4/27: Explore PizzoCalabro, Transfer to Sila National Park

We were on the bus a bunch, but had a couple hours in Pizzo to get a gelato and explore the town. After about an hour and a half on the bus, we arrived in Pizzo, which is on the opposite coast from yesterday. Today we are on the north side of the toe of Italy. 

The main square here is gelato heaven, all focused on a different kind of gelato presentation. We visited Dante, the originator of this format, in response to a last minute wedding request. Two flavors of gelato are put into a big ice cream scoop and an indentation is formed in the middle for a dollop of a coordinating sauce, and then sealed with a bit more gelato. This is encased in paper and flash frozen. 45 minutes later, it is ready to serve and coated in a coordinating flavor. The original was half chocolate, half hazelnut, with a fudgy center, then rolled in cocoa powder to serve. Spectacular!

After we finished indulging ourselves, several of us walked to a ceramics maker. He has made models of many of the people in the village and also done a lot of it (let's call it) pretty interesting (that is, kind of odd).When I walked in, I was sure there was nothing there I would ever consider. His work apparently is all tied to the life of the people around him. He has a mold to make life sized anchovies and gave several of us an option to try. I ended up buying 5 of them to make a wind chime. He also showed us how to make a whistle, this one in the form of a wren-like bird. He had several finished owl whistles that I thought were odd-looking penquins. 

Then I wandered along the main commercial street of the town, looking for earrings, necklaces, and interesting chocolate. Lucky for my purse, I found none.

Back on the bus, we left the freeways and moved into California hill type roads (very curvy) on our way to the park, at about 5100 feet. In the process of starting a group walk, we came across a sporting goods store (there are little ski hills here) having a sale and I ended up going back to my room  to get my credit card because I found a great rain jacket. I ended up having a friendly 20 minute conversation with the proprietor about our lives.

I made it back to the hotel just in time for dinner and to learn that our day tomorrow is the longest transfer of the trip as we drive through and hike at Pollino National Park and end up at the back end of the foot of Italy at Martina Franca.

4/26: Explore Gerace

Gerace is another of the double towns, about 1.5 hours from Reggio. One of its claims to fame is that it used to have 128 churches. Now, with a population of 2400, it still has 28 churches. The bus couldn't take us to the top, so we got a ride in a tourist "train" and walked downhill after lunch to meet the bus. About 400 people live in the old town which also houses the school through 8th grade for the entire village. We visited the castle, but there is no entry because a major earthquake in 1982 took out the bridge that was the entrance. There is recent talk of rebuilding it, but building anything in the south is a challenge because of the reach of the Calabrese Mafia. 

Our main focus was the cathedral that was built in the 1100s by the Normans. One of the original towers is still standing, and the others have been rebuilt. The entrance is unusual. It used to be through the back with the apparent front of the church leading to graves under the altar. When the back entry square got compressed by new buildings to being unrealistically small for the parish, the front became the entry.

This area of Italy was inhabited by Greeks for many centuries and this cathedral became a place where both the Greek and Roman versions of Christianity co-existed.

After the church visit, we stopped for a bergamot cookie where Annunziata had arranged for a 16 year old musician to play some traditional Italian tunes on a mini accordian. Gabriella was accompanied on tamborine by his friend Pietro. The cookie was good too.

Lunch was next - I got a sausage that was spicier than advertised --fortunately fine with me. I also scarfed down a simple lettuce salad, suggesting maybe that component has been a big scarce in our meals.

On the way down to the bus, we stopped in at a store where the owners have restarted jasmine production. This part of Italy was famous for both its jasmine and bergamot production and they contributed directly to the perfume industry. Unfortunately for them, perfume chemists discovered how to create the same scent artificially and the growing industry here disappeared. There has been a rebirth of interest in the real products and one major focus is how to expand the usefulness of both bergamot and jasmine. Earlier, we saw how the fruit of the bergamot is being turned into tasty products instead of being discarded when the essential oils were extracted. The women running this shop manage a plot of 400 jasmine plants and use almond oil, a neutral oil, to extract the essence of the flowers. They use the resulting product for cookies, chocolates, perfumes, and liqueurs. We were treated to a taste of the cookies, chocolate, and alcohol. Although I love the aroma of jasmine, I found the taste of the products to be pretty subtle.

We got back to Reggio about 4pm. Tomorrow we head to a one night stay in a national park, and taking a backpack or duffle to the hotel vs. our entire suitcase was recommended, so I am hoping that my new computer backpack will be adequately large to manage for one overnight.

