Italy - Cassino

We left Tuscany and continued on our travels making for the coast west of Rome. We spent a night on the outskirts of Rome and found that the camperstop had a large washbay and pressure hose with a large moveable step ladder! This meant Fifi even had a roof wash and came out looking almost new.
We reached the coast southwest of Rome near Anzio and had a 'free night' near the beach parked up close to a yacht harbour.
It struck us with almost immediate effect the well known fact of the North-South divide in Italy - the rich north and the poorer south. Homes are less well maintained and either the councils in the north make more regular garbage collections than the south, or whatever, but there is markedly more rubbish strewn about the place than north of Rome. Some parts of inner town centres are in need of a serious clean up! Having said that, not always are rubbish bins in evidence, same thing in the UK, which means people will simply dump stuff .... well?

Cassino

Venue of the costliest campaign (an estimated 75,000 casualties on all sides) on Italian soil in WW2. For a quick history lesson:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Monte_Cassino

We drove up the hill to the Monastry itself and visited both Allied and German war cemeteries. Herewith a pictorial insight on our wanderings.

The Allied War Cemetery at Cassino:-

The view seen by most soldiers of the Cassino campaign

Cassino War Cemetery from the Monastry

 

South African graves - note the Springbok

The German Military Cemetery at Cassino:-

Sculpture - grief and consolation

Last resting place for over 20,000 dead

Commemorating those with no known graves

Symbolic Flame of Peace

Two days of wonderful sunshine and the opportunity to take it all in. A quiet camperstop with never more than three motorhomes on site.

Even time to walk the inner town .... so wonderfully Italian ....

Some do washing, others gardening.