Blogs from Calabria, Italy, Europe - page 3

'We're here! Went to bed about 11 PM after an ungodly (probably countable if I tried to figure it out) number of hours awake or snoozing on the plane and walking around airports, standing in lines, although in Italy, lines take on a round, mobbish shape, pressing forward. We stumbled on a great restaurant last night and ate a huge salad plus polpetti (round shapped, deep fried, meatball-like bits) one set made of egg plant and zucchini, the other veal. We also treated ourselves to some red wine. Had great fun talking to the waiters and other people eating there. When we left, they gave us a little gift, two terra cotta bowls for cooking maccaroni in that say the name of the restaurant, Spaccanapoli. Last time we were in Italy, Anita and I ate at ... read more

Anita and I are heading to Reggio Calabria and Sicilia on May 2. My goal--to swim in the sea, Anita's goal--take up/down photos, focusing on steps, stairs, ladders, tramways, and anything thing else relating to the theme of Up and Down.... read more

Calabria and Puglia 2015 Notes o the BlogI have lost track of the number of times that we have been to Puglia and Calabria. The last 5 years we have been returning to familiar towns and B&Bs and trying out 1 or 2 new ones each year. If you are reading this blog with the intent of visiting these areas, I would recommend also reading my 2014 and 2013 blogs. They contain more detailed information on the places and people that we visited. The best photos are likely also in those blogs. In this year’s report I will not go into deep descriptions, location, emails, GPS, phone numbers since they all can be found in the previous blogs. Three of the last 4 years we have flown with Alitalia from Toronto to Rome. On September 27, ... read more

We have been in Italia for just a week, driving from the Swiss border to Agrigento Sicily, about 2300 kilometers. Some days were long and a bit tiring but mostly we moseyed along the coast when we could. Our impressions are what follows. Hope you enjoy them. DRIVING: The autostradas (Italian Motorways…not FREE ways) certainly get you from one place to another faster than other roads but have no personality. Multiple lanes with lots of construction 130 kph speeds that no one follows….the minimum is generally double that….except us who drove max 120 and usually between 100 and 110. We kept the trucks company in the right hand lane. Safer? You say….Well that depends on your definition of safe. At our speed, we were Mario Andretti targets for those who see themselves as race drivers in ... read more

Gelato flavour of the day - Didn't get to stop to buy one! and they closed too early in the sleepy town of Torre Melissa The view of the sun rising out of the east was as beautiful as we might have expected from our 5thfloor room and it was pleasurable to lie in bed with no pressure to get up too early as we have another straight forward drive further around the instep of Italy. The front desk man was right and the teenage girls had had their breakfast and decamped and left on their coach by the time we made the breakfast room. We were well looked after by Simona, a Romanian waitress, who couldn’t do enough for us. She chatted away, practising her English on us, giving us her history of the last ... read more