Calabria and Puglia 2014

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Calabria and Puglia -- 2014



If you are reading this with a plan to visit Southern Italy, I suggest that you check out the other 3 entries in this blog of our previous trips to, primarily Calabria and Puglia and a bit of Basilicata and Abruzzo. We have been to Puglia and Calabria 7-10 times. Since this is our 4^thstraight trip most of the details are in the previous blogs – but there is some new information here.



Over the years we have got to know some families and some agriturismos really well so for this year 24 out of our 30 nights were to places that we have visited 2 – 5 times before. On this trip we added 2 new lodgings.



This year we were once again able to fly direct from Toronto to LaMezia in Calabria without having to change in Rome. Air Transat flies charters until October 1. We flew on September 2 and returned during the last flight on October 1.



We had a bit of excitement on the flight over as someone had heart problems and our plane made an emergency landing in Shannon Ireland. Paramedics came aboard and we were there for about 2 hours.



For the very first time we managed to get our luggage off the plane first and got to the car rental without a big lineup. As we have had on 3 previous occasions we requested and got a Fiat Punto. Our rental this time was with Hertz, through AUTOEUROPE and we got a very good deal for a month.



We don't generally reserve ahead but this year we were arriving while school holidays were still on, so we had reserved a B&B (B&B La Casa di Ely, via Cigala 4, 0961 990857 www.lacasadiely.it) in the town of Tiriolo about 1/2 hour away from the airport. The owner left a note on the door to call when we arrived. Of course we do not travel with a cell phone in Italy.

Found some people a few blocks away and asked if they would call for us. Ended up they knew the owner and he was just about 50 metres away in a tobacco shop!



Of interest here .... the very few times that we do reserve accommodations we have used BOOKING.COM. We had made the reservation the morning that we left home and I did not bother to read in detail the confirmation that I was to have notified the B&B of our arrival time. As a result a call was made from Booking.com in the Netherlands to our home in Canada. How many hotel booking companies provide that kind of service?



As to the B&B, it was just around the corner from the piazza so convenient, but the owner was not on site, Parking was down the street where we could find it. Breakfast was a coupon for coffee and a sweet in a nearby bar. It was very noisy outside of our window until after midnight.



Tiriolo is known as the town of two seas (due mare). From various parts of the hilltop town you get great views of both Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas. If you happen to be in the town it is worth the very steep walk up to the ristorante di Due Mare for a spectacular view. And if you keep going higher there is a park at the very top!



The next morning it was a short drive to Catanzaro Lido where we met up with Tommaso. We had met Tommaso on the internet a few years ago and although our surnames are the same (and rare) we have not been able to find a connection. His brother Celestino, owns a bar in town and his sister and brother in law have relatives in Toronto and they came to our home for a short visit last Christmas. We took Tommaso out for lunch and got caught up on politics, economics etc.!

Since summer holidays were still on our first and second choice of accommodations were not available. Tommaso worked the phones and on the third try connected with an Agriturismo not far away that we had not been to before. The owner arranged to meet us on the highway and Tommaso led us through Catanzaro Lido to the meeting place.

Agriturismo Santacinnara in Soveria Simeri (Contrada Corticello) phone [phone], (GPS N38.92153 E016.67678) www.santacinnara.com is one that we have not stayed at before. It is 5 km inland and an absolute gem. Donato Fratto and his wife Maria were great hosts. We were given an apartment on two floors with 3 beds and a full kitchen (including a full size fridge). This is a working biological agricultural farm with animals and many fruit trees. They have all kinds of animals such as goats, pigs, turkeys, geese, ducks, doves, donkeys and a collection of ancient tractors and other antiques. By the way none of the animals interrupted our stay with either smell or sound! A pool with a great view allows you to cool off. The Agriturismo part is 30 years old but the farm has been in the family for 3 generations.

Since the dining room was not open (although they catered to a wedding while we were there) we took the 5 km drive down to the coast, found a supermercata and bought enough food for 3 days. The dining room is also full of antiques and photos. It was really nice being able to eat on our table outside our apartment and being able to enjoy the farm and surroundings.



On parting Donato gave us a couple of bars of organic soap and a jar of preserves.



Our next four days were spent at La Casa di Botro via Zacagnini 2 phone [phone] GPS: N38.93079 E016.85526 www.botro.it in Botricello about 30 km away. We discovered La Casa di Botro last year and it has become one of our favourites in both Calabria and Puglia. Luigi Colucci, one of the owners, remembered us. He also speaks very good English. He runs the B&B with his mother and brother while other brothers look after the farm which grows grains, olives, asparagus, peaches, apricots and much more.

