragging the whole frigging tree down the road, you could fashion a nice cross out of some of theses so called branches! GDR

What do they do with this branch you may ask? Nothing useful, such as planting it in their gardens to create green spaces, or produce olives but hanging it outside their houses until it dries out. Maybe it is a sign to let people know that they have been to the church, so they are good christians. No idea what the meaning of this tradition is. Some sort of act to sympathise with christ’s suffering? If that is the case, it is a quite a lazy and easy act.

She is a nasty tree torturer. GDR

We reach the end of the road. Dora can’t get any further, she is too fat, and the road is too steep. What do we do now? We want to climb but we don’t know where and we cannot continue to explore around.

A local passes by. He approaches to help us. He points out the direction of the park, the walk we can do and advises how further we can drive Dora. Very helpful. Who needs a visitor centre?

We drive up the road for fifteen minutes and find a layby where we can leave Dora. Luckily, there is a sign pointing out a footpath just across the road. We take it, hoping it will go all the way up to Monte Petrella, the highest peak of the park.

Realistically, we have six hours of daylight. We will walk for about three hours. If we cannot find the path to this peak we will turn back.

We start the walk about 13.00. The paved and well signed path snakes up the mountain, crossing the main road several times.

We gain height quickly, getting nice views of the mountains ahead of us.

A guy with his dog. Bit weird. How the hell has he brought it all the way up here? In his little scooter? Locked in box at the back of his bike. We feel sorry for the poor little sausage.

We look back. Nice views of Formia and the coast. The signs continue to be clear and often. It would be difficult to get lost on this mountain.

According to the signs, we are following some sort of religious trek. Is this a pilgrimage route? Italy seems to be a very religious country. Or maybe it used to be and only the reputation remains. New generations may have changed and may not practise as much as their parents used to, like in Spain. Spain has the reputation of being a strong catholic country. However it is not as religious as people think. I once heard on the radio that Spain is actually the fourth less religious country in the world. Yes, you’ve read correctly, in the world. Only after China, the UK and France, but I am not sure how they quantified this; by attendance at church, signed up atheists or by other means.

The path continues along the side of the hill. At 14.00, we reach signs for a picnic site. A sign board displays information of where the different routes go from here. But most of the information has been worn out, so is not very useful. An obvious path lies ahead of us. It must be this way. We continue.

We have not seen any signs for a while. This just doesn’t feel right. Monte Perella is off to our right but this path seems to take us to the opposite direction.

Somehow we have missed the turn. We are going to have to go off piste and hope to find the right path.

We turn off right, towards Monte Perella. A mountain of boulders ahead of us. Lots of scrambling is coming up. The fun starts!

The views of the coast are getting better. No matter where we end up, the walk is already worth it!

We glimpse a couple of walkers in the distance, we can’t be too far off track.

We seem to be getting closer to a high peak. We can see snowed mountains in the distance. Would they be the Apenines? We cannot work it out from here.

The path continues up, steeper.

Looking back, the landscape gets better. Have we actually gone this far so quickly ?

The boulders don’t seem to end. They are getting bigger. When we reach the highest point, we find out that it is only a break in the hill and we have to continue.

16.00, three hours after starting the trek and we get to a ridge. In the distance we make out another peak which looks higher than the one we are on. That may be Monte Perella. If that is the case, we won’t be able to summit it today. It must be at least two hours walk from here. It is too far and too late in the day. Shame!

We have a quick lunch and head down.

In the distance, on the coast, there is a sculpture of christ. This is probably the end of this religious trek. A set of steps lead to that sculpture. They don’t look particularly interesting, we have climbed enough so we head down.

We reach a crossroads. Only now we see signs to Monte Perella. Two hours from here, which is what we thought. It is a shame that these signs were not provided at the beginning of the trek. We could have planned our time better to allow for this climb.

We follow the signs pointing down the valley. We have now realised that this is the path we should have taken from the picnic site.

Half way down, probably a good 400 metres from the start of the trek, there is church, excavated from the rock. How can they be bothered to carry materials and tools all this way up? They really used to make things difficult for themselves.

We continue down. As we drop, we start to see the coast closer and closer.

More religious symbols to remind us we are on a pilgrim walk. Gary seems seems oblivious to this cross.

Looking back, the valley looks impressive. We can’t believe we were up there only an hour ago.

17.00 and  we are back at the car park and the picnic site. This is when we went a bit wrong this morning and we ended up going off-piste. Quite frankly, we don’t mind. The adventurous scramble was more interesting.

We went up there…

Beautiful shot of the coast as the sun begins to sets. The sea looks incredibly calm today. Only disturbed by the waves created by the boats coming in and out of port.

17.30 and back to the start. It has been a really nice and fairly strenuous trek.

We are quite happy we eventually got a walk today. We didn’t think we would due to the lack of information available online, not being able to find the visitor centre and the difficulties of driving Dora up the valley. But we didn’t give up. And by chance, we found a nice guy who told us what we needed. Perfect!

Dora hasn’t gone anywhere. Our bodies are tiredly happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SM