Day 7 - A Week gone by. A day at the beach. A word about Blu-Express Airlines

A week has passed already. My how time flies. Insert all those other cliches that seem appropriate here.

Today was a day at the incredibly popular and crowded Tropea beach. I actually counted six, yes six, bodies on the beach today.Could hardly walk without bumping into someone. It's annoying I know.

Another beautiful day, bright sunshine in a blue sky matched by the blue of the Mediterranean Sea. I'm almost afraid to jinx the weather, but it hasn't rained since I got here and February averages 12 days of rain in Tropea. The forecast looks good for the next 5 days though, sunshine and more sunshine. We'll see how good the European forecasters are compared to their American counterparts.

Back to the beach. I started out walking barefoot but found that the beach is a combination of fine sand, coarse sand and pebbles so it was iffy going. After maybe a hundred yards of in and out of the water, cold but not freezing, I switched to shoes and completed my walk of the entire beach in 6 or 8 minutes. Well maybe slightly longer.

And yes they evidently drive on the beach here too. Though I don't know how they got down there.

It's strange and I've commented to some of you that I've talked with, but the beach and the surrounding "beach front" is flat out filthy. Trash everywhere. On the beach, in the streets. I'm amazed that they(the city) don't take better care of it. Maybe it's different in the summer during tourist season, but this beach in particular and all three that I've taken walks on had loads of rubbish. And it's not just the beach, all along the roadsides in the streets, it's everywhere.

You would think that with 25 to 30% unemployment that the city/state would put people to work cleaning up their public areas, but hey maybe they don't want to do the work. The strange thing is that I don't really remember the North of Italy being this trashy. I'm sure Rome will have its share but what big city doesn't. I'll have to talk with Cristian about it at some point. Don't want to offend the guy.

Here's a short video about the crowded beach conditions that faced us this AM.

 It's actually longer than most of my 30 second videos. Just me rehashing what I've explained to you before.

Walked back along the "promenade" to where the port of Tropea is. Really quite nice and compared to the other public areas it was clean and free of trash.

Whenever I'm around the docks, I always think of fishing with my fishing brothers the Mannings. They've taught me everything that I know about fishing and driving a boat. I applied those skills just today...

 

As I said nice port, lots of really nice boats and here's a shot of the port and hillsides from the seawall.

For those who thought that I've neglected the food aspect of this "diary", I wanted to share dinner with you. I had a wonderful Sedanini Rustica paired with a 2005 Hauner Salina Rosso. The Hauner is from the Isole Eolie, one of the small volcanic islands off the northern coast of Sicily. Try finding that a Applejack!! A nice fruity, deep ruby wine with blackberry and black cherry with a nice backing of tannins. A nice drink. Lots of nices there.Yes, I have been contacted by Wine Spectator to do reviews for them while I'm here, but I'm way to busy with beach time.

I thought I'd close out with another typical "let's take the tourist" story. Flying out of Rome, I was the beneficiary of a fantastic rate for a flight on Blu-Express airlines. 20Euros  (27.35 US). That is until I got to check-in. Upon weighing my bags and a "oh, my god" look. It was announced that i was 6 Kilos overweight. Well, what am I supposed to do I ask? Well go to the main ticketing desk and pay for the overage. Ah, ha. The cost?? 7 Euros per kilo. 42 Euros total. A cool, drumroll here.  57 dollars in baggage fees.

So much for a cheap flight.

And finally, I know I left you hanging with my gloating about nachos last night, so here's the skinny. I've long held the belief that any country without Cheetos cannot seriously call itself civilized and I hold nacho chips in pretty much the same esteem. So far Italy has let me down in regards to Cheetos, maybe I'll have better luck in Rome, so I'll reserve judgement till after my visit.  But I did find Nachos here in Tropea and thank the Lord for them.

Crik Crok the snack that keeps Italia going.

I'm sure you saw their Super Bowl ads, didn't you.

An exciting day of laundry tomorrow. It'll make for breathtaking blog material.

Ciao.