This year he had a new waitress, Magdalena, who had worked in Canada and spoke English and it was great to see our waiter Giovanni still there. He also speaks excellent English! As I have said on a number of write ups, La Casa di Botro is an oasis in an otherwise wasteland. Unfortunately the town of Botricello is not much, but it is more than worth it to stop at the Agriturismo.



We had a different room this year. The room was large and so was the bathroom. We had a balcony with access from the bathroom and the bedroom. Breakfasts here are self-serve and they will even do eggs to order.



For dinner my wife and I have found that if we order ONE antipasto, one primo, a salad and a bottle of water/wine it is more than we can usually eat. We had one meal out this time. We picked up a pizza from Tony Pizza just a 10 minute walk from La Casa di Botro.



On arrival I had presented Luigi with a 2015 calendar with photos of our area in Canada. In return he gave us a free bottle of wine for dinner and when when we left, another bottle of wine and since olive oil was not available he gave us a jar of pickled asparagus, in olive oil, which they grow.



We spent 3 days at their private beach on the Ionian Sea (your room comes with beach towels, beach umbrella, chairs and a picnic cooler. ) The beach is about 4 km away and you need a car to get there. The section of the beach is so isolated that if you wished, you could make this a "clothing optional beach!!" This is likely the best beach vacation of our entire month trip to Calabria and Puglia.



Rather than drive all the way to the Itri Valley, this year we had decided to find a place around half way. The nearest town was Trebisace on the Ionian Sea in the province of Cosenza and we had selected Agriturismo Torre di Albidona, phone [phone], www.torredialbidona.it GPS: N39.91017 E016.56544 Thanks to help from Luigi, he called ahead and got directions and GPS. That certainly made it much easier to find. I had earlier given Luigi the GPS coordinates for Casa di Botro for his website.



We easily found our way to Agriturismo di Albidona just north of Trebisace on the Ionian Sea. It was about 4 km inland with a spectacular view of the Sea. We wanted to see this place, and if we liked it would stop off on the way back. The entire Agriturismo sits on a hillside with lots of stone walkways and steps. There are apartments and rooms and we discovered that the price is the same for both. We therefore selected the apartment with 2 beds and a full kitchen. There is a very nice pool, once again, with a great view of the Ionian Sea.

The dining room has huge windows which ...... of course ..... overlook the Ionian sea. We shared a dinner which for 15 Euros included everything. Excellent value. We will stop off here on our way back.



Our next stop, was our favourite stop in Puglia. We discovered Antica Aia B&B Contrada Panza 100, in Casalini (a village 2 km from Cisternino), 39 080 4447006 www.anticaaia.it many years ago and have been returning ever since .....more than any other place in Puglia. Sorry no GPS, since we know this place so well!

Elvira, Franco and their children Andrea (13 years old) and Martina (age 7) have become like family or at least very close friends. We keep in touch throughout the year. When we arrive at Antica Aia it almost feels as if we have arrived home.



There are 5 trulli (cone shaped stone) rooms and this year we got to try out another one. They are all excellent and the 3 that we have had, all have had 2 bedrooms.



The Itri Valley is one of the most scenic areas of Puglia with trullis everywhere, stone walls everywhere and of course olive trees also everywhere. Over the years we have toured from here, and have seen Ostuni, Locorotondo, Alberobello and the countryside so many times that we decided to just spend 5 days at the trulli, walking in the countryside and spending lots of time by the pool.



We took gifts of Frisbee, walkie talkies, colouring books, crayons, card games etc. to the children and spent time playing with them. Monday was market day in Cisternino and we attended for the second year in a row.



For our last night Elvira invited us to have dinner with her family. Franco presented us with a 2 litre can of olive oil from their property. As usual it was sad to leave.



We drove south around Brindisi and Lecce and close to Melendugno. Our next stop was to be Agriturismo Masseria Baronali (GPS N40.25536 E018.38460) outside the village of Borgagne (there are good directional signs from Borgagne.)



We know this area very well since we have stayed at various b&bs (in Calimari, Torre del Orso, Cursi and others) and spent much time on the local beaches. Once again, however, we ran into problems. They only have 4 rooms and all were taken for next 3 days.



They offered instead, a house that they rent out near Torre dell Orso at Sant’ Andrea. Their daughter Federica, showed us the way. The house is on a dirt side road with a view of the Adriatic Sea. We were very isolated. The house had 3 bedrooms with enough beds for 8 people. We found that being close to the ocean the mildew smell in some of the rooms was really bad. We had a full kitchen and dining room/living room at our disposal.



About 200 metres down the road were cliffs, grottos and islands in the Adriatic. Spectacular scenery. We were only about 5 km from Torre dell Orso, our most visited beach in Italy. Every time that we have been here the beach has been virtually empty. This time in mid-September it was crowded. Interesting to see the beach in a different light. Got to have our first gelato at the beach.

