No rush for us this morning. The rental car office doesn’t open until 8:30, so we are taking is slow and hoping to miss the main rush of the tour people since we are docking at 7:00. We actually docked late, due to heavy winds last night – and we are the “bad” pier – the captain said he tried to get the #1 space but we were beat out by another ship. Bummer – because we are in the working part of the port so we can’t walk out to the city – but need a shuttle. Oh well.
We foray out into the winds (and they are brutal!) a little after 8. The shuttle leaves at 8:20 – so we should be good. We think! After standing outside the shuttle bus for 5 minutes before the guy opens the door for us, we then proceed to sit there until 8:35 before leaving. Sigh. Next, it takes forever to get out of the port because we have to go the long way around to exit. Oh well – we’re just continuing on our ghost town tour, so we’re not really in a rush.
Finally out on the street, we walk a mile down the seafront promenade to the train station to find the rental car agency. There wasn’t any specific address on the original reservation, just Ferroravia Zona – so we take a few minutes wandering around the train station zone finding all the other car rental places except Budget. Yikes! They are down the street a bit behind a tree. Sort of hard to see the sign. But we arrive, and it takes the longest time to rent the darn car – the girl has to write everything out long hand. We just want to be on the road.
We finally do get on the road, heading for Roscigno Vecchia – the town abandoned in 1902 after continuous landslides. It looks cool – and it’s out in the middle of Campania. I’ve got some basic information, and I’ve downloaded a Google map of where we’re going – just as back up. Proves to be the smart move, because, once again our best pal Alice sends us on the goat path tour through the middle of the countryside and through some town where she kept trying to make us turn up this little road a kid’s wagon could barely pass through. No. Stop. We are going back and following Google. Sheesh. At least it was a picturesque drive to nowhere. And we got to stop at this great abandoned church on the side of the road…..
Back on the A3, we follow Google directions and Alice finally catches on. This time we head in the correct direction, on decent roads, until we start driving up into the hills that is. Ed is getting his driving in – that’s for certain. The road leading to Roscigno is perched on the edge of a cliff in many areas – and there is only one way in and out. Incredible – there are living villages out here still, with probably a couple thousand people. And they have to drive this to get anywhere!
Who in the world thought it would be a good thing to settle way out here all those years ago?
We actually drive right through San Rufo, one of those aforementioned villages. The road goes right through the village – with the houses perched so close to the road, it looks like a pedestrian walking lane.
Onward we go, carefully navigating one lane sections of the road – where the road has fallen away…
…and numerous other areas where it is just too narrow for 2 cars to pass. The views are spectacular across the valley and the mountain range though, even if it isn’t the best weather for photos. Makes the drive worthwhile.
We finally reach Roscigno Nuovo and wind our way through the little town, looking for the old town. Since we know they re-settled “up” above, the old town, we just keep driving down, and finally find signs that point us to Roscigno Vecchia – which is incredible.
We pull into the old main square of the town – where all the buildings are still standing, silent and empty. The grand church faces the pretty square and fountain, at this time of year seeming rather forlorn in the coming autumn. There is no one around except a horse grazing by the entrance to the town.
We take our time wandering around, snapping photos of the houses left to deteriorate in the elements.
The town was abandoned in 1902 – but the buildings still look sturdy – except for the wood beams and scaffolding that is! It is quiet and eerily serene.
As we are getting ready to leave, we notice a dapper fellow dressed in jacket and vest, with an umbrella tapping away as a pseudo walking stick, walking toward us as he inspected the square. As he nears us, we greet him and realize this is Giuseppe Spagnuolo – the only resident of Roscigno Vecchia! What a treat to get to see him. He invites us into his museum, “museo,” he says. Great – thank you. Inside, we pantomime and speak our pathetic version of Italian, explaining where we are from, “usa,” pronounced “oo-sa” by Giuseppe. We’ve read about him, so we know he is the only person living here, we just wish we had a better grasp of Italian to ask him why? And when he moved here. But, we don’t, so we make ourselves happy with wandering through the exhibits on the area – cheese making equipment, farming equipment and lots of pictures of Giuseppe! He’s quite famous.
As we leave, Giuseppe gives us “gifts” – a tourist book on Campania, a map of the area around Rosicgno with lots of different driving tours, and a large flyer with more information on the area – along with his autograph! Definitely a keeper. Giuseppe also explains he is on Facebook. So we’ll have to friend him there. After pictures, he is so gracious and adorable…
…we thank him and bid him arrividerci. What fun!
Back through the old town, the horse has moved into the road further toward the new town.
We retrace our steps, back through the new town and through San Rufo, stopping occasionally for vista photo shots.
We’ve still got lots of time, so we head back toward Salerno to the next ghost town on the list, Romagnano del Monte. Unfortunately, Alice strikes again. She doesn’t know where the town is, Google does, but we put our faith – wrongly – in Alice. She sends us down this highway with tons and tons of construction. We see a sign for Romagnano, but she says to keep going and it is truly awful driving. 40km/hour, little diversions that make you switch lanes with Jersey barriers so close we could barely get by in our little car. It’s ugly. Then the stupid GPS basically makes do a u-turn to be on the other side of the highway. Then she says the destination is on the right – in the middle of the highway! No, it’s not you dummy. But we can see it from the highway – perched way up on the side of the mountain. It looks so awesome, but we’ve now wasted 1/2 hour trying to get there. Sigh.
We still try to follow the Google directions, but realize halfway through, we’ll never make it in time. Darn it. So we abort, and head back into town where it takes us forever to turn the rental car in. The girl is having problems putting the credit card through – which is worrisome since I’ve already been hacked and we’re hoping Ed’s card hasn’t been. Finally after trying another card, she just says, you’re done. Ok….did we get it free? Or what? We’ll see.
Now we’re rushed, and we still need to find a café for Internet. But there are tons on the way to the shuttle bus, and we settle on Macondo – which was a totally traditional café with really good and cheap beer and wine, along with wonderful chichetti.
Back on the street, ,we hustle down to the shuttle stop, only to be faced with a huge line. We don’t make the first bus, and then we wait, and wait, and wait. It took 45 minutes for a bus to reappear. By this time there is a huge line behind us and the natives are getting restless. The girl in charge of the shuttle says there is bad traffic at the port. We don’t believe it, but we’re sort of held hostage.
Finally, when we are on the bus, and heading back, we realize that she was right. The traffic is horrible. Because we’re in the working port, the buses are stuck in between all the big rigs delivering loads to be shipped out. As we approach the port entrance, the guards start waving the buses though and stopping the trucks. We actually end up driving down the wrong side of the road to get to ship. Surprisingly everyone makes it back on time, but we were not at all certain that would be the case.
Ah well, frustrating, but good day. And tomorrow – sea day – then Venice.
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