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Published: February 25th 2007
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The anticipation started weeks ago, encouraged by planning meetings at our local pub. Now we (Joe, Andrew and Gerry) were in Aquapessa, Calabria, Southern Italy for a long weekend. Fantastic value at £99 each for 4 days (including return flight, 3 star hotel, and hire car). Gerry remarked that when he first flew to Italy 23 years ago the flight cost £150! Who would have believed it would have gone down so much?
The flight went very well until we started to make our descent through the clouds into Lamezia. With a sudden wrench the plane jolted and Andrew nearly jumped out of his seat! Several more lurches from side to side had us all sweating and reciting our individual mantras/prayers/confessions. Our collective pleadings secured us a safe landing and we proceeded to our little Fiat Panda.
Our hotel was a very simple, one hour drive along a coastal road. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the coastal road and ended up on a motorway heading inland. We missed the turn off and ended up in the pitch dark about 6000 feet up a mountain pass! Contorted trees arched over the roadway and the mist swirled around us as Gerry manoeuvred
the tight bends and Andrew, sitting in the back seat, got ever more queasy and ready to throw up! Gerry was imagining being held up by a gang of Calabrian mafia with berets and shotguns while Andrew thought he was in a horror movie, waiting for a headless horseman to appear out of the mist! We all screamed as we rounded a corner and staring at us was a huge cow with giant horns sitting by the side of the road!
Half way up the mountain we came to an abrupt halt and a dead end! We had to turn around and go back the way we came to find another way over the mountains. The only sign of human life was a courting couple in a steamed up car. By now it was 11pm (having landed at 9pm). It took us another 2 hours to drive over the mountains and back down to the coast where our hotel was! As I had feared the hotel was in darkness with no one at the reception, no one answering the door, and no one answering the contact telephone number! After a few loud beeps on the car horn a face
appeared from behind some curtains in the upper room and shortly thereafter a bloke opened the door for us. Exhausted and relieved we collapsed on our beds and were soon fitfully dreaming of headless mafia and the like.
In the morning we discovered that Joe had made a good choice in booking us into the Hotel Piccolo Mondo. Our room with a balcony looks directly over the sea. The sun was warm and the travails of the night before were all forgotten as we tucked into a hearty breakfast (although not the mixed grill that Andrew was hoping for!).
We elected to explore the coastline for the day. First stop was Belvedere and then Diamante where we enjoyed our first, and certainly not our last, gelato (ice cream). As the sun was so hot and the beaches so deserted Gerry dared Joe and Andrew to sunbathe naked. They were both up for it, so to speak. Like two kids playing in the sand they cavorted while Gerry took some incriminating photos (later to be used in a bribery scandal)! Our gelato turned out to be virtually the only thing we had to eat all day as all the
Joe and Andrew
In a state of liberty and freedom rarely seen in Lewisham! shops and cafes closed in the afternoon for siesta, which certainly caught us napping! We continued heading north up to Scalea (where we wandered around a fascinating cemetery) and Prai a Mare where there was a 14th century castle we couldn’t get into.
We finished the evening in the local recommended pizzeria. Joe had to be dissuaded from ordering the maxi pizza which was the size of a table! The pizzas were everything we had hoped of them and we rounded off a thoroughly enjoyable day with another fantastico gelato!
On the Sunday we drove up to a mountain village and wandered round, before heading for Cosenza, the nearest big town (or is it a city?). Cosenza has a nice old quarter, so we parked up and walked around. Being the off season everything was closed except a few shops and the odd cafe. We bought some lunch from a supermarket and ate it in a deserted piazza next to an old church. We noticed a cafe had a light on so we went in there for a cappuccino. It was a great old place where they make and sell sweets (they were originally from Milan and made
sweets for King Frederick (I think he said). Next we were heading for the Sila mountain range, but we had no petrol left and all the petrol stations were closed, luckily we just happened to see a couple of pumps by the roadside so Gerry drew into the side behind a couple of cars. We filled up with petrol and we were just about to pull away when a car behind us crashed into the back of us! Gerry's eyes welled up with tears as he thought about the £1000 excess we had to pay if we had a crash! Fortunately the car had been travelling so slow that there were only a few scratches on our car, so we made sure we returned our car to the hire company well after dark!
Due to the mild winter there had been virtually no snow. When we reached near the top of the mountains there was a ski resort but little to ski on! Andrew wanted to go up on the ski lift but it just closed before we got there! Instead we had a walk through the woods. When we came back to the car Joe found Andrew's wallet
lying on the ground! We drove home and had dinner in a local seafood restaurant.
On the Monday we checked out of our friendly hotel and drove south down the coast (in the same direction as the airport). It was another beautiful blue-skied day. Highlight of the day was Tropea, high on the cliffs above the sea, with old houses and alleyways and lots of cafes (all closed!). By late afternoon we were getting hungry and we wanted to eat before dropping off the car at the airport but we simply couldn't find anywhere that was open! We ended up at the airport which fortunately did have some tasty pizza offerings for us!
So ended a fantastically good value, warm, refreshing weekend liberally interspersed with much talk (mostly Andrew!) and hilarity. This may well become a yearly event!
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