In October 2023, to celebrate (a little belatedly) my 50th birthday I decided to go and see that piece of Calabria that I had not been able to see from the summer of 2020. I had a couple of the most fun encounters during travels of my life.

Most of all, I wanted to go to Reggio Calabria. But while I was in those parts, I was planning to make a trip to Pentadattilo, Vibo Valentia; Messina and Scilla. I also liked the idea of doing the two Reggios in less than a week. In fact, the previous weekend I had gone to the province of Reggio Emilia for a trek in Mount Ventasso.

I arrived in Lamezia Terme in the evening. I picked up the rental car I had already booked and in five minutes reached the bnb chosen specifically for proximity to the airport and because it provided dinner. As had happened to me other times in southern Italy, at first I wondered where I had ended up because of the remote atmosphere, with the doubt of having to sleep in the car.

Actually the place was very nice and most importantly I ate divinely chatting between courses with the all do waiter, cook, receptionist who gave me all the attention being the only diner in the time between cooking one dish and the next.

Travel to southern Italy, flight and car rental

The next day I took a somewhat crazy ride. So I decided to make use of the car in one day, and so first the southernmost leg, and on the way back to Lamezia Terme I stopped in Vibo Valentia, for (I don’t say it anymore) a great lunch and the beautiful castle with archaeological museum.

I had long had Pentadattilo in mind, an abandoned town on the southernmost tip of Calabria. It is so called because the rocks above it are supposed to look like the 5 fingers of a hand. I who am considered to have a lot of imagination admit that I have not seen the 5 fingers, but the place is evocative. It is only a few houses, but the tour all around the spur is remarkable, with great views both to the sea and to the inland valleys and Aspromonte just behind.

Leaving the car, I took the train to Reggio Calabria. Doesn’t it affect you to hear the same voice giving train info all over the country? To some people evidently not.

Encounters during trips by train, the drunk looking for the onion

This has been one of funniest between my encounters during trips. The dialogue between my two train neighbors after an announcement in English.

They speak in Italian, but you can’t understand anything

Look it wasn’t in Italian, it was English

Mumbles.

Where should he go?

Mumbling…head scratching…

What’s his name…..boh….where they make onions, and anyway you mind your own business and don’t give a shit

Before each stop what must have enriched the Lamezia Terme station bar, he kept asking what stop it was, and then all the arrival times of the various stops. He got off at Rosarno. I took care that as I exited the train I did not get run over by it and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I confronted the wise gentleman his interlocutor, who had already seen before he got on that the other was drunk and was very good at not responding to insults. Our theory was that the screwball should have gone to Tropea(where they make onions) and that he had taken the wrong train and direction without realizing it. Who knows.

In addition to touring the length and breadth of Reggio Calabria’s famous waterfront and of course going to see the museum with the Riace Bronzes also present, I took the opportunity to take the hydrofoil and go for a little trip to Messina, which would have deserved much more time. I wonder how different everything will be when the bridge is there…ha, ha, ha….

Seriously, visiting and reading about the city and the many devastating earthquakes that have turned it upside down several times, I get chills thinking about a mega-building right there.

On the way back I could not fail to stop in lovely Scylla (featured), where I saw no 6-headed monster, as per the Homeric poem. I did, however, pass many cats and beautiful sights as well as eating a swordfish sandwich.

When he pulls out because he assumes you want to try and you wouldn’t even if you were paid

I went alone and using public transportation for a long weekend to Bari and the province BAT, whose acronym I had always liked very much. Both amazed me very pleasantly.

For some time I had started using the couchsurfing app only as a mode of meeting without being hosted mainly to have more freedom. I made contact with a girl from Bari who also lived in the area where I had the accommodation. She proposed something I love, an evening with friends, so local people.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I really like women and I never rule anything out. But, since a certain age, I have stopped wanting to go with everyone. Especially with those who do not inspire me with sympathy, and even more so if they take it for granted that I want to try without having had any clue.

Not that she was ugly, but already from the phone contact she did not inspire me. Also, right from the start she posed in a somewhat detached way as if to say don’t give me too much confidence that there isn’t any.

I agreed wholeheartedly, and after we had dinner, when we went to the bar where her group of friends were, I stopped considering her finding chatting with the male part of the table extremely interesting. There were several young guys who lived elsewhere and had gone home for the Easter vacations.

I said goodbye to everyone soon enough, charged for the discoveries I would make the following day. When I got messages from the chick offering to do something together or to meet in the evening; I declined the invitation.

Crossing the street for an intimate dinner

In fall 2021 I met a very interesting girl, and the fact that she lived in Brindisi gave me the opportunity to be able to visit corners of Puglia that I had missed. Later also something of Molise. Going down the first time I stopped at the beautiful Castel del Monte perhaps the most famous of the works made by Frederick II.

With my friend I visited Brindisi and Taranto. The funniest thing was that I was staying in a bnb right in front of her house. The first night she came to me incognito (the owners lived upstairs and did not allow guests). The second night, to go out to dinner I just had to cross the street.

We met a second time in Termoli. We spent a half-weekend in Molise, also visiting pretty Campobasso. We slept in a beautiful agriturismo where, however, they gave us spaghetti bolognese and torta sacher for dinner. So I did not completely satisfy my craving for typical dishes.

I made up for it at the end of the following summer. The brindisina wavered and I went alone in a tent to both the Gargano (fantastic Umbra Forest) and the Termites. I enjoyed slightly off-the-beaten-path trattorias in little villages with original names like Porto Cannone.

In Foggia I was just in time to arrive in the main square and get an ice cream that I ate in the car under the universal downpour. It was worth it to complete the project of visiting all the capitals of Italy.

At home with (her) children

The following year I arranged to go back to see my friend from Puglia. The fact that she had never come to me a little bit annoyed me, but she had some family management problems. To tease her every now and then to say hello, I would ask her if she was in jail visiting some children. Obviously the situation was not serious at all. It was strange enough to act as an unqualified guest, and to sleep in her absent son’s room (in her room would have been too explicit), while the other one was eyeing me inquiringly the couple of times we passed each other in the hallway.

In between cab services (for the son), we took a splendid tour of Lecce, a swim in the beautiful rabbit beach near Porto Cesareo, and ate an inordinate number of pasticciotti. But 9 hours by train for one wee is just too much, and I decided it would be the last such madness.

On the way back a gentleman who was my neighbor explained to me how he responded to call center people. If it was turned bad he would ask them to tell their manager that they had broken the; otherwise absurd things like that for the following winter he would do without heating and if he got cold, he would burn the furniture.

The top of the encounters during trips, multilingual dinners

Again thanks to couchsurfing, I stayed with a lovely family in Caserta. The idea of hosting had come from the oldest son who no longer lived there, but the youngest daughter and retired parents had continued to welcome travelers.

In addition to me there was also a Pole living as a globetrotting computer scientist and his girlfriend I think from China. All together we were invited to one of those very fun multilingual home dinners, despite the fact that the hosts did not speak English. I had asked where to get good buffalo mozzarella and they gave me one as a gift when I left, too kind.

Finally, a video shot in another place where I wanted to go because of the name, but which is also in a beautiful area of the southern Apennines: Pietrabbondante in the province of Isernia.

Home travel Traveling in southern Italy: cannoli, cassate and pasticciotti

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