After breakfast we packed away the stylish Roadsurfer dining set and started our trip to Termoli.

We were treated to further great views of the coastline as we left Vieste.

The road moved inland and straightened to long stretches lined with olive trees.

Wanting a coffee stop, we pulled off the main highway into a little town called Cagnano Varano which overlooks Lake Varano.

This town  didn’t really feel like Italy, but more eerily like a frontier town of the mid-west with it’s dusty almost deserted streets. We were a bit circumspect about stopping here but parked the van on the street where we could see it and went to the well patronised Blu Bar.

Here, we received a very warm welcome and ordered 2 coffees and 2 sausage rolls for a very reasonable 3.80 Euros. Clearly we were now off the tourist drag as that wouldn’t have a bought half a cappucino in Sorrento!

When we arrived in Termoli we headed for the port area having already identified an Sosta Camper Park there on Park4Night. Sostas are an alternative to camp grounds for motorhomes. They occasionally, although rarely in Italy, are free and offer anything from simply a place to park to full shower blocks, toilets, freshwater and camper dump station.

The first hitch was that the Polizia Municipale had closed the road to the port. We were by now beginning to get familiar with this scenario!  We searched and found an alternative route although it was very narrow and tricky to negotiate. Arriving at the gate to the Sosta we were pleased to hear that they had a vacancy although warned us that “there is going to be a concert by an Italian singer besides the site tonight, which will go on late and could be noisy”. We decided to take our chances and even enquired if there were still tickets available.

We were guided to our “pitch” which was behind a large stage flanked by banks of speakers and screens.

Leaving the camper to explore the town we could see the merchandise tent was already doing good business.

The concert would feature Geolier, although unkown to us, he is a well loved Italian rapper from Naples who has had 4 number 1 albums in the Italian album charts since he broke onto the music scene in 2019. This could, or couldn’t, turn out to be an interesting night!

There was quite a long climb up a staircase to the town itself and we struggled to get through the hoards of fans descending the steps to the concert as we climbed. We could hear the soundcheck from the stage below and this clearly was a huge event for this town of only around 32,000.

The town itself was busier than Vieste and, although attractive and interesting in it’s own right, didn’t have quite the same charm.

We got back to the Aosta about 10pm and the concert was well underway. The music was more hip hop than rap and alot of it was much more melodic than expected. We lit a couple of citroenella candles and soaked up the free concert, as did many other ageing “motorhomers” on the site. Many seated at table and chairs with wine and cheese in hand – maybe not Geolier’s traditional following!

The lyrics were all in Italian and the large crowd seemed to know every word of every song. This apparently was the first gig of his “Data Zero” tour which would then move on to Milan, Rome, Messina and Naples and we reflected on what a small part of a very large world we normally observe. It’s always a privilege to be able to see a bit more.

As soon as the concert finished the road crew began the “load out” and if you were a light sleeper you would probably have been awake all night. Fortunately that wasn’t the case for us and by sunrise much of the stageing had already been loaded into at least 10 large container lorries which were leaving the site.

This had been a very fortunate coincidence for us and it is these unplanned experiences that are so often the best.