Pizzo to Tropea, Back on the Road

12/2 – Pizzo to Tropea, the long way – 22.81 miles
The predawn cold eliminated any possibility of napping at the station. There was only thing for me to do, and by now I was quite good at it. After a trip to the pastry shop for a sweet breakfast and one last look around the slowly awakening and briskly silent town of Pizzo, I started to walk.

Not since the summer have I had such a luxury of time to reach my destination. As I was on track to arrive by 1 PM, I took full advantage of the sparkling Calabrese morning to nap in front of a stunning view, lounging on a comfy boulder for a good hour.

When I awoke, I decided I wanted to see the interior of the region a little, as I had hugged the coast for a lot of Calabria up till this point (as you can see from my fancy map, recently updated). I did just that: I climbed the hill, silenced the wildly beeping GPS, and took the long way.

I saw onion fields, vast olive groves, sleepy farm towns, and fully enjoyed being back in rural Italy. From this day forth, I began to look at Calabria, and indeed my whole walk, with fresh eyes. It took a three day trip to Rome, twelve hours by train, and one sunny morning to remind me that I was living my dream. And I was grateful. Of course.

Managing to fill my day enough to arrive at Tropea at dusk, I found a bungalow in an empty campground, smiled at the lack of heating (no wonder it was so cheap in an otherwise touristy town), ate two pizzas to celebrate my longest walk of the trip (still unbeaten as of 12/31), almost vomited from overeating, and entered a self-protective food coma.