4. An Italian Adventure - as far south as you can get in mainland Italy, right down to the big toe

covering 27 April to 2 May 2019

near Praia a Mare on the Tyrrhenian coast

a bit of a jumble in Maratea

looks good but the water was freezing

Our route hasn’t been quite as much of a zig zag as it might seem and we were now on the west coast near a place called Maratea (not to be confused with Matera from the last blog) which sounded interesting.  Described as like a southern Amalfi coast, we were expecting great things and while it was very scenic as we went further south, this stretch was nothing too special.  For some reason I was convinced that Maratea was on the coast and we caught a train with our bikes one Sunday morning to go and see it.  It wasn’t on the coast and the station wasn’t in Maratea either.  We cycled to it and it ended being about 5 kilometres all uphill to get there.  Very lively on a Sunday morning with cafes open and people milling about and then we realised that this was the precursor to church attendance.  After a good look round this attractive hill town we had a pleasant lunch in a packed restaurant and by the time we’d finished, the town was empty.  The bike ride back to the station was nice and easy.

Maratea from nowhere near as far down as the station

We had spent more time in Southern Italy than we first thought we would and not wishing to rush Sicily we adjusted our intended itinerary and we have cut out Sardinia and Corsica.  We’ll now have about three weeks in Sicily.  I’ve already said that the landscape in Basilicata (and Calabria as it happens) is spectacular but it isn’t wild empty country by any means.  Much, but certainly not all of it has buildings scattered across and there’s rarely a view without some terracotta roofing peering through the greenery.  It isn’t quite like a very wooded city but you don’t have to go far before another house or farm pops into view.

heading through La Sila Grande National Park

near Squillace

Driving south from Maratea the coast was very spectacular, which means narrow roads.  Towards the end of the day’s drive we caught our first views of a volcano this trip, a classic cone rising out of the sea.  This was Stromboli, very active with what we thought was steam rising from it.  Having checked my book, it seems that it’s an almost constant spray of liquid magma.  There were major lava flows in 2014 and 2007 while in 2003 one village was showered with rocks up to 14 feet wide.  Yes, village.  Four hundred people choose to live here, now be honest, would you ?

Scilla

the coast south from Maratea

Stromboli from a distance

and at sunset from the same place

the giant puppets in Tropea

We stopped in a lovely little town called Tropea on the South Tyrrhenian coast with Stromboli visible to the west and the town upon some big cliffs just across the road to the east.  A long flight of stairs led up to a busy little old town centre.  Most campsites are out of town so we’d decided that when we were in a site close to town, we’d probably eat out, so we did.  Hearing drums, we guessed there was a procession, there was and it was quite odd.  Just two huge puppets, some twelve feet tall, one man and one woman accompanied by said drums were walking around twisting their bodies as they went.  The two operator’s faces were visible at about navel height.  We had no idea what it was about and they were walking around for an hour or so.  No collection was taking place and it wasn’t religious.

two more shots in Tropea

Our last day or so on mainland Italy was around a National Park almost at the southernmost point.  It was called rather grandly the Parco Nazionale dell’ Aspromonte.  Every country with National Parks has a different meaning and set of rules for them, there is no International Standard for what constitutes a National Park.  We haven’t a clue what they’re supposed to mean in Italy.  Aspromonte had lots of woods and a surprise to us, Skiing.  The whole place was out of season, the town in the middle looked deserted and we couldn’t even find the campsite.  This was a bit difficult because there were no other campsites listed in our books within about fifty miles.  To get to that campsite we headed south along a completely empty road dropping quite steeply towards the sea, twenty or thirty miles away.  We came across a couple of sections where the outermost third or so of the road had disappeared over the edge which definitely added a frisson of excitement to our descent.

a small hilltop town in Aspromonte - with the sea behind

Eventually we got to the in-town site which was listed in our book and it was closed.  So we parked up on the edge of town, just above the sea and with views westward to Sicily where we hoped to be on the morrow and had a cup of tea.  Then we watched the sun sink behind Sicily and stayed there for the night.  

that night's wild camping spot with Sicily, our next stop in view