Staples2Naples

Arrival

Finally arrived, just about last, after the heavens opened, you just would not believe the rain. Sadly the Holiday Inn lived up to their usual low standard, it's hard to believe that such a large chain can be so uniformly hopeless. More later......

In the morning

The last day started off well enough and we found our way past Rome very easily.

Today we were able to choose our challenge from a selection of three. First we selected Pomezia just south of Rome where we had to find a specific newspaper kiosk. By this time the rain had started in mild bursts and seemed to come and go as we criss crossed the city. Although the map showed Pomezia as tiny it turned out to be a huge city of squalid high rise flats. What had seemed simple was really hard.

After an hour we started questioning the local kiosk owners, this was a move of desperation because although they were very helpful we could not understand the answers. The first had it wrong but the second gave us: first right, first left. and although it was so unlikely that's exactly where it was! By now the rain was upon us and lunch, for which we had put aside some filled rolls, had to be eaten in the car.

On to Anzio for a treasure hunt. No matter what we did here we just could not make it work and the tension started to rise in the little red rover. Eventually we had to chuck it and head further south to Terracina where we were able to follow the instructions straight off (although rush hour was now on and the traffic and rain were both really heavy).

By dark we were way up a one way track up a mountain and found the town of Sonnino which is tied onto the side of a cliff .The picture shows the statue of whatever it is at Sonnino dimly in the light of the flash and where the locals seem never to have seen a map.

Now the rain and thunder and lightning got serious, I'd thought they were before and traveling back down the one lane road we followed a tiny red car, up to it's axles in water. Visibility was minimal, the sun roof started to leak, water gushed up out of the drains and manholes. We abandoned the final task thinking we would be luck to reach the end.

Finally we found the finish, near Castel Volturno, virtually awash and we were getting somewhat moist inside the car too. By this time the winners were being announced and you can find them on the staples2naples.com web site if you're interested. Needless to say we swam off to find the hotel, not that easy in the downpour.

Finally arriving at the rather glitzy Holiday Inn we persuaded the rather surly staff that we actually had a reservation and that they should give us a room and a beer or two. Quite a few of the other teams were already in residence by this time and we were able to swap notes with some of them. We have not found any of our fellow travelers short of a few stories.

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