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Milazzo
The castle overlooking the town from our apartment We need an early start today because we have some driving to do to get to our destination. First we have to cross from Sicily to the mainland of Italy. Today we take the toll road to Messina. It is fast and cuts through lush bush country. We quickly get to the exit, insert our ticket, to be informed payment is two euros. This was far less than we expected and saved us time and diesel.
We arrive in Messina towards the start of a busy working Friday. Jane has plotted our way to the ferry terminal. As we approach the ticket office we follow others before us, leave the car in its lane and purchase our ticket. That’s how it is done. No one toots, drivers negotiate parked cars and move on. We join the usual shambles of lined up cars waiting to board. It doesn’t take long and we are on board. There must have been more than two hundred cars on board. A far cry from our first crossing. This trip doesn’t seem to take as long. We left from a different place from the one we arrived at. Doesn’t really matter, we make it safely to
the mainland.
We have decided to drive around the toe of Italy to our destination of Botricello. The road is two lanes for most of the trip with a few sections of new highway being developed. At times we venture off the highway and explore some of the beaches. They are just waiting for the developers to move in. Beautiful sandy beaches, Mediterranean blue sea, empty land available, new paved footpaths, opportunities are endless. Just need to clear the weeds and rubbish from the roads. At one beach several occupants of camper vans have taken up temporary residence.
Right along the coast, and even in parts of Sicily, there are a large number of buildings that have all the concrete work done and then appear to be abandoned. We wonder if the Global Financial Crisis hit the area and a lot of developers lost a lot of money and couldn’t complete their building programme.
We stop in one town for a walk and gelato. It is the sleepy time. The owner asks if we are eating inside or out. We decide on outside. She goes outside and wakes up an elderly gentleman, dressed in suit and tie,
and moves him on a bit to give us the finest seats. Soon the elderly gentleman is fast asleep in his new position. The gelatos are just what we need. We are revived and ready to keep going. This town must have the widest street and hardly any cars driving through. Seems to be the best time for travel.
Soon we are passing Catanzaro, a town we stayed in twelve days ago. It was tempting to pop in and say hello to Francesca but we still have about thirty kilometres to drive. Entering Botricello we ask Jane to take us to our apartment. “What?” she says, “how am I expected to find that address”. So out comes the trusty cellphone with Google maps. No problem. We ring our host who puts us on to someone who has some English and all is go. As we get close to our destination a toot behind us and our host indicates to follow them.
Our home tonight is a six-room reasonably new B & B. We are the only guests. We find out later that July and August are their busiest months. We have a light in-room meal tonight.
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