The Northern Half of Calabria in one post

All,

I'm behind. I've been behind for a long time. I'm going to try to catch up as much as I can. I know, you've heard it all before.

I had a few days that, when compared to others on my trip, could be called fairly unremarkable. When I wrote about these days in early December, I decided that you were sick of reading accounts describing similar events, so I have done you the favor of condensing these days to their bare minimum. So, for six days, here is my version of minimalist writing, with a creeping tendency toward verbosity toward the last two days. I just can't keep my mouth shut.

11/22 - Sapri to Tortora - 21.91
Leave early with the rain. Only one picture all day because I fear destroying another camera. Stop in Maratea, Basilicata, climb up the big hill intending to stay, but find it's too expensive. There's a huge Christ the Redeemer statue like in Rio de Janeiro, but again, no pictures. Time happens to be on my side, so I walk to Calabria. Before I know it, I have crossed Basilicata in one day. Sweet.

11/23 - Tortora to Diamante - 20.50
No rain, but heavy winds. Calabria is all one big road bordering the sea for me, as I can't explore the mountains because of the cold. I eat a snack in the ghost town of a summer tourist community, walk through more ghost towns as the wind howls down the long highway, and reach Diamante. The one hotel in town is too expensive, they're unwilling to negotiate, so I backtrack two miles for a nice but inexpensive hotel in hibernation. Dinner is a pizza, a sandwich, two beers, and a shot of homemade limoncello on the house. I curl up with Columbo dubbed in Italian (my first viewing of Columbo, seems like a good show), and go to sleep.

11/24 - Diamante to Cetraro - 18.31
I jaywalk across Calabria's main highway to reach a bar so I can ask for directions, the cops stop at the bar, my stomach turns. They just wanted a coffee, and after asking me who the hell I am, they buy me a coffee, as they like my story. I admit that I was scared they were going to arrest me for jaywalking, and they laugh heartily. More life along the boardwalk, lots of side streets through sleepy beach towns. Cetraro is alive, but no lodging in town, so back to the entrance of town for a small hotel with a crappy, worn out piano.

11/25 - Cetraro to Paola - 13.28
Shorter walk today, a Santiago di Compostela pilgrim stops me for a chat on the highway, he's from Cosenza, he offers hospitality if I head his way, but Cosenza's in the mountains and out of the way. Oh well. Lunch on the boardwalk at Paola. Watch a soccer match at dinner.

11/26 - Paola to Amantea - 17.48
Really bored with walking in Calabria. No variation, bad weather, little to no life in many towns. People distrustful of me, feel uncomfortable sometimes, so I want to keep moving. Find a friendly hotel, a walk in the town yields a music store with a new piano and twenty minutes of playing, and an hour of internet before dinner. Better than nothing! Watch soccer with the friends of the hotel owner, all had bet on a variety of results, so impassioned shouts burst forth as one by one they tear up their tickets and send the shreds flying. Lottery and sports betting bleed this part of the country dry, I decide.

11/27 - Amantea to Mortilla di Gizzeria - Thanksgiving Day - 19.14
Sunny but shockingly windy day. Walk a long stretch on huge boulders with sea on one side and railroad on the other. Really exhilarating, exotic trail makes me realize just how little I need in order to be totally reinvigorated. Get to Gizzeria Lido, ask at a gas station about lodging. Antonio helps out a lot, we finally find a hotel out of the way and a bit far, but I make it by nightfall. No heater working so I steal a space heater and a thick quilt from the common area. Evening shower ruined by no hot water. Thanksgiving dinner in the only pizzeria, a place primarily serving to go customers. Limited selections so I get an eggplant pizza, two arancini (fried baseball sized balls of rice), and a 24 oz. Peroni. Enjoy the irony of my horrible Thanksgiving dinner, plans for real Thanksgiving on coming Saturday make it okay, and it's time for bed after checking in with Mom and Dad.

12/28 - Mortilla to Pizzo - 19.77
Another windy day, meet middle-aged German couple walking in opposite direction, they had done Santiago di Compostela and are thrilled to see another walker. We exchange info. Weather turns, a quick trip to buy oranges at a citrus tree nursery turns into a full blown lunch invitation and I am happy to get out of the rain for a bit. Long lunch break means no more breaks until Pizzo, and the weather becomes truly wretched. I smile when I see the sign for Pizzo with the O as a big sun, and the slogan "2 steps in a dream." More like a nightmare.
My feet are soaking wet as I take my last steps to town. I hear of a hostel, turns out it's been sold, owned by 3 Brits and a Pole as a property management company. We talk Calabria for a while, they're in love with the area and see big opportunities, I'm skeptical but haven't seen the South of Calabria yet (and later am convinced). They find me a clean, cheap B&B with electric A/C, suggest a pizza place which turns out to be great. I talk the whole dinner with a Coast Guard candidate from near Trapani, learn about the process, then receive a discount from the pizzeria owner whose dream is to walk the whole coast of Calabria, including the Ionian side. Pizzo is famous for its dessert, the tartufo nero, and I ascend to heaven when I see it's chocolate ice cream in a big ball with a dark chocolate liquid filling, and the whole thing dusted with chocolate powder. Even though it pours as I return to the B&B, I realize that things are getting better and better here in Calabria.