Day 11 – Pentedattilo
We had a very leisurely morning and in spite of the trains (they’re electric so not particularly noisy) a pretty good night’s sleep.
We popped into Lidl to pick up some lunch on our way to Pentedattilo, the deserted village.
As many of you are aware my relationship with Lidl is complicated. When I’m abroad, my heart lifts at the sight of a Lidl as I know we’re going to get some decent food. Some of the local supermarkets are fine but you know how good Lidl is in comparison when the locals take tour bus trips there.
But each time I conveniently forget the horror and madness of the tills. It’s not until our basket is full and we go to pay and I see the queue – a massive queue – in front of me does reality hit.
Our first visit to Lidl yesterday lulled us in to thinking things had changed as they had self service tills – yay! Not today, they weren’t working. We queued up In a resigned fashion behind numerous full to the brim trolleys (2 tills open, one looking like it might but then doesn’t , teasing everyone in a most cruel way ) when a delightful old lady let us go in front of her. What a star. My faith in humans has been restored. Temporarily.
Eventually on our way, we trundled down to the Area Grecanica, right at the tippy toes of Italy.
Greek people have lived in this area since 730BC. There are about 23000 Greeks left but many of the more remote hill villages have been abandoned of which Pentedattilo is the most accessible and therefore most visited by tourists.
I have another ongoing love/hate relationship to share. Google maps. Absolutely fantastic, couldn’t be without it. And therein lies the problem. When Google says go this way and Steve and I think “that doesn’t seem right” do we trust our judgment? No we don’t. Time and time again we follow blindly – literally up blind alleys, stupendously scary mountain tracks not fit for a donkey let alone a car , etc etc.
This time we were directed along a sandy, dusty track only just big enough for The Tank. We passed a sullen young man with an axe and then drove past lots of furniture, glass you name it smashed on the side of the track. Not a soul in site. I was very glad I wasn’t wearing my Rolex but I feared that there might be some marauding Ndrangheta (Calabrian Mafia fyi) and I’d quite like to keep my ears thank you. Luckily, we have learnt something from all our Google “adventures” – that if in doubt once you’re on the track, turn back. Good safety slogan there.
It was a great decision and Google behaved itself and got us on the right road.
The village is impressive. Built up high, against a magnificent rock formation, it’s all quite stunning. Add in the church bells being played by a mysterious campanologist, and it’s quite magical. Obviously tourism enticed a few people back for the summer to provide drinks and souvenirs but now it’s October everything is closed.
We decided to go for a wander as the village encompasses part of the Englishman’s trail, a 5 day hike following in the footsteps of Edward Lear. If you’ve heard of “The owl and the pussycat” you’ve heard of Edward. A writer and a painter, he took himself off in the summer of 1847 to explore the Aspromonte mountains. Unbothered by the mafia, he loved his adventure and wrote a book about it.
We decided we would trek to Musuponiti. We had no idea what Musupontiti was but there was a sign pointing to it and it was an hour and 25 minutes away so we thought we’d go and find out.
30 minutes in and we were both boiling. Steve hadn’t brought a hat and I hadn’t brought much water so we were woefully under prepared for a 2.5 hour round hike in the mid day heat. Mad dogs and Englishmen eh?! Thinking of Edward, he must have been as tough as old boots but I suspect he found the hiking very cathartic. He suffered from severe depression from an early age and also epilepsy so I expect being in nature helped soothe him.
We walked up a very steep hill and gamely kept going but there was no viewing point or anything else to be seen so we decided we’d done enough and retraced our steps for the second time that day.
Next on the agenda was a snooze on a beach. We were both a bit tired and needed a drink and a rest. We drove most of the Grecanica coast and without wishing to be hurtful, it’s a bit crap. The beaches and the sea look great, but you can’t get to them. There’s a very long railway line that hugs the coastline so that you have to take the most convoluted routes to get anywhere near a beach. That and nowhere being open meant that after several abortive attempts, we gave up on a nap and drove back to Reggio Calabria and had an ice cream instead. And a coke. And a super strong espresso which I had to give to Steve otherwise I’d never sleep again.
Every cloud has a silver lining though and I discovered my new favourite gelato flavour – crema reggina. A specialty only found in Reggio Calabria and as pink as a dolly’s petticoat, it’s laced with rum and is studded with candied cherries and chocolate chips.
Revived, we headed for home via Lidl to pick up dinner. We watched the sunset, caught up on phone stuff and had a delicious seafood smorgasbord.
Tomorrow we hope to visit Scilla. Formerly a small fishing village, it’s supposed to be very pretty. We’ll also try to get to the museum in RC which means we might be able to grab a final gelato. I know what mine’s going to be…
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