4/25: Explore Archeology Museum, Pentedatillo

We started today with a walk to the Archeology Museum, focusing on a much narrower history than in Lipari. Today is a national holiday in Italy, marking the announcement in the papers that fascism was over. There is another national holiday on May 1, so many people take the whole time off. Entry to the museum was free and we were smart to get there early. Even so, we had to adjust with competing tour groups looking at the same things. When we left around 11 or so, there was a long line of students waiting to get in. 

We walked down to the promenade overlooking the Strait of Messina and Annunziata got us each a scoop of bergamot gelatto. There was a 4.5K race getting ready to start as had walked to the museum and we encountered a couple of the runners afterwards.

I joined another couple for lunch at Annunziata's recommendation for authentic Neopolitan pizza. There was no option for a slice, so I thought I would store the leftovers in the mini fridge for a breakfast or two. The crust was VERY thin and  light, and I easily ate half without feeling stuffed. Then I decided to eat the best stuff (artichokes and ham) and forget the rest.

After another hour or so, we left for a tour and dinner at Pentedatillo, which means five fingers, and is based on the look of the rocky hills. It was described as a ghost town with only 5 residents, but it looks like it is trying hard to rejuvenate. A lot of towns along the coast are known as double towns. When the Arabs and Saracens started to attack, the coastal dwellers moved to the nearby hills for safety and thrived there, but often maintained connections with the remainder of the sea side towns. In some cases, the towns share a mayor. There were throngs of people there for the holiday and it didn't seem very ghostly.

In the small world category, I discovered two connections to Milwaukee. We were walking past a home with an upper door open and Annunziata called up to the lady to ask if she lived there (nope - owns, only visits) and the owner invited us up. We learned that her son was a high school exchange student in Milwaukee and went to college at UC Berkeley. I said I used to live there and our guide said she had Martino relatives in Milwaukee too. 

We went to dinner at the home of one of the remaining residents who was quite interesting and spoke reasonably good English. After we finished eating, she joined us. She had been a postal employee until meeting her husband and moving to Pentedatillo where she became a shepardess to 90 goats. She makes her own cheese and raises the veggies she served us. Even with a reduced herd of 13 goats, she needed help and hired an African migrant as she is no longer young. We had a nice discussion of the challenge in southern Italy with the continuous arrival of migrants and the tragedy of the frequent drownings. 

We got back to the hotel around 9 and I pretty much cratered.

4/24: Transfer to Reggio Calabrese, Walk in Scilla

 The good news about the transfer was that it was changed due to weather, so we left the hotel at 6:20 am instead of 5:50. Somehow the extra 30 minutes seemed more civilized. We also got the best breakfast box to go that I have ever had on one of these trips (meaning I enjoyed almost everything in it). Instead of a direct ferry to Reggio Calabrese (on the toe of Italy), due to sketchy seas, we boated back to Sicily, bussed to Messina, and took the bus on a ferry across the 2 mile strait. We actually kept to our original schedule plus 30 minutes.

We drove to Scilla --Scylla in Greek-- (our guide pronounces it "Sheila" because a C before most letters in Italian is a CH) where we had an enjoyable walk along the waterfront to learn about the legend and the city. The Scilla story comes from the Odyssey. Apparently a shy guy named Glaucus had his eye on a beauty named Scilla, so he went to the local siren named Circe to get help to woo Scilla. Circe was sweet on Glaucus, so she instead she poisoned the water where Scilla bathed, making her grotesque -- she got the lower body of a snake and 6 dog forms at her waist. When sailors got shipwrecked near the cave where she lived, they said they heard dogs barking. 

Some of the buildings along the narrow Via Annunziata
were more modern than others. This was more original
condition and built with both stones and ceramic tiles
laid flat.

The base of the rock with the castle was Scilla's cave.

Some call Scilla the Venice of the South because of the
buildings that are at or below the water line.

Fishing is very common here and many of the waterfront
homes had space for boat storage.

Unlike the Aeolian Islands, where water
is scarce, Calabria is the most water
rich part of the south. We passed several
public fountains like this, which are quite
old. Some still have rings to let users
tie up their horse or donkey while they
load up.

The mask over the door is supposed to scare
any evil spirits away.

Typical gap for boat storage between
homes.

