Campagnano, Italy

We drove a long winding road through some beautiful hills and farms this morning. This area was much more rustic than Tuscany, not so refined, with sheep, pigs, and cattle in evidence. The first place we headed for--in a light drizzle--was Saturnia, a natural sulpher hot spring. We found it listed in the Eyewitness book--the spot was a draw for Italians, both rich and poor. The rich took in the spring at its source, upon which a fancy spa to cater to their every whim had been built. The more economical-minded bather can take advantage of the runoff which is a fast-flowing creek that has several small waterfalls. A short drive down the road takes you to a spot where you can enjoy the hot water (here more lukewarm) for free. We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, but there was no place to change clothes and we didn't have a towel (the efficient Italians had lined up a large string of small European style RVs that people were staying in). When we drove up to the spa, the first thing we were greeted with was a sign saying how much the parking was going to cost, an ill portent if ever there was one. Jill was sure the Romans must have used this spot, even if very remote. We decided that a hot bath would be nice, but that it wasn't a necessity.

Meandering our way to Rome, we drove through small fortresses built on hilltops to a town called Pitigliano that was literally built into the cliffside, where we stopped and ate lunch. The town is perched on the steep canyon walls and is quite impressive. All in the walls was a kind of gray bird called a Jackdaw. The city is another walled town with narrow streets. Jill was not sure that we had chosen a good place to eat because no one was there but an older man in the corner watching an Italian soap opera. But even in a poor restaurant, the pasta was good.

We drove from Pitigliano to Viterbo, where we did one of the walks from the Lonely Planet Guide. We saw the place where the council used to meet to choose the popes (the city used to be in the competition of where the popes would be centered). We also saw the church where two popes are buried (both from the mid-1200s). This church had been totally rebuilt after being almost completely destroyed in a 1944 bombing. We occasionally saw mentions of buildings bombed and such, but this was the most obvious evidence. They had a picture of what it looked like after the bombing--a heap of rubble. Later, in Rome, Jill wondered how so much had escaped damage--did they remove many of the valuables to safe storage as they did in England? Were the Vatican and other major structures spared intentionally?

Also in Viterbo were some of the best preserved medieval streets and buildings, and they did look like streets from a story about Robin Hood, or knights, or "Dungeons and Dragons." Very neat.

The continuing drive towards Rome unfortunately started to repeat the problem of the night before--when we started to look for a place to stay, no hotels were forthcoming, and this time the largest city within the area was Rome itself. We continued to try town after small town, having trouble finding a hotel until we were within 30 km of Rome in Campagnano. The hotel was in the back and over what turned out to be the local pizza joint. It is clean, as every place has been, but not fancy. Dinner was at the hotel restaurant, a kind of beer and pizza place (at the table across from us were two families with their 3 children, boy and twin girls, eating, yes, pizza, beer and coke. Oddly, Jill found it reminded her of her American childhood from that age! The girls and the boy are running about and one found us quite fascinating. People our age came in and had--beer and pizza! The pizzas are not that different from the U.S., despite what people say, only thinner and crispier with not so much cheese and better mushrooms. We had bruschetta with cold marinated eggplant and olive oil (very good!), pasta, a kind of boring salad, and vin santo (a dessert wine, also excellent!). The vino della casa was a nice dry white.

The comparison of the two cities--Grosseto and Campagnano--provided a much better picture of the real Italian life. Grosseto was more of a business town, the kind of light industry and academic look of a city with a few major employers of which one was a school. Campagnano, situated 50 km to the north of Rome, was heavy industry. Grosseto had the modern Italian look--straight up and down buildings that can be found the world over. Campagnano made do with older buildings converted to uses that they had not been originally built for. The dress in Grosseto was casually stylish; Campagnano was rough and dirty. For us, as outsiders, both were friendly in that nice way that speaks, "What the hell are you doing here this time of year," as compared to the dangerous "this isn't a place for you--get out" and not the overly effusive greeting of a town like Vinci, happy to see the first sign of tourists like birdwatchers sighting the first swallows of Capistrano. To continue the comparison, Florence, Pisa, Assisi, Pompeii, and Rome all share the same world-weary view--tourists may come and they may go, but we're always here.