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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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.
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Aragonese Fortress, Le Castella |
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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.
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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.
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Capo Colonna |
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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 9th
century Byzantine fresco encased in the marble nave.
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Rossano Duomo |
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Rossano Duomo, 9th century Byzantine fresco encased in the marble nave |
San Marco, sits above a gorge on the edge of the
town
Tomorrow we head into the ‘instep’ of the Boot
and slightly inland to Matera.
Sally x
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