Day 3 - Around the Hangnail of Italy. Some lessons in Italian driving and wrangling a home cooked meal.

Not quite sunny today, but 60 at least as I headed out to get one good drive in prior to taking the car back tomorrow.

Learned some fascinating rules of Italian driving today as I did 6 hours and 45 minutes in a complete circle around the toe of Italy. I went up the hill behind my "villa" ( on the road of course) and headed towards Vibo Valentia and towards the Ionian Sea on the other side of the toe. First impression, green but still winter, not all the trees have buds, especially away from the coast line. But oranges grow year round here and the were harvesting.

Found the ruins of a viaduct today outside the town of Mileto.Nothing special, just a couple thousand years old, but as I found out, pretty indicative of Italian infrastructure.

Continued on the back road of the Vibo Valentia province to the town of Rosarno which was featured in a recent episode of Dan Rather Reports on HDNet as the last stronghold of the Mafia in Calabria. It seems that the Mafia uses illegals to pick their oranges more cheaply so that the industries don't use Moroccan fruit which is cheaper because of their labor costs. Deja Vu! Sound familiar? Evidently, according to my friend Christian, the influence of the Mafia is on the outs due to new laws that were enacted 6 or 7 years ago that sends them right to jail if they caught extorting protection money from any one.

It's amazing how run down most of these towns are. And not in a quaint way. When I asked Christian, he said that because of the Mafia, people up north weren't willing to invest in the area with the exception of the government.

I headed to Marina di Gioiosa Ionica, a small resort town on the other side of the toe on the Ionian Sea. Beautiful beaches though a bit run down, hopefully it was because it was winter.

On to Locri where I walked on the beach for a half mile or so. They had a wonderful promenade for most of the way but again it was kind of run down. It's like they build this stuff and then do no maintenance or upkeep.  Here's a couple views.

And one of me. While it wasn't all that sunny, it was warm. I have my hands in pockets for effect. I was trying to look cool so that some Italian momma would take pity on me and take me home for a home cooked meal.

No takers. I'll keep trying to perfect that look though,

Sadly, as I get thinner every day without a home cooked meal, I continued on around the southern most point of Italy towards Reggio di Calabria. Reggio sits on the gates of Scilla and is less than a mile from Sicily. Here's a video of my first view.

From Reggio to Parmi it was a 5 mile an hour 20 km traffic jam. They've completely gutted the Autostrada and are drilling new tunnels and installing new bridges. Guess I coulda taken pics, but it was a construction zone and not that interesting.

I know you're wondering where all the pictures of the southern coast are since I covered a whole lot of mileage, well it's covered in the rules of Italian driving. See Rule 4.

Here they are:

Rule 1 - He who hesitates, should stay home. Seriously ,some of these roads aren't for the faint hearted.
Rule 2 - He who blinks, dies.
Rule 3 - It's okay to pass down the center line with traffic coming from the other direction. If someone from the other direction is passing as well. See Rule 2.
Rule 4 - There are no stinking scenic view turnouts. If there were you'd be pulling into traffic and slowing us down.
Rule 5 - Speed limits are for tourists. Locals can double or triple depending on their mood.
Rule 6 - If a traffic flagger is talking on his/her cell phone and gesturing with the other, you decide whether or not it's meant for you.
Rule 7- It's okay to back out into traffic. See rule 1 and 2.

Finally, it's just another Stromboli sunset. Cheers.

And so, you laughed about my pathetic hunger look, admit it. Well here's to you.

Momma Buttafuoco RULES! And yes it was caught this morning off the shores of Tropea.

Buona notte