October 29th – 31st
Today we are moving from the heel of Italy toward the toe, a drive of about 320 km which should take between 4 and 5 hours.
Sunny day, a pleasant temperature as we roll on secondary roads through hill country covered in mostly olive groves then transforming to flat land with lots of green crops followed by countless acres of grape vines covered in plastic sheathing (not wine grapes).
Eventually, we got on the A2 which was fast …not much traffic, and a pretty uneventful drive on the way we stopped for gas and lunch. These rest stops are not unlike North American service areas but with generally better food and cleaner toilets! Reached the B&B easily and parked right in front of the building …they have a few reserved spots > you gotta love that.
..alas no one is there, called and they came 5 minutes later. We are not planning anything major, just a 2-night stopover before tackling Sicily.
We wandered around town and had dinner at a pizza place and our day is done… today the odometer passed the 5,000 km mark ….so far so good.
The next morning we had a great breakfast even including some delicious scrambled eggs…just the right stuff to get us out to explore this pretty town. Tropea is fundamentally a beach town with a fantastic setting with the town clinging to the cliffs beside the ocean. Following are a few pics of the town…
Tonite we followed up on the restaurant recommendation of the B&B as we went to the Porta Vaticano, what a pleasant experience >> I don’t think I have ever seen waiters work this hard all the while smiling and joking with the clientele, for the most part, that were what seemed like local families….did I say the food was great !! A great low-key day…
The morning is a little cooler but solidly sunny after a nice breakfast we head out for Villa San Giovanni, where ferries to Messina, Sicily leave throughout the day…a 20minute crossing.
We arrive in good order save for a small misstep where I missed the turnoff entering whilst entering the ticket queue…it is all one way so we took a command decision and cut across about four lanes of traffic (after all it is wild and wooly Sicily) and all was good, haha.
We are staying at the Residences Schuler above the Centro Historica which seems a bit far away from the Centro Historico but in fact very close(about 8 minutes walk to the old town). A bit complicated to get to and afterward the owner told us that more than 50% of his guests give up trying to find it and ask him to come by scooter and lead them to the house. All is good, there is a decent grocery store just 5 minutes away (Deko Gourment) and we load on some groceries and wine as we are staying here for 6 nights. The apartment is quite nice and we negotiated a good price inclusive of parking the bonus is a great view of Mount Etna …even better while sitting on the terrace sipping on some Prosecco:
We are excited about tomorrow as we are looking forward to some very cool sights…
