Return to Sardinia

We caught the Palermo-Cagliari ferry and, since the journey takes 13 hours, we took a cabin. What luxury! It has always seemed to me that there's nothing like going to sleep whilst you're travelling; it feels like cheating somehow - but cool for all that. Happily the sea was calm and so the crossing was uneventful. We drove off the ferry at 9 in the morning and we were at Vallermosa and Marilena's mum's house by coffee time.
A few days later our son Simon, Candy and the children joined us for a week, as did Marilena's brother and sister. So we were a lively household of ten for the duration. At the weekend there was a festival in the village with a focus on traditional crafts and the opportunity to visit many of the older houses which are kept as 'museums.' It was great to meet up with family in such an enjoyable setting.

A comfortable cabin helps the journey pass quickly.

Approaching Cagliari on the ferry.

A two-day festival in the village celebrated local history and traditional crafts and cooking.

Perfect Palermo - a jewel of a city

The last couple of days we spent in Palermo, Sicily's capital city. And what a city it proved to be - we loved it! Lively and full of interesting streets, squares and markets. Good for clothes shopping too! I bought two pairs of jeans and a couple of shirts so I could look decent when we arrived in Marilena's village in Sardinia.
The campsite was located by the sea just outside the town and happily near the railway station. It was situated (like several others we encountered on the trip) in an olive grove. Despite these advantages it suffered from an excess of mosqitoes. However by now we were pretty expert in keeping them out of the awning and van and so they didn't cause the trouble they had earlier in the holiday.
On the second day we met up with our friends Enzo and his twin brother, Carlo. They took us for a tour of their favourite spots in the city with a focus on cafes and street food. This was great fun and we were dlighted to let them show us round their home town.

Palermo has three large fruit and fish markets. Food quality is high.

Palermo has lots of interesting squares. This one is called the 'shameful' Piazza.

Having lunch on the street with friends Enzo & Carlo.

Agrigento and its Greek past

The Greeks have had a presence in southern Italy since at least the 8th century BC and one comes across evidence of their culture everywhere in Sicily. One of the most significant is the Valley of Temples near Agrigento. It's an extraordinary site that covers acres and acres. We spent an interesting day here wandering around in hot sunshine (the temperture was in excess of 34 degrees).

The valley of the temples at Agrigento.

Not contemplating Greek architecture - more likely he's trying to head off incipient heat exhaustion

Marilena stands by the ruins of a nearby Greek temple.

Syracuse's historic island

We were happy to leave the Catania camp site and made our way along the coast stopping at Syracuse on the way. We visited the historic centre (the lovely island of Ortiga).

On the island of Ortiga beside Syracuse is this lovely freshwater pool named after Arethusa in Greek myth.

The weather was a little fresh but that didn't stop Marilena from smiling.

We rolled up at a very clean campsite in Punta Bracetto on the coast. It couldn't have been more different from the previous one at Catania. The place was impeccable and each pitch had a key to its own toilet. Even the beach was much better. It put a smile on our faces!

Crossing to Sicily

Leaving Tropea behind we headed south to Villa San Giovanni at the toe of Italy. Here we caught the ferry to Messina in Sicily.

We camped at a rather grubby site near Catania for a couple of nights. The admin was friendly; which is more than can be said for the camper next door to us who nastily cut our power cable on the last day (apparently he wanted no competion for power; I gather he ran an electric heater in his caravan). Fortunately I was able to repair the cable with little fuss.

Catania is a historic city living in the shadow of the Etna volcano; indeed black volcanic stone was much in evidence in the walls and buildings of the town.

John in lecturing mode on a visit to Catania's university.

Behind the busy and tourist-heavy historic centre was a rather splendid fruit and vegetable market.

Fans of TV series Inspector Montalbano may recognise these; they are canoli - the favourite pastina of Dr Pasquale, the permanently bad-tempered police pathologist. We bought them at one of Catania's markets.

Learning to live with an awning

Camper and awning (Vango Idris model).

At this time of the year (autumn) most campers here in Italy appear to be retired couples and the campers they drive are by and large - pretty large! Many have their own shower, toilet, freezer, satellite TV and so on. Our campervan being a Bongo is quite small and living space is minimal; while OK for an overnight stay, anything longer would make life uncomfortable. And so we use an enclosed awning to provide additional  living space. The awning is designed to attach to a camper van and creates a very useful enclosed 'corridor' between the two. It takes about an hour to set everything up when we arrive at a new camp site but we reckon it's a good investment of time.

The Bongo only provides a limited amount of storage space; we use this space for food, crockery & cutlery (inside) and tyre wedges, gas bottle and other camper hardware (in the rear cupboards). Remaining 'luggage' such as clothes, toiletries, sleeping equipment etc. is stored in four strong folding plastic crates. The crates stack easily inside the van when we're travelling and can be quickly transferred to the awning once it's erected at a new destination. This frees up the van for cooking (we have a 2-burner hob) and sleeping.

If our venue is free from excessive flies/wasps/mosquitoes we prefer to eat outside (there is a small table that can fit it the van too but it is more trouble than it's worth to use). On the other hand if eating outside is a no-no then we move into the awning and here it shows it worth since there is plenty of space to dine comfortably. Indeed because the awning creates a closed corridor with the van, food can be transferred in and out of the kitchen keeping it well away from insect life.

