The Royal Palace of Caserta

Sunday family outing with my boyfriend, who was working despite the hot day and constantly on his mobile phone. We set off in the morning, though not too early, and the motorway drive went smoothly. Caserta is a quiet little town, and its heart is the Royal Palace, the Bourbon residence built in imitation of Versailles by the architect Luigi Vanvitelli and his son Carlo, certainly smaller but with more comforts: sewers and running water, as shown by a bathroom the sovereigns hardly ever used, following the customs of the time. The kind guide gives a detailed explanation for every room open to the public. The palace is truly... a palace, even if splendid rooms are followed by less sumptuous ones undergoing restoration and hit by the financial troubles that arose.

There is also a chapel, but we are not allowed to visit it, and an exhibition of old nativity scenes belonging to the Bourbon sovereigns. The park is equally spectacular, even though, because of the heat, we don't dare get off the bus that runs inside the palace grounds to take a walk. Outside, many coachmen with their cheerful horses invite you on an old-fashioned ride; we, instead, head for the restaurant where we round off our stay in town before driving back around 8 pm (helped by fairly reasonable traffic).