We drove back into the Masseria Baronali for breakfast the next morning and then we went looking for my friend Gaetano, who has a barber shop in the village. We met him last year and really hit it off, so I saved my haircut just for him. As usual we were offered coffee!



Next we decided to drive along the Adriatic coast south (we had driven it north once before) The Adriatic coast at this point has very high cliffs with coves, small beaches and switchback very narrow roads. I enjoyed the drive, but my wife did not!



For the umpteenth time we ended up in Santa Maria di Leuca (southern most point where the Adriatic and Ionian Seas meet the Mediterranean Sea). From there it was just minutes to Masseria Ruri Pulcra at Marina San Gregorio (Patu) phone [phone] GPS: N39.82374 E018.31407



We stayed at Ruri Pulcra (beautifful countryside in Latin!) last year for the first time. The chef "Rino" really treated us well and our room was very nice so we wanted to return. My wife had wanted to return to Ruri Pulcra just for Rino's cooking so what a disappointment when we were told that the dining room was closed for the month of September!! We managed to get our same room on the first floor with a nice large patio, table and umbrella

Ruri Pulcri owns the restaurant "Clipper Ristorante" via L Romano 47 just about 800 metres away and Rino was the chef there as well so that is where we headed.



For our first night I think we got all kinds of extras and we enjoyed the meal. In fact there was way too much even though as usual we were sharing. The second night we did not get as much in extras! One night we were charged a "coperto" or cover charge, the next night we were not. Since my wife was not happy at having to go out to eat we only stayed 2 days. We did spend a gorgeous day at Marina di Pescoluse just up the highway. Have been there every year since we first came to this area.



From here it was only about 30 km north to the village of Felline, near Ugento. Three years ago we met Olga Pantovic, the Serbian Italian who speaks perfect English and runs B&B Dolce Felline. This was to be our third visit and you can read more details in my two previous blogs. It is always great for my wife to finally have someone else to speak English to for a few days --- and they get along so well.



It was very hot and very humid during our stay. We returned to Pescoluse for one day and stayed around Felline for the other 2 days. Olga has a garden with a plethora of fruit trees and she always keeps me supplied with fresh fruit from figs, persimmon, pomegranates, grapes etc.



This year we got to meet Olga's husband Antonio who is a wine merchant and always seems to be travelling. The night we arrived he left for Albania for the weekend. We also met Olga's daughter Valentina who recently graduated as a radiologist and was fortunate to find work nearby in Cassarano. Olga's youngest son Marco, was leaving in a few days to begin university.



For such a small town Felline has at least 4 good sized restaurants. My wife (the foodie) was once again looking forward to eating at Il Posto Divino where we met the chef Fabiano last year. We had a good long chat again and then ordered from what he recommended (no menu). Unlike every place that we have eaten, we were not able to order a carafe or 1/2 litre of wine so we ordered 2 glasses. For me the meal was okay, but I was surprised and disappointed when I got the bill. First of all a coperto (cover charge) of 4 Euros (around $6.00) and unlike places that charge 2 euros we did not get anything extra for it. But the part that ticked me off most was that we were charged 8 Euros ($12.00) for the two glasses of wine. Keep in mind that for two years we have been ordering 1/2 litre and rarely paid more than 4 Euros and the few times that we have ordered a full bottle it has never been more than 8 Euros. We always ask for the local wine variety. I don’t know if we were taken advantage of or not but I we did not feel good about it. It was the most expensive meal on our trip and definitely not the best.



On our last night we tried another one of the local restaurants IL Muraglione via Immacolta 10 www.ilmuraglione.it) . We both ordered a full pizza, water and wine and were very happy with it (OH ... and no cover charge!) They have a covered rooftop dining area and we found this to be very nice. The wood fired oven is located right in the dining area and if you want you can watch your pizza being cooked.



On our second night Olga invited us to join her son, daughter and boyfriend for dinner. It was served under the stars and typically Italian! Great.



We took one day to wander around the streets of Felline and I think we were the only people that were out in the heat. But we did find a gelato store that was open and even went back that evening for a second one! On departing Olga presented us with a bottle of wine, preserves and a wall hanging. Thanks Olga.



We said our goodbyes and headed north and back to the Melendugno area (village of Borgagne) and Masseria Baronali (Baronali GPS N 40.25536 E 018.38460). We also discovered this place last year for the first time. It is about 2 km outside the village and completely surrounded by olive groves. Although they only have 4 rooms they also have the biggest, cleanest and nicest pool that we have come across in Italy. This time we were also given their biggest and best room -- room #1) So what did we do while here??? Lots of pool time, walks into town and walks along the back roads marvelling at all the olive trees. The owner has over 30 000 trees!!! But due to difficulty in finding people to pick or train to run the machinery much of the olives are not picked!!



