Last Stop In Sicily, Back On Mainland Italy And Heading North

Up and down. East and West.  Back and forth.  It’s all in the art of travelling

 

 

I loved waking to the sound of breaking waves and we had both become quite fond of our little spot of Paradise at Camping Paradise, so we cooked up a storm on Sunday morning, lazed on the beach and stayed another day.  The huge moon rose out of the sea and shone through our kitchen window again that evening, but instead of a silvery path this time is was a fantastic peachy orange glow.  If the sky hadn’t been dark you could have mistaken it for a sunrise; it was beautiful.

 

On Monday morning I fondly farewelled Paradise, I will miss the good showers, the nice pitch, the view of the sea and no night-time barking dogs.  At the main road, we turned west, back through Giardini Naxos and then inland to find the Gole di Alacantara.  We paid our €1 fee and then plodded down the 220 steps to the river.  We kicked off our shoes and stepped into the crystal-clear water…….  which was toe-freshening freezing!  Rodney managed to wade a short way through the gorge, but it was too deep for my stumpy legs, so I waited on the beach and studied the fascinating rock formations.

 

 

 

On the drive back down, I finally managed to get a shot of creative Italian diagonal parking.  Some of the best are when they do it on a zebra crossing, or on a junction, and we have seen it occur in almost every single village and town we have driven through.  We’ve seen every size of car doing it and it works quite well with the Smart Cars, well almost, but we won’t try it with Eileen, she’s too precious.

 

 

And that was our last stop in Sicily.  We tracked back to the autostrada and headed north to Messina.  We only had to wait about ten minutes to board the ferry and the cruise back over the Straits of Messina was a lot calmer, sunnier and quicker; at 1:15pm we were driving back on to mainland Italy.  Where to now?  “We need to plot a plan” I said.  “We’re now on our way back north to England”.

 

Tropea looked like it had a nice campsite and one that was close enough to get into the town for an evening meal.  The road across from the autostrada was a bit hairy, but on the dot of 3pm we turned into Camping Marina del Convento, which was next to the beach below; note that word, ‘below’.  On the dot of 4pm we were sprawled on the pebbly beach, along with everyone else from the campsite and on the dot of 5pm, as darkening clouds gobbled the sun we trotted back to Eileen.  Around 6pm, not quite on the dot, we climbed the steps up to the main town of Tropea.  I didn’t count them, but our buttock muscles were back in training for Nepal !!!  Why do Italians love putting their towns and villages at the top of steep steps; they must be very fit.  We had a good mooch around Tropea and a nice grilled swordfish dinner, then as the light was fading, we plodded back down those steps to the campsite; thank goodness it was downhill on the way home.

 

We both woke early on Tuesday, so we unlocked the gate to the beach and strolled along to the cave and arch at the northern end, below the Santuario Maria dell Isola.  I love a stroll along an empty beach, but not so much the getting soaked when fully clothed, doh!  When we walked to the opposite end of the beach to check out another beach around the corner, we got caught between the rocks and the waves and being the shorter of the two, I got the wettest.  Wet clothes will sit on the bathroom floor all day while we drive north, no worries!

 

 

At lunchtime we checked into the huge, but rather deserted Camping Villagio Pineta di Sibari, near Fuscolaro on the Gulf of Taranto.  We’re right by the beach again, though I’m not sure whether we’re up for a sunset, or a moonrise this evening, it’s getting rather confusing.  Last week we were facing south, two days ago we were facing east.  Yesterday we were facing west and tonight we’re facing east again.

The sun rose out of the sea on Wednesday morning, phew that’s what it was supposed to do.  We didn’t actually watch the event, I for one was still fast asleep. But it was hovering above the horizon and making the sea sparkle, when I finally pulled back the curtains.  Two washing machines got as much of a workout as we have lately, with all our climbing up and down steep steps.  In fact, we went crazy in the washing department, throwing in anything and everything that might like some wet soapy rotation.  Even the cushion covers enjoyed a freshen up.

 

Rodney did a successful hunter gatherer trip on his bicycle, while I gave Eileen’s interior a good Etna dust removal.  Then we trotted the 25 metres from Eileen’s door to the deserted beach.  Rodney made a very short and swiftly abandoned attempt at a swim.  A few exclamations and a swear word had him promptly back in his chair with book in hand. I whipped up some three cheese (any cheese we had to hand went in) fresh tortellini for dinner; gawd knows why, as most Italian restaurants only serve pasta and pizza, we could have had it next time we ate out and probably will. A bowl of cherries and a rather nice slice of lemon cake finished off another day for a couple of travelling retirees.  Life is good.