{"id":4757,"date":"2016-05-26T05:36:58","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T19:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=4757"},"modified":"2026-05-12T07:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:39:07","slug":"last-stop-in-sicily-back-on-mainland-italy-and-heading-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2016\/05\/26\/last-stop-in-sicily-back-on-mainland-italy-and-heading-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Stop In Sicily, Back On Mainland Italy And Heading North"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up and down. East and West.\u00a0 Back and forth.\u00a0 It\u2019s all in the art of travelling<\/em><\/p>\n

\"
Our beach at Letojanni and the campsite restaurant that never opened<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Another
Another brilliant English breakfast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 If the sky hadn\u2019t been dark you could have mistaken it for a sunrise; it was beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking across the bay from Taormina<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 At the main road, we turned west, back through Giardini Naxos and then inland to find the Gole di Alacantara.\u00a0 We paid our \u20ac1 fee and then plodded down the 220 steps to the river.\u00a0 We kicked off our shoes and stepped into the crystal-clear water\u2026\u2026.\u00a0 which was toe-freshening freezing!\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

\"Gole
Gole di Alacantara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Rodney
Rodney wading<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Basalt
Basalt rock formations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the drive back down, I finally managed to get a shot of creative Italian diagonal parking.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen every size of car doing it and it works quite well with the Smart Cars, well almost, but we won\u2019t try it with Eileen, she\u2019s too precious.<\/p>\n

\"Super
Super creative, when you do it on the wrong side of the road, opposite a parked van. The coach ahead didn\u2019t even slow down to get through<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"More
More glimpses of Mount Etna, still puffing a little at the top<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

And that was our last stop in Sicily.\u00a0 We tracked back to the autostrada and headed north to Messina.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Where to now?\u00a0 \u201cWe need to plot a plan\u201d I said.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re now on our way back north to England\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"There\u2019s
There\u2019s a boat on the road, let\u2019s get round that to start with\u2026\u2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tropea looked like it had a nice campsite and one that was close enough to get into the town for an evening meal.\u00a0 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, \u2018below\u2019.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Around 6pm, not quite on the dot, we climbed the steps up to the main town of Tropea.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t count them, but our buttock muscles were back in training for Nepal !!! \u00a0Why do Italians love putting their towns and villages at the top of steep steps; they must be very fit.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

\"Looking
Looking down from Tropea on the Santuario Maria dell Isola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 I love a stroll along an empty beach, but not so much the getting soaked when fully clothed, doh!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Wet clothes will sit on the bathroom floor all day while we drive north, no worries!<\/p>\n

\"Early
Early morning stroll on the beach below Tropea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Jumping
Jumping for joy, pre dunking…..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

At lunchtime we checked into the huge, but rather deserted Camping Villagio Pineta di Sibari, near Fuscolaro on the Gulf of Taranto.\u00a0 We\u2019re right by the beach again, though I\u2019m not sure whether we\u2019re up for a sunset, or a moonrise this evening, it\u2019s getting rather confusing.\u00a0 Last week we were facing south, two days ago we were facing east.\u00a0 Yesterday we were facing west and tonight we\u2019re facing east again.<\/p>\n

The sun rose out of the sea on Wednesday morning, phew that\u2019s what it was supposed to do.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t 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.\u00a0 Two washing machines got as much of a workout as we have lately, with all our climbing up and down steep steps.\u00a0 In fact, we went crazy in the washing department, throwing in anything and everything that might like some wet soapy rotation.\u00a0 Even the cushion covers enjoyed a freshen up.<\/p>\n

\"The
The view from our bedroom window…. after sunrise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rodney did a successful hunter gatherer trip on his bicycle, while I gave Eileen\u2019s interior a good Etna dust removal.\u00a0 Then we trotted the 25 metres from Eileen\u2019s door to the deserted beach.\u00a0 Rodney made a very short and swiftly abandoned attempt at a swim.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Life is good.<\/p>\n

\"Our
Our two chairs on the Bay of Taranto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Captain
Captain Roddles, retired<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up and down. East and West.\u00a0 Back and forth.\u00a0 It\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8229,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4757\/revisions\/8229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}