May 2 – Monday. Pizzo Tonight as I write this entry the wind is howling outside and it whistles noisily through the corridors of the complex. This morning we played catch outside on the street. We brought our gloves, bat and ball with us from home. This afternoon we had spent a few hours at the beach in partial sun and high overcast – the weather can indeed change quickly around here. We enjoyed sitting in the warmth on the sand and watching J play in and try to ride the waves.
A mom and 2 children came down shortly after we arrived and they decided to sit right near us. The girl quickly tried to carry on a conversation with me in Italian – wondering why J wasn’t getting his hair wet and why he wasn’t at school. I tried my best and did get across that we were from Canada and were visiting Italy. She asked what J’s name was and then introduced herself in her newly learned English, which she studies at school.
Anyways, after a while Michelle (who is eight) decided that she wanted to join J in the water. So with the help of her mom, she dropped all her clothes with the exception of underwear and promptly ran into the sea. It was priceless to see the look on her face - that startled freezing cold water look!! They had a great time trying to communicate and Jeffrey showed her how to skip rocks. The two of them also played soccer. It was nice to see him interacting with someone near his age and having a great time.
Michelle had a little brother, Francesco, who was three and a charmer. He would chat to us in Italian and he wanted to take J’s rock collection home with him. His mother had no interest in having him bring them home, but he gathered them up in his arms and brought them over to his mom. Eventually his mom convinced him to return the rocks and collect some of his own. Over the next half-hour he found enough small stones to fill all his pants pockets, and had his pants sagging half way down his bottom. He was into experimenting, showing me rocks, filling his sneakers with sand and then trying to do up his straps and wear them. It was enjoyable just to watch. When they were ready to go home he came over and said ciao and leaned over and kissed me on both cheeks and then did the same for Mark.
Once back to the apartment we started reading book 8 of 39 clues and had a new Italian dish. While at the supermarket we had picked up a ground chicken roll wrapped in prosciutto cotto. We baked it and it was delicious. It’s great being able to try many different things so we have a varied menu. We decide to watch another Indiana Jones movie Temple of Doom while the wind howled outside.
May 3, Tuesday. It’s time to go and explore Pizzo. First stop was a recommendation of the brouchure in the apartment, Chiesa di Piedigotta. This is a church dated about 1700 is built out of rock into a hill close to the sea. Being a heritage site we paid a small entrance fee and walked down a series of staircases and walkways to reach the site. From the outside, it has a rock façade with wrought iron in the window areas. Once inside, we looked around in wonder. The cavern-like structure had a series of statues and Biblical scenes carved out of rock, some of which dated to 900 AD. As well there were some frescos still visible on the cave/church ceiling. The immense work that went into the tribute to God is amazing. What an unexpected treat.
We drove onto the old town of Pizzo, found a parking spot, and just wandered the narrow alleyways and staircases. The thought “What an awesome place to play hide and seek “ did enter the mind. What a blast it would be with so many passageways veering off from the streets. In old Pizzo the streets are narrow and cobble stone – as we have seen thus far in many older parts of the cities and villages visited. There are the typical tourist shops and well. Like all the towns/cities we have visited so far there are piazzas where the locals and tourists gather. A piazza is a great place to people watch and enjoy the ambience of the town. We commented on this as we sat down to have pizza for lunch at a pizzeria facing Via Scesa Castello Murat. J learned something today. He ordered a pizza, which the menu said would have peperoni on it, only to have it arrive with green peppers on his cheese pizza. He was not a happy camper!!!
We also thought of how dense the housing is in Italy versus in Calgary. The majority of people live in apartments, not homes, they do not have big yards, and often their veranda has their potted garden. There was a really well preserved castle (Castello Murat) outfitted with a cannon overlooking the sea below. It made one think of early times of soldiers on the lookout for approaching enemy forces.
May 4, Wednesday. The last couple of weeks we haven’t had access to Internet in our rental spots. So, we’re off to Tropea (a coastal city approx. 40 km south built right on the edge of the cliff above the sea) to find a Wi-Fi café, do a post to the blog and some more exploring. We headed into the heart of the town negotiating narrow streets to get near the old centro and find a parking spot (which is always a challenge, although the locals seem to park wherever they want including double parking or leaving half the vehicle in the roadway for other drivers to find a way around). The management company (Tom and Paul) which we dealt with to rent this apartment have their office here and we wanted to stop in to get directions to the Wi-Fi café, ask where we can buy stamps (other than the post offices which we have found often has a longer than desired line-up), and get directions to a restaurant. We learned that tobacconist shops – which are common here - also carry stamps, and that Tropea is a summer tourist/beach destination and many of the shops are closed for about a quarter of the year.
While M spent about 1 ½ hours doing the blog post (each photo can take up to 5 minutes to upload), while J and I walked amongst the narrow cobbled streets and looked for post cards. Here the buildings are old and weathered from the winds off the sea. We found out that the peperocini peppers are considered Calabrian Viagra! Laughed at that sign. In this area they are known for growing lots of sweet purple onions and the hot red peppers which we saw hung outside a number of shops.
Having posted the blog and a couple of cappuccinos later, we were off in search of the restaurant, la Viletta which had a menu featuring 500 pizzas! There was such a range of names (Indiana Jones was one). Here we were with our Iphone plugged into the translator app trying to figure out the ingredients we wanted on our choice. We’re sure the proprietress found it quite humorous. J knew he only wanted a couple of items on his and T really didn’t care to much – as anything with soft mozzarella and porcini mushrooms as toppings was going to be a hit! M took the longest to find one to his liking – he put that translator to work! T ate the whole thin crust pizza the size of a dinner plate – it was that good!
We found our way down to seaside and took some shots of the town site which is perched high overhead on the cliff – quite a site! The amount of concrete used in construction of buildings and infrastructure is amazing!
May 5 Thusday – Since it’s our last full day in the Pizzo area, we decide to go for a drive inland to see what the countryside is like. We choose a secondary road to lead us across to Ionian Sea shore. However, we quickly find that this route is very rural with an incredible number of switchbacks taking us out of the lowlands into the hills. It’s amazing where people have decided to settle in towns. We wondered what in years gone by caused them to settle where they did. Not much is around some of these places. We see where hills were terraced for growing crops and fruit bearing trees now abandoned. Not having come across a gas station and gas level in the vehicle diminishing we turn back early in our adventure. Mark didn’t find it particularly relaxing as he had to concentrate so much on all the curves of the road. So, we turned around and headed back to the coast. Once in the lowlands with the sea in sight we decide to drive north where we came across fields upon fields of partially covered crops and fruit trees (like greenhouses with metal arched frames, translucent plastic covering with open sides). We drove for likely 30 km through this basin along the sea, backed by the hills several km away is definitely a vegetable growing region of Calabria and orange and lemon trees abound.
With the sun shining overhead, it’s decided that a trip to the beach is in order. The waves are bigger today so J spends a couple of hours playing and being ”pummeled” as he called it by the waves. The need for recycling of plastic bottles is evidenced by the ones we see washed ashore on the beaches! Nevertheless, the scenery is beautiful!
Of course our last evening here we visited Enrico’s for one last tarfulo experience and Jeffrey had a gelato. It was a nice treat to celebrate the end of a good afternoon at the beach.
No comments:
Post a Comment