Motorhomers on Tour : More Greek and Roman Ruins and our first sight of rain in months!

We are parked up for the night on a Sosta, in the old town of Rossano (N39°34’24” E16°37’51”). It has all the facilities to service Sonny (the motorhome) and we think the fresh water must be liquid gold, as for the last 4 hours we have watched the locals come and fill up their plastic bottles with the water.

Local man filling up as many plastic containers and bottles he can find from the water taps at the Sosta!

Two days ago was a memorable day for us… we woke to drops of rain on the roof of the motorhome! Mel immediately jumped out of bed, put on his shorts and stood out in it. Who would have thought we would have got so excited by rain, but we haven’t seen any in 4 ½ months.

Mel taking an early morning shower in the rain

Mel just stood and embraced it for a few minutes, as temperatures reached a low of 18°C and then the heavens really opened and thunder and lightning ensued for about an hour. Once finished, temperatures went back up to 30°C – oh well, nice whilst it lasted!

UPDATE from my last blog on the rubbish in Italy and in particular in southern Italy. I saw the owner of the Sosta picking up the rubbish on the beach and asked him why rubbish is being dumbed everywhere around the town and on the beach.

Rubbish dump on the beach near Palmi

He didn’t speak much English but explained that it was a real problem in Italy and no rubbish had been collected in this area since the end of June. I asked if the binmen were on strike. He didn’t seem to understand and just said it was political. More than likely it has something to do with the Mafia again!

Before we left the Sosta, he gave us a picture of the Spiaggia di Trachini – the beach we had visited the other day. A nice gesture but it looks like something you would get off a flea market and don’t think it will be getting put up inside Sonny - Mel might sell it on Ebay though!

Spiaggia di Trachini (left) and picture of said area given to us from Sosta owner (right)

We moved on from Palmi along the S106 coastal road and stopped off at La Rocelletta and the ruins of Scolacium. Scolacium archaeological site and the ruins of the basilica of Santa Maria della Roccella sits amongst a centuries old Olive Grove.

Basilica of Santa Maria della Roccella - now just a partly restored redbrick shell

The ruins of the Roman town of Scolacium was built over the Greek town of Skylletion. The theatre of Scolacium, the most representative amongst theatres of the Roman era in Calabria.

Scolacium Theatre

The Amphitheatre –constructed early 2^nd century AD built to hold gladiatorial games and fights between animals/men and animals.

Scolacium Amphitheatre

Equipment from the 18^th century used to produce Olive Oil from the olive grove.

Mel surveying the olives, wondering how many he needs to pick to produce some Olive Oil!

The archaeological museum displays many findings from the site including headless bodies in togas!

And ancient street signs

Moving on from here, we stopped at the small town of Le Castella, home to an Aragonese Fortress. We didn’t pay to go in it as there isn't much to see and you can see just as much from the outside.

Aragonese Fortress, Le Castella

Carved faces in rocks

The town has a narrow street running though it full of souvenir shops, including these scary things

And plenty of fresh chillies!

We spent the night on a car park (N38.90964 E17.02592) with a couple of Italian motorhomers, overlooking the fishing harbour and marina.

Our room with a view - for one night only!

The marina at Le Castella:

Today we travelled further around the coast to visit the Greek ruins at Capo Colonna. It sits on the far eastern point of Calabria and we had read that you can see the famed Doric column that is a solitary remnant of what used to be a Greek temple. Well, what a disappointment! We parked up in the car park and walked around to the ruins, only to find it was fenced off and looked like it hadn’t been open to the public in quite a while.

Capo Colonna

The white church and fortress (which was closed) at Capolonna

Looking towards Crotone (ancient Greek city, where Pythagoras lived in 530BC) and a very 'choppy' sea.

From here we continued around the coast to the old town of Rossano that sits on a hill, 7km up a winding road from the coast. It’s very old and not an awful lot to see, but it was nice to amble around the old streets.

Like most Italian towns it has a cathedral (Duomo), this one has been mostly rebuild after an earthquake in 1836 but has a 9^th century Byzantine fresco encased in the marble nave.