You might recognize Bergomot as a component of many perfumes or Earl Grey Tea. We got to try it both straight and sweetened. This brand is 20% bergomot juice and the first two ingredients are water and sugar. They definitely helped. The 100% bergomot juice was awful, even when water was added. A spoonful of sugar would definitely have helped it go down. I would drink the product above. It has a lemon/orange flavor with a hint of the perfume.
 

Above and below: 2 of the rocks that may have caused
wrecks. The tops were barely above the surface and
wave action concealed them pretty well.

The Calabrese cliffs dive straight into the sea in many
areas reducing the chances of finding a nice beach.

This is a big swordfishing boat. A lookout rides the crow's
nest and the harpoonist has a long walk from the front of
the boat. We were told swordfish mate for life, so the
harpoonist aims for the big one (female) and the male
follows until he too is harpooned.

After we passed the rocks, we walked toward the main beach where a lot of temporary construction is going on to prepare for the tourist season. The city sells concessions that allow business people to set up beach services that are taken apart in the fall. 

This is the beach where summer is being prepared

It is NOT a sandy beach!

Can you guess what is behind this sign???

 Annunziata suggested a visit to a luthier who has a shop in the area that was really interesting.

Oliver's father was a furniture maker and so Oliver made
all the cabinets you see. He both makes and repairs
stringed instruments. He likes rock music and the
electric guitar shapes below are ones he has made,

This arched guitar has no inside struts
because the arch provides the stability.
Much of his work is for churches who
don't want low tones because they are
for the devil. So the guitars are small
and uniquely strung: he uses 5 pairs
of matched strings. The lowest is in
center and the highest are on the outer
edge with medium in between. All
5 sets are tuned to different notes.

This is an old style Calabrese Lyra.
Originally made from a single piece
of wood. There are three strings and
no frets or fretboard. Tones are changed
by pushing a fingernail against the
bottom string. Apparently the others
aren't played. A horsehair bow is
used to play it.

Our host played 3 of his instruments: the arched 'soprano' guitar, the lyra, and a 2 string Albanian Chief de Lea (spelled by how it sounded). I am trying to upload the guitar sample - it's about 20 seconds long. If this works, I'll add 2 more.

4/23: A Day in the Life of a Salinan Farm Family

 We hopped on another hydrofoil to visit the neighboring island of Salina, and then took a van to the farm. The father, Aldo, has lived here all his life and bought his parents' house from them. They raise chickens and farm grapes mostly for wine, fruits like peaches, and capers and probably a lot more. The farm seems pretty big and overwhelming. Aldo and his brother do all the work on the farm with the exception of harvesting some of the grapes. Some of the wine grapes are sold to other parties and those people are responsible for the harvest.

Additionally, farming is a a tough way to survive and Aldo's family has added agritourism to their farming business to supplement their income.

There is no natural water source on these volcanic islands other than rain, so cisterns with catchment systems and purchased water are the only sources. As a result, it is unusual to see what we would consider typical farm animals like cows, sheep, goats, and pigs. Chickens are popular and we actually saw one goat today on a nearby farm.

The concept of the Day in the Life program is to give us a chance to experience what a typical local resident does for living. Two of our group helped prepare our lunch and the rest of us went out into the fields. We started by pruning a few rows of wine grapes of the unnecessary branches. Then we learned how capers are harvested and made into the tasty stuff we eat. We collected eggs and picked fava beans before we got to relax and enjoy lunch.

Annunziata took some photos of us at work, but I will have to post them separately after we get them.

This greeted us as we got off the boat.
It is the back of the display.

This is the front. It is from an Italian movie, the Postman
apparently starring a local guy. I think in the movie, he
delivered mail on his bike.

 

 

 

The view from the porch of the agritourism facility.

Itty bitty future grapes

The vineyard I helped prune.

There are two kinds of capers: the ones we see in stores in the US that are actually the immature flowers of the caper plants. If the flower is allowed to bloom, it produces a fruit from the center of the flower called a caper berry in English and cucunci in Sicilian. The capers are picked into a bag tied around the waist and the spread out on a table to dry before salting. Capers are turned every day because they exude water from the salting and turning them keeps them from getting moldy. The berries are processed much the same except they are turned every third day because they don't have as much water in them.

Capers in salt

Caper berries in salt

The caper bushes are severely pruned in the spring. Once
the flower buds begin to appear, they are harvested
weekly. The plants can easily get to be 6 feet across.

This is a caper flower. One of the stamens is actually
the caper berry...very tiny at this point.

Above and below: Aldo pulled a caper apart to show
us the flower inside.

