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Cilento National Park
Fantastic turquise water, great lunch and you can see the remains of one of the Roman watch towers in background. Once again I had to return to Naples to join my next Peregrine tour group; this time it was only a brief overnight stay in a very noisy hotel before moving on. That tour took in the highlights of southern Italy and finished at Bari on the east coast. The group was made up of a Kiwi dairy farmer and his wife (on their way to a Jersey breed conference in Albania of all places); a retired Scottish emigrant to NZ (who kept his money in little Ziploc bags); a SA couple who were into botany/horticulture and me. Our cheerful tour leader had the most likely name of Leonardo Richardo and delighted in singing during dinner.
I thought that the tour might not be have been as physical as the last two but a climb up to Mt Vesuvius on the first full day set the scene for the remaining seven days. It’s funny in a way that all the times I have travelled into and out of Naples; I’ve never visited that infamous mountain, which dominates the skyline of that ugly city - whoops, I promised myself that I wouldn’t rubbish Naples again. Unlike Mt Etna in Sicily, visitors
Metera cliff houses
These were once an embarrassment to Italy and now in favour once again. can trek the 1.5kms right up to and look down into the crater of the active volcano. We arrived early to look back to see tour buses grinding up the winding road like a colourful caterpillar to disgorge their passengers, most of which just snapped pictures from the lower viewing platform, unimpressed that their buses couldn’t take them all the way up to the crater rim. That left scruffy travellers like us the crater and the spectacular views unheeded by the thronging crowds who were unprepared to subject their poofy shoes to the track, which was a highway compared to (say) that of the Inca Trail.
After an early start the next day we trekked through the Cilento National Park. Five hours later we stopped at a picture-postcard deserted rocky inlet with the cleanest and bluest water I have seen for some time where we stayed for a swim and a late lunch. Pre-arranged by Leonardo, a local fishing boat chugged into the inlet with our lunch of twice-cooked donut-shaped bread rolls quickly dipped in water upon which was ladled a salad of tuna, diced tomatoes, cucumber, onion, seeded olives and eggplant all liberally dribbled with aromatic olive oil
Matera cliff houses again
These are older but now trendy seeing that the Italian Govt. is subsidising renovations. and subtly seasoned with just basil and oregano and accompanied with a cold beer each and a glass (or two) of the local vino. I thought the donut shaped roll was a bit of a joke; expecting us to pick it up and have the contents drop into our lap, but it was meant to be broken up and eaten together with the fingers. It was delicious and roughing it should always be like that!
Next we travelled through to the historic town of Aliano and lunched in the white washed village of Pisticci before moving on to the UNESCO listed town of Matera with its ‘Sassi’ (stone) style houses. The unique dwellings of the town were carved out of the sides of the cliffs in a time when the poorer citizens had few other options and are now (of course) are being renovated and selling for small fortunes. The town itself (actually several original tiny villages joined together) had a bewildering labyrinth of tiny alleys, which were wonderful to get lost in and necessitated several coffee and cake stops to seek directions.
And speaking of stone structures; I was in awe of the number of original (Roman)
Trulli houses in Aberobello
Strange cone shaped roofs of houses built to evade taxes as they were not considered dwelling by the then King. watch towers dating back to 300 BCE, which doted the coastline and were still standing; many of which were being renovated into holiday homes and B&Bs. Beats me how they could build structures like that which have withstood centuries so well while many modern structures appear to fall apart in mere decades!
Our final stop in the tour was in the town of Alberobello and its strange community of Trulli style houses. The steep, cone shaped stone roofs of these dwellings date back more than 400 years and give the place a hobbit type look. Walking through these narrow winding lanes one would almost expect to see Telly Tubby characters wobbling off to do some shopping. And that visit was a great way to end Italy for the time being.
Saturday I moved on independently to Bari in preparation for my 06:00 flight to Rome and connections to Singapore then Melbourne. This has been an eventful trip. I will definitely remember not to attack centuries old stone pillars on a bike in future but will remain forever grateful for the support of my wonderful Dutch friends. Sicily and the Amalfi Coast can now be ticked off the wish
Trulli house entrance
That's my skinny (vegetarian) Italian guide in front. list Robyn and I drafted some years ago but I was glad I was able to include the last tour in southern Italy, which turned out to be much better than I had anticipated.
So dear friends and/or you cheeky alien bloggers, that’s your lot for now, at least until later in the year anyway. August and September I will be travelling back to Italy to visit Venice then trekking and cycling in the UK and The Dolomites.
Ciao for now.
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kath
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Thanks for your blogs! The descriptions have been great. Safe travelling home.