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. 

View from the bus parking lot

While many homes have been rejuvenated here, this one
is in original condition.

 

The castle near the main square.

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. 

The ceramacist explained who several people in the case
behind him are.

Owl whistles

Here he is prepping clay for us to try
molding an anchovy. I wish I could
find glasses just like his.

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.

Pigs on a farm near the resort. The black one in back is
native. There is a tendency to exchange them for the
pink variety because they get bigger.

 

A horse statue of driftwood in the
hotel reception area. There were a bunch
of driftwood floor lamps too, many for sale.

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.