We bought 3 bottles to add to our 2 litres! (8 euros per bottle.) When we left the next morning my wife wanted to buy a few more bottles of olive oil (to add to the 3 bought last week) but as it happened the owner (Amalia) presented us with a free bottle in a gift box. We seem to be getting parting gifts a lot (are they glad to get rid of us ... or hoping that we will return?) Note: Baronali is rural and does not have a phone line so cannot accept credit cards. They do have Wi-Fi.



Our next destination was a long drive around Lecce, Brindisi and Taranto before entering the region of Basilicata for a short time and then finally into Calabria. This is getting to be a fairly familiar route. By the way this year super unleaded is going for around 1.71-1.79 euro per litre, or about $2.60 per litre and as low as 1.65 at self-serve. Our Fiat Punto is getting around 53mpg.



Our destination was a few kilometres from Trebisace, at Agriturismo Torre di Albidona where we had stopped off a few weeks back. We managed to get our same room (with a full kitchen Jazz #4) I described this Agriturismo near the beginning of the blog. This place has one of the neatest showers we have ever seen. Besides water cascading down on your like a usual shower, you can also set it so that the water shoots out HORIZONTALLY and one jet is about chest height while the other is around your rear end height! Kinda neat!!



The meal here is still one of the best deals around at 15Euros for antipasti, first and second course and water. In each case ONE antipasti alone was more than enough for us. We were here in late September and only a few guests were around so variety for dinner and lunch was not great. Also perhaps because of the time of year with figs on the ground and rotting on trees, we found a lot of fruit flies, especially in the dining room.



We spent the days here walking around the orchards (thousands and thousands of fruit trees.) Some of the fruit trees such as figs and pomegranates are right outside our door! The farm is over 100 hectares in size and is a major fruit operation for apricots, peaches, cherries, pomegranates etc. We also took a long walk up the main road which is one continuous steep switchback. If we thought we had great views of the Ionian from the Agriturismo, well this got even better.



Both my wife and I agree that Agriturismo Torre di Albidona has the best scenery and view of all the places that we have been too. You get about 270 degrees of views of the Ionian Sea. At night the twinkling of lights across the bay to Sibari are very magical.



In the past we have always driven along the Ionian coast to Catanzaro and then crossed over to LaMezia or further up the coast to Amantea (a favourite of ours.)

This route is scenic but we been on it about 10 times and it is fairly slow. So we decided to take a shortcut and cut off at Sibari, inland to join up the A3 or Autostrada del Sole. We have been on this expressway a few times and always marvel at the engineering. Most of the highway is either going through tunnels, hugging extremely steep cliffs or on bridges hundreds of metres high!



Our destination was Hotel La Tonnara, Via tonnara 13 Amantea, www.latonnara.it (GPS N 39.10197 E016.07961) a 4 star hotel that we discovered last year. We have stayed and travelled through this part of Amantea since 1990 so we know the area pretty well. Our room was on the second floor with a balcony just a stones through away from the beach. From our balcony we could see in the distance the volcanic island of Stromboli. BTW this hotel also had the same shower as Albidona where the water shoots out horizontally as well as vertically! We visited our two favourite grocery stores in the area (Lidl and Euro spin) and stocked up on some lunch food.



Our stay here was during the last 4 days of our 4 week trip. We made a few return trips to a bar/pizzeria/ristorante about 5 km away called ZIO ARTU, located right across from a very sandy and very wide beach. For two nights we also got take-out pizza here and ate it on our balcony at the hotel.



We have been lucky over the years in that the weather in Calabria has always been PERFECT and this time was no exception. Temperatures in mid 20s and lots of sun. Ocean is still warm enough for swimming. So having previously toured this area many times we just relaxed on the beach and took walks.



Conclusions on 2014 Trip

Financially Italy is suffering. We met many young people who were looking to immigrate to a place like Canada. These were well educated youth. We heard many stories of the excessive tax burden (but of course there is also excessive tax evasion!)

We still find it hard to accept the fact that such a beautiful country has so much garbage. Some places are worse than others but it is painful to walk along country roads that have been used as dump sites or to walk through some towns with garbage everywhere and buildings, sidewalks etc. in need of repair. In some cases the graffiti is pretty bad too.



On every trip we have come across some technology that has not yet reached our shores. Well this time it was in a small grocery store (in Calabria) You place your fruit or produce on a weigh scale and it prints out the weight, cost and item NAME. Somehow it is able to determine whether you are weighing apples or bananas or figs or…!!!??



Check out our trip of 2015 on this site.



Do you have questions? Joe at [e-mail]




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Photos

antica 025
in Cisternino

Casa di Botro 05
IN Botricello Calabria

Masseria Baronali 00
Near Meledugno, Puglia

Torre di Albidona 04
near Trebisace, Cosenza, Calabria