Rifugio Fasanelli Potenza

OK, so we're living on an Olive Farm for a while now.<br>Bohemian? Yes<br>Practical? Only when its sunny and only when its not olive picking season.<br>So what season is it now? Olive picking and its raining.<br><br>Welcome to our own little corner of Glastonbury<br>

Destination 400<br><br>km195'864<br><br>Traveling in Italy has turned to be a surprise in two different points of view.<br><br>Surprise 1:<br>Traveling without a travel guide let me take the things as they come along. An enormous extraordinary traditional design of houses appeared in southern Italy to be a main attraction. A wonderful ...

... the ravine with the wind in my face. The flight only last a few minutes, yet it felt like an eternity, gazing down upon the treetops and the valley far, far below, maybe I should have kept my eyes closed afterall. It was both terrifying and exhilarating, and certainly offered an adrenaline rush like no other. <br><br>But this was not a one way ticket, having survived and recovered from the first flight, the ...

... sleeping bags out on the deck outside. The weather was amazing and we slept in peace and privacy.<br><br>The disorganization continued of course. <br>After realizing that we were dropped into the armpit of Italy and then attempting to cross a desert followed by mountains we decided to look into taking a train as we know we probably wouldn't make it to Rome in time with out train help anyway.<br><br>If we were in france we'd show up to ...

Short ride yet breathtaking. Via Appia is magnificent! An ancient roman road which is situated comfortably on the mountains above the highway is also amerced in natural forest and meadows, dotted here and there by small town houses, grazing sheep, pigs or hens. There is barely any traffic on the road - definite a bikers heaven. The mountain peaks reach a hight of more than 1000 m.

Had a great time in Potenza, resting eating, enjoying some quality time with Pino's sister's family - Olympia, Angelo, Pasquale and Simona. I went site seeing with Olympia and then site shopping with Angelo when he got back from his work in the Batipaligia carbinieri (we went looking for a present for Betty's commune "festa" on Sunday). The next morning, a little weary of re-enacting my Salerno-Potenza journey I picked a fairly close destination and started pedaling again.

What a ride! 130Km of hills, hills and more hills. The Apennines were magnificent, the road though left much to be desired - biking wise. It was one of those roads you just have to shout out: "didn't these planners have non motorized vehicles in mind!". The road begins by climbing uphill from the sea line and then continues with a series of descents and ascents that can ...

Quick daytrip while we were waiting for our ferry to Croatia. Basicly, in the 1970's this town had so many disease and poverty issues that the Italian government had to build a new town. People were living in caves houses and malaria was rampant. 50% infant mortality also. Now it is a tourist draw to see what it was like and ...

... were preserved by the ash that covered the whole city. On the way out we found the cutest little kitten which we named skanky kitten. It probably had rabies. We also got distracted by this lady wearing the shortest shorts EVER...in fact, I think her **** was trying to eat them, cos there wasn't much being left to the imagination!! Had a bit of time to do some quick souvenir shopping and to have a bite to eat. So Matt ran off to a Pizzeria and started talking to the Chef and ended up ...

The next morning we left early and headed to Matera... As we were arriving in the city a man on a motorbike/vespa thing pulled up beside us and told us that for $10 he would show us where to park the car, and get the best pictures from, and also explain the Sassi di Matera to us.... The place is fascinating... people still live in the houses carved into the rock... worth visiting :)