Aldo (left) and his brother (ages 74 and 77 respectively)

Aldo's home

The hens

The rooster. There used to be 4 of them but the toughest
eliminated the competition.

We walked back down toward the house and 6 or 7 of us picked a couple baskets of fava beans before  lunch. We had a salad made from a dried bread that looked like a huge bagel cut in half like for toasting. That was broken into pieces and combined with olive oil, capers, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, a bit of red onion and lettuce and maybe some small baked garlic cloves. That was followed by a spaghetti with a sauce of olive oil and fennel 'leaves'. There was also a poached egg dish that was kind of a light veggie broth that the eggs were poached in. It looked good, but I was already pretty full. Dessert was a pumpkin dish: Mashed pumpkin mixed with a cake yeast, and then with sugar and flour added. No careful measurements here! Three heaping spoons of sugar and flour added in stages until it was the right consistency. After it had had a few hours to rise, it was scooped onto a spoon and dropped in hot oil until it was a dark golden color. They were lightly drained and rolled in a bowl with cinnamon sugar. It was all delicious!

The cooking stage of the pumpkin dessert.

With our full tummies, we had to hustle up the hill to the van to go back and catch the ferry home. I think we were the last people on the boat before they left! 

Tomorrow is another early day --- we pack our luggage and take a ferry to the mainland to continue the tour. The taxi for our luggage and ride to the harbor leaves at 5:50AM.

4/22: Tour the Archeology Museum, Dinner at Aeolian House

Today, half of our travelers group got hit by apparent food poisoning -- all had eaten together with different meals -- and they stayed in at the hotel. I have been there and it is awful to feel yucky AND  miss interesting things to do. 

We headed out to a tour of the Archeology Museum, looking at history here starting from the Neolithic Age (about the same time frame as in Malta) to the 1500s. Again, many layers of population built on top of their forebearers. Our guide helped us see those layers. It was one of the best ancient history tours I have had. 

Part of the tower you see here is about
all that's left of the Norman fort built
in the 1100s. The large red blocks were
used from the previous Greek building
by the Normans. It was mostly razed
by the Ottoman's in 1544.

The pointed arches are from the Ottoman
era.

Looking out sort of a port hole to the harbor.

This area of the museum was used as
a prison during WWII. Now the cells
have art installations.

With the exception of the round Greek altar, this was a
neolithic living area.

As a volcanic island group, this was
a major source of obsidian which was
highly valued for making tools. The
glass-like rock could be fractured to
make very thin and effective cutting
tools and it was a major export. The
dark blobs are the places that had
obsidian and the arrows show where
it went.

 There was lots of pottery that I took photos of, but realized it would be overwhelming here. These are some highlights.

This was a ceramic jewelry case.

Several sarcophogi were moved from the necropolis to
the location on the museum grounds to make room
for the living

Early forms of safety pins

Grave goods of gold. Very flimsy, but
apparently a way to let the gods know
this was a VIP who deserved better
treatment than normal folks.

An early coin

The blue color in this container is made from lapis lazuli,
which was expensive then, hinting at the wealth among
the island inhabitants.

 

This shows how amphorae were positioned in a ship. I
always wondered why these containers didn't have flat
bottoms. The boards they were set into had indentations
to receive the amphorae.

The wooden pieces between the jars
helped stabilize them.

Stacking them in pyramid shapes was
also effective. The ones here were all
found with shipwrecks.

A remnant of the Norman castle and
church

A more baroque church with a highly decorated ceiling
replace the narrower Norman church.

These are the monastery cloisters from the Norman era
that were attached to the church but concealed until the
1970s: rock walls were built between the pillars and
everything was plastered over. Once it was uncovered,
they found many of the materials had been reused from
previous structures. The capitals of the pillars are all
different.

Afterwards, I visited an artist who had work that might have been fine for my home, but was much more expensive than I was prepared for. I got a Sicilian salad for lunch at Di Pina, where we visited yesterday... it was at least as good as I anticipated. And I spent the afternoon reviewing photos and updating 3 of my posts, so now I am only one day (soon to be two because it is bedtime) behind.  

At 6pm, we drove across the island to Aeolian House for dinner. The food is cooked in a restaurant here by the son of the owner and served cold there. We got a chance to look at a typical Aeolian home and see the sunset before our ride back to Lipari.

Our sunset. If you look at my Facebook cover photo, you
will see that I had to reverse the photo so that the profile
picture didn't overlay me in the cover photo.