Day 10 Reggio Calabria
This morning had us bustling around, trying not to forget anything and making sure all the right rubbish was in the right bag.
Italians are really big on recycling which is surprising when you see how much rubbish is dumped in various lay-bys or basically anywhere that someone fancies leaving it. Maybe they are so confused by which bag/bin takes what, it’s just easier to bag it all up together and throw it out of the car window.
We met a lovely chap called Bob on our way out of Casa Di Berto. Embarrassingly I assumed he worked there so asked him where the bins were (the little bags have to go in the big bins you see) and I was quite surprised when he spoke perfect American English.
Turns out Bob knows Antonia (Giuseppe Berto’s daughter in case I haven’t mentioned her before) from years ago when he worked as a waiter at her restaurant in Key West. He’s just lost his husband after 42 years of being together so he’s gone to stay with her for a while. It’s a pity we didn’t meet him earlier as he’s a nice guy with lots of stories to tell.
After finding the bins and Steve regaining his composure at having to manoeuvre the enormous Jaecoo up the tiny track, we were off to Reggio Calabria.
RC is the regional capital of Calabria and we thought we’d take a look and also spend a couple of days exploring the area.
The drive there was fairly rural but in the distance you could see ports and industries peppered along the coast.
As we drove closer to our accommodation, our hearts started to sink as the area looked very down at heel. However, our apartment is in a little backwater just one street behind the sea. In fact I have to say it’s quite a fancy street – other than the railway runs just behind it. Could be another sleepless few nights….
In order to spend our time wisely, we decided to see what RC had to offer once we’d got organised in the apartment.
Concerned about parking The Tank in a busy city we looked into catching the train (it runs so close we could jump onto it from the bathroom window) but no go due to engineering works. Italy has so much in common with the uk I feel.
So driving it was. I was surprised to find it took only 10 minutes! In my mind it seemed like a suburb that would be about half an hour away. We found a free car park with huge spaces and it was exactly where we needed to be – at the start of the Lungomare Di Falcomata, the famous promenade overlooking the sea.
Very nice it was too. It’s a kilometre long and is elegantly wide with lampposts that look like they’re from an old fashioned French restaurant, and views of the Messina Straits.
As the clock struck 4pm, Italian families and young people emerged from their homes like sleepy moles and began riding scooters, bikes and roller skates (yes, they’re back in fashion) flirting, chatting , observing and all those other things people do when promenading.
We had yet another gelato, this one being number 2 out of 4. Good but not as good as the ones in Soverato.
Feeling like philistines, we didn’t bother to visit the museum which houses 2 full body bronzes of Greek Riace warriors dating back to 430BC. I’m ashamed of myself now so we’ll make an effort to see them in the next couple of days. (And not eat ice cream instead)
We got home about 5 and decided to have a quick wander around the local environment. Turns out there’s another promenade, this time a more modest one but it does run by the sea and has a cycle track too. It was very pleasant walking along, watching local life unfold.
Tomorrow we are planning to visit a deserted Greek village in the Aspromonte national park and maybe take a look at the coast line on the bottom of the foot of Italy.
FYI, the Aspromonte mountains were infamous in the 80’s and 90’s for Mafia kidnappings. They would hold wealthy individuals deep in the mountains where they were almost impossible to find, and demand a ransom. The most famous example was of John Paul Getty lll.
I won’t wear my Rolex.
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