Mareneve Forte Club Scalea

... Happy Feet" for one ecstatic 3 year old. Not so "happy feet" was Stu who decided to go for a 3 hr mountain bike ride..take the cable car up 1300 metres and pedal down using their map based upon kilometers - easy! Except the italians true to form hire out bikes without milometers. Step 1 - set your milometer to 0. "Where the f**** is it?". 8 wrong turns later oh and did I mention the chain kept falling off.Not a happy bunny.. 

 

From Matera we headed 3 hours west to the coast and the town of Maratea (not to be confused with Matera). Maratea refers to a 15 mile stretch of coastline that Basilicata has on Italy’s west coast. We had heard good things about the area and were interested to see it.

Unfortunately, we arrived at the peak of the Italian vacation season (mid August) and the area was extremely packed. The beaches, which we mentioned before did not ...

... you can find some really nice accommodations.

A real gem I found is Hotel De Rose in Scalea: Scalea is a little village on the Mediterranean Sea, in Calabria. The hotel is renovated and the front desk constantly helped me to tour these ancient lands. The rooms were really charming: enjoy the Hotel De Rose video on YouTube and you’ll understand ...

By the light of day, after food and a good night's sleep things look better and we set out to discover Sorrento. Of course, as we are not right in Sorrento this involves buying a bus ticket (not as simple as it might seem), finding the bus stop and getting on the right bus. Mission accomplished, we arrive in beautiful Sorrento. It is a perfect day, sunny and warm and we head for the water to check out the ...

... later, so we may
have forgotten some bits!)

We decided, given we had more confidence in our brakes now, that we would climb up high into the mountains through the National Park to the hilltop village of CastelMezzano. Off the main highway, the road narrowed, the climb was steep, the route was incredibly windy, but the view from the top was fantastic. How the town managed to exist in such a ...

... and anywhere it was awful. The further south we got the worse it also got and throw in a barren burnt landscape, it was not the Sicily we were hoping to find. After a couple of days down South we headed back up to the top of Sicily near Cefalu. It was a lot cleaner up here but the beaches and snorkeling were just not up to much. After a good look around we decided to head back up to Praia a Mare to spend 4 days on the beach snorkeling and sunning before having to hit Rome and put the ...

... they had stopped so we set up camp, had dinner and a couple of Assisi reds then an early night for an early start to Pompeii. The ruins were fascinating, it is unreal what they have managed to unearth and restore. Our early start (waiting for gates to open) meant we beat the crowds of tourist buses and the crazy heat of the day. After 3 and a half hours touring the ruins and tagging on to the end of guided tours to here just that little bit extra we headed off down the road again ...

... sao a unica forma de eu saber que esses lugares existem!". Creio que ele nao teve a nocao do impacto que essas palavras tiveram pra mim. Porque eu e nao um deles? Porque nao era ele mostrando as fotos para mim? Nesse momento, olhando paras as pedras na praia, percebi algo que me chamou a atencao. No meio de milhares de pedras na praia, todas negras e praticamente iguais, havia uma pedra verde. Procurei e encontrei outra mais. Sera que aquela pedra ...

Train rides in Italy are always an adventure. They almost seem to try to make it as complicated as possible so that if you're a tourist you are always getting lost. On the day we left Pompeii for Sapri, we got on what appeared to be the right train. It showed up at the right time, was going in the right direction, but was not in fact our train. We got as far as Sarento when the train ended. We decided ...

... the feeling, right away, of stepping back in time. We were met at the airport by John's Dad (also on vacation) and 3rd cousin or uncle Nathalie. Nathalie is a warm Italian man, as round as santa clause, with a heart as big as they get. His eyes sparkled with delight every time he pointed out something typical "Calabrese" to us like the gorgeous mountain landscape and beautiful blue ocean off the Calabria coast. Upon arrival in the small town of Amaroni, John and I were ...