Saturday 22nd April

Having been only one of two vans at Camping Eucalypti when we arrived yesterday, today the site started to fill up, to the extent that by the evening there were 24 vans on site! We, however, kept our little oasis of peace, next to the beach, until late evening when an Italian van joined us. We discovered that Tuesday is a public holiday in Italy, as is 1st May, and so many Italians turn this week into a holiday.

It was a day of more or less total relaxation in the warm Southern Italian sun. Sunscreen on for the first time and unwind. I had even found a way of entertaining Skye while I lazed. I found her frisbee from last year and discovered that lounging in my chair I could happily throw the frisbee for Skye and she then returned it, ad infinitum.

We had couple of long walks on the beach and Skye thoroughly enjoyed herself chasing gulls, which were several hundred yards out to sea and dashing in and out of the waves. She even appeared tired when we got back to Basil, but not for long.

Sarah and I were in Basil in the evening when we saw through the door Skye chasing her ball, which had clearly been thrown by someone. We looked out to see Skye taking the ball back to one of the Italian campers who threw it again. Once that game had finished we observed Skye drop her ball back next to the campsite track and lie, flat, Collie style, with her nose inches from the ball. When anyone walked passed she picked up the ball and dropped at their feet. This tactic worked with several unsuspecting Italians walking past Basil.

Sunday 23rd April

This is the third time we have brought Basil to Italy and in addition we have been to the country ten or more times for holidays or city breaks. The result is that we are running out of new things to see. As I mentioned in my last blog, Camping Eucalypti is near to the Ancient Greek site of Paestum but Sarah and I visited this seven years ago.

We decided to move further south today, but first an uncomfortable Basil found himself sitting in a car park next to something called Conan. While Sarah went to do the shopping I had to explain to the shocked Basil that LIDL is not the only supermarket!

I had managed to find an obscure archaeological site en route. The site was called Velia and from what I gleaned from the Web it was an Ancient Greek and Roman site, but there was very little left to see. It was on the way so we stopped to have a look. However we were shocked to find a fee of €12 each for entrance to these barely visible ruins. This was because it was a joint ticket with Paestum and they did not sell a stand alone ticket for Velia. We could see many of the ruins from the ticket office and they were no more than a few centimetres high. The team decided to give it a miss given the magnificent sites already visited on this trip.

After lunch on the Velia car park we headed south trying to find somewhere to stop for the night. Our journey took us through the spectacular Cilento National Park with mountains climbing to 6,200 feet (1,900 metres) covered with lush deciduous forest. There was even snow still on the top of some peaks.

We have found a free car park next to the sea (40.073638, 15.607041). Unfortunately dogs are not permitted on the beach, but having seen another canine next to the sea, Sarah inevitably took Skye for a little wander on the shoreline.