Most of our camping to date has been in the warm Italian climate so we've not been troubled overmuch by rain or cold. However there have been windy days and again the awning proves useful since we simply move our folding chairs and table inside and carry on reading, relaxing etc.
At night we hang a rechargeable LED lamp from the top of the awning and read or write or whatever. Head-torches help with further illumination, particularly if one is reading.

Finally we lay a nylon awning carpet in the 'corridor' between tent and van; in this way we're able to keep most of the dirt/sand/pine needles etc. off the floors.

Tropea - southern Calabria

Looking manly - & out for an evening stroll.

I'd never heard that this place was considered so desirable by Italians, but once here I could see why. There are lovely beaches (we pop round the corner to a gorgeous little place for our daily swim) and the town itself is made up of pretty little streets. Not surprisingly there's lots of tourist tat on offer in the shops but if one can turn a blind eye to this the town holds up remarkably well. Currently there's an (allegedly) blues festival on the go with live music being played in the town piazze in the evening. Not bad - but only a few of the numbers I heard could be remotely classes as 'blues.' No matter; meandering around town on a balmy Italian evening with music in the background is no cause for complaint!

On an entirely different topic, the town is famous for its production of red onions and you can see them displayed for sale in lots of the shops here. They are a very mild onion - even Marilena who has a delicate digestive sytem can happily eat them with no problems. I'd tasted them before whilst in Sardinia (raw on salad that time) and warmed to them immediately.

Indeed I bought some seeds a couple of years back and attempted to grow them in my vegetable garden; sadly, they refused to even germinate. But they are so tasty that I might try again - it'd be cool to use them in our cooking at home. (Indeed I can just confirm Marilena has just invested a couple of euros in a packet of onion seeds).

The photo on the left records one of our lunches at Tropea and includes grilled kebabs, tomato & fennel salad, braised tropea red onions and fresh bread. Served with local red wine. And all eaten outside in the sunshine. Magic.

Cosenza - old town

View up street towards local secondary school.

On our way south we spent half a day in Cosenza, one of the largest towns in Calabria. I'd visited the town nearly a decade before (see my earlier post HERE) and found its old town rather dark and brooding; perhaps that was because then I arrived late in the day and the shops were closing up. This time we arrived mid-morning on a lovely sunny day. The effect was strikingly different and the old town came across as full of interesting squares, streets and buildings (although to be fair some of the narrow side streets didn't look all that salubrious).

There were few tourists around and so we strolled through the town without having to fight our way along pavements with the usual crush. Indeed there was even time for Mailena to do some clothes shopping (in which I'm happy to report she was successful).


Prices here are low compared to other regions of Italy - yet the quality is still high. We stopped for instance at a cafe for an iced capuccino and ordered some small accompanying cakes (pasticini) to nibble; they were delicious yet the price was a mere 50 cents per cake. Wonderful! We ordered half a dozen more to take away and as ever in Italy they were wrapped up beautifully.

We ate our panini in a lovely park next to a piazza surrounded by exceptional buildings.

Marilena takes the stage in Cosenza's atmospheric theatre.

Paradise - at last?

Marilena's idea of paradise is a campsite that is clean, has excellent toilet facilities and a friendly staff; moreover, it should be adjacent to a splendid beach (or have a top class swimming pool) and within easy reach there must to be an interesting village (or town) where one can stroll in the evening and have an ice-cream to help the digestion before taking to bed. A bonus is if there is a nearby railway staion for easy access to other destinations. Well I'm happy to report that we may have just (finally) landed on our feet with our most recent stop; but it only came about by accident.

On leaving Corigliano (by the Ionian Sea) we crossed Calabria to the western coast. I had identified a likely-looking site from our campsite guide and half a day later we rolled up to this very pretty place with lovely palm trees and flowers fringing the walkways of the campground; 'We're in clover,' I thought. We completed the admin and then drove to our pitch; it looked great and Marilena was excited to spot the swimming pool just 20 yards away over the hedge. Cool.

We stepped out of the camper ready to set up the awning and settle into our new residence for the next few days. And that's when the demons struck! Mosquitoes - and by the dozen. They attached themselves to us and within five minutes we had to run back into the camper for safety. Unfortunately Marilena was very badly bitten indeed and required insect bite cream to ease the discomfort (subsequently she had to take a painkiller and retire to bed early). So we turned around and left. I checked the camping guide we had (again), located another campsite and we drove over the local mountain road to a popular tourist town called Tropea.

Tropea - a beautiful little town on the Calabrian coast.

Turning into the Tropea seafront we were presented with signs to several campsites all adjacent to each other and before we knew what was happening we found ourselves being ushered into a lovely little family site by a smiling staff. Ahh! at last a site that Marilena could really relax in and enjoy. And so far it has met all our expectations. This morning at 8 am the panificio van (baker) pulled in and we bought freshly made bread rolls and apricot croissants. Then an hour later the fresh fish man arrived with his little three-wheeled moto-carozella and we had some fresh fish from him. Great!

We bought a little electric (indoor( grill last year and it's proving to be a very useful addition to the camper's tiny kitchen.

Opposite the campground are steps that take one up the cliff to the central piazza in town (how convenient is that?) We climbed them and spent an hour exploring and doing a little shopping this morning and then it was off to the beach (100 yards away) and a splash in the most beautiful blue sea imaginable! Lunch - prepared by the two of us - was fresh grilled fish, braised local Tropea red onions, ratatouille and potatoes, accompanied by local white wine. Desert was Italian coffee and another round of (morning) croissants. Lovely.