Spent part of last night trying to find some of Depoti's relatives in Palermo, but none of the search engines came up with either the Anglicized or original Italian spellings.So we just decided to see Palermo and go.
Our day consisted of a nice long mountain drive over the back roads to Locri and eventually to Gerace and then home.
Beautiful morning this morning. Not a cloud in the sky after a rainy and, for here, cold Wednesday. It was the first day since I've been here that a) It rained, b) the wind blew and c) I saw white caps on the sea.
We tried in vain to find a wimpy cup of coffee for Depoti. First stop, expresso. Sucked, too strong. Second stop, cappuccino. Sucked, too strong. So I guess he's off coffee till he gets home.
Driving out of town we ended up on a set of back roads that went through some pretty countryside with lots of olive and orange groves. Our destination the Ionian sea that I visited when I had a car a week or so ago.
I wanted, instead of going around the peninsula, to go to Gerace, a medieval town located on, of course, a hilltop in the Aspromonte Mountains.
I remembered a McDonalds with the interesting Playland, that I figured would be a good place to stop and get out of the car and to our surprise found that it was located in a mall of all things. They had a huge grocery store where we shopped for the usual suspects for lunch and probably the nicest McD's that I've ever seen.
Playland Italian Style.
Inside. Real leather booths.
We had a quick lunch on the beach then off to Gerace.
Founded in the 9th century by refugees from Locri pirate attacks, Geracet contains a once impregnable castle and it's town.At one time Gerace had a 128 churches and still maintains that small ancient feel to it.
One of the many narrow side streets.
A view from above.
After Gerace we headed back over the Aspromonte mountains on one of the least used roads that I've seen here in Italy, As it turned out, it was because they'd had a slide on the other side of the mountain and the road was "closed". We get down to the closure and there is a excavator working on the road. As I proceeded to turn around, Joe says, Hell no, I'll talk to him, we can drive over this, I do it everyday in my car. So out he pops goes over to the operator, makes a few gestures that he was a operator of heavy equipment and could we drive over the slide. Sure,so I did. Should taken pics, but I was amazed the guy let us drive this dinky Nissan over the rocks. Probably thought, hey not my car.
Back to Tropea in time for dinner. You guessed it. 500 kinds of pizza. My new friend Eduaro (the chef) and Dolli (the Transylvania) were ecstatic to see me again. They think I'm stalking them.
Internet connection in all locations except Taormina, so I'll try to keep you updated on our progress.
As usual, Ciao for now,.
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