We didn’t know where we would go or how long we’d be gone for. My friend Giacomo and I only knew that we wanted to take a car, fill it with a tent, two foldable chairs and a gas cooker, and drive around Italy to discover more of our country. We had no specific itinerary or plan. As I have learnt from many of my travels, plans often go awry most of the time anyways, affected by totally unexpected variables. Weather, transport, stomach bugs, cyclones, global pandemics – the world has a funny way of expressing its love for humans! Sometimes, the best trips are those that begin without any expectations or aims, other than the pure joy of exploration. Overall, we were only travelling for eleven days, but thanks to our mantra of spontaneity and curiosity we really managed to experience the raw culture of every region we crossed. We began our journey from Milan, our hometown (read my post about it!), and headed south along the famous boot-shaped peninsula. Being from the north of Italy, we felt like it was time to head south and explore more of what was less known to us. Still, our first stop along the way was a city very well known by many for its objective beauty and central cultural role during the Renaissance – Florence. Its medieval look and artistic richness is not only visible, but when walking through its cobbled streets it feels like roaming through in an immersive museum, retracing the steps of revolutionary artists, architects, and writers. Art has always been throughout my life a pillar of stability, allowing me to remain creative and driven even in the most confusing times. When in Florence, I feel in touch with my creative self, as I’m sure eclectic artists like Da Vinci, Giotto, Dante Alighieri, Michelangelo or Brunelleschi must have felt while they were living in Florence. After enjoying a small visit of the Ponte Vecchio, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and Palazzo Vecchio, we jumped back into the car and drove to our first camping site, Cielo Verde, located on the Tuscan coast. After battling with our tent during the only thunderstorm of the entire trip, we made ourselves some chilli and oil pasta on the small gas cooker and went to bed. Italy is a country of unbelievable variation. Every town in every region has its own dialect, a different staple dish, and distinct geographical features. Moulded by millennia of human history, Italy has become a mosaic of cultures and traditions. We stayed at CieloVerde for a couple more nights, enjoying the freshness of the maritime pine woodland and the long sand beaches of Tuscany, but then we decided it was time to continue our journey and experience Italy’s richness. After crossing Rome’s region, Lazio, but driving past our historic capital, we arrived in the region of Campania. As a spot to set up our tent, we found a rather unconventional campsite located in the Solfatara Natural Park (Pozzuoli), in the middle of the crater of a dormant volcano of the Phlegrean Fields. At this site, about 37,000 years ago, one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history took place, the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption. It was so potent that it is one of the reasons attributed to the demise of the Neanderthal and their replacement by Homo sapiens. Then, 4000 years ago, another major eruption in the Phlegrean Fields occurred opening a shallow crater which emits sulphurous fumes – the Solfatara, from sulpha and terra, “land of sulphur”. It is mesmerising to walk around the huge crater among the colours of the sulphur-rich rocks and the jets of steam from deep beneath the Earth’s crust. It’s an understatement to say that sleeping there in a small tent made us feel quite insignificant to the power of nature! A trip to the Neapolitan area is never complete without a visit to some Roman ruins, but rather than visiting the overcrowded ancient city of Pompeii, we opted for the smaller archaeological site of Herculaneum (Ercolano). This was another of the ancient Roman cities destroyed and buried by volcanic ash when the Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The city is named after the mythical Hercules, and the level of preservation is unbelievable. Since the mid-1700s when the digging began, archaeologists have revealed a cultural and economic hub full of aristocrat houses adorned by mosaics, shops, temples and even catacombs. Having ticked off a few archaeologically and geologically important locations on the map, we proceeded towards the very tip of the Italian boot, to the region of Calabria. We stopped in a campsite on the shore of the city of Tropea and enjoyed waking up early in the morning before everyone else to buy sacks full of freshly made mozzarella. If you want to experience what real mozzarella tastes like, you must go to the local dairy shop between 9-11am, as that’s when the freshest mozzarella is made and sold. If you go any later, it just won’t be the same, and it will all probably be sold out. Speaking about food, this brings us to the region of Puglia, where some of my favourite dishes are from as they are an integral part of my family cuisine. Between the many pasta dishes, cheeses, and a wide variety of breads, Puglia has also a wide array of sweet delicacies like the ‘cartellate’. As we had fun whizzing along the windy coastal roads flanking steep hillsides of the Gargano National Park, we also experienced the vibrant oil industry of Puglia. We stopped along the way in a private olive farm where a lovely couple filled a dozen bottles with fine virgin oil for us to take back home, as well as bags upon bags of their latest batch of olives. Eating cheese and olives on the rocky beaches of the Salento, surrounded by white dolomitic rockfaces that reach into the Ionian Sea, is one of my most cherished memories. One of our last stops before heading back home was the Marche region, on the hilly eastern coast of the peninsula. Owing to my fascination for geography and geology, we went to one of the largest and most famous caves of Italy – the marvellous and grandiose Grotte di Frasassi. Stalagmites and stalactites can get up to triple the height and width of a human, and the largest cavern (Abisso d’Ancona) is about 120 metres in length and 200 metres high. This is enough to fit the entire Duomo of Milan!!! After eleven days of carefree, spontaneous travelling around the awe-inspiring variation of the Italian peninsula, we regretfully made our way back home. The purposeful lack of planning gave us the freedom to explore our country just how we wanted. Although finding a free campsite open until late in the evening was sometimes a source of worry, the beautiful scenery and relaxed Italian attitude allowed us to enjoy even the slightly more stressful moments. There is still so much more of Italy to explore and, even though I’m from there, there is always something new to learn in such a culturally, historically and geographically rich country. I advise everyone to do the same in their own country when they have the chance, because so many beautiful things are hidden around the corner of our own backyard. Watch the short film I made of our trip below! Stay tuned and stay wanderlust, Dael
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