From Venice we drove a short distance south to one of the smallest countries in the world, San Marino (60.5 Km2). It basically covers the upper part of a small mountain and with its impressive cliff hanging medieval fortifications it has maintained its independence since the 11th century. Interestingly, it’s also considered the oldest Republic in the world. Next we made our way to another beautiful mountain top town called Assisi (thanks George for this recommendation) to visit the birthplace of St. Francis  (namesake of San Francisco) and the impressive two level Basilica di San Francesco. All very impressive, especially when lit up at night from our campground below. Hadrian’s Villa east of Rome was our next stop and we were not disappointed. This place is amazing as well as amazingly vast. I knew that a Roman emperors summer villa would have to be larger than your average country club but this place is ridiculously gigantic. Its large, impressive, and well preserved ruins sprawl over an area the size of a small town making it a challenge to visit in just one afternoon. 

We made a quick stop in Rome to re-visit some of our favourite places and an interesting new visit to the”Castel Sant’Angelo” before heading to Pompeii and Naples. A rental car drive through Sorrento and along the compact Amalfi coastline was a driving challenge but a great way to complete this southern part of our Italian journey. After a quick scoot north we exited the toll road northwest of Rome and then followed the coastline past Pisa. The quick driving pace did not end at Pisa as we were now focused on reaching Spain and Portugal as soon as we comfortably could. Therefore, a few more toll roads required until reaching Monaco where we could no longer resist the temptation to drive along the Riviera coastline roadway all the way to Marseille, France. This blog concludes with us spending a great day visiting the World Heritage Site, Arles, France. This is the location where Vincent Van Gogh spent time recovering in a hospital and also painting a number of priceless paintings.