May 29
I was too tired to deal with the blog yesterday. We didn’t get settled into the hotel in Messina until after 6pm then we went to get dinner, which of course doesn’t start until 7:30pm. So, we sat outside and had a drink. But then we couldn’t find the restaurant the hotel recommended so we went back to the hotel for better directions. This time we found the restaurant only to discover that it was closed for a week while the owners were on holiday. Now, we had to find another restaurant, which we did but by this time it was after 8pm. Dinner was good, even if it wasn’t what we ordered. Peter ordered lasagna and got a ham and mushroom pizza, and my calzone was wrong. But we were too tired to do anything but eat what the waiter brought. We finally got back to the hotel at 9:30 and were exhausted. We had walked almost 23,000 steps yesterday (which is over 9 1/2 miles) and we spent 6 1/2 hours in the car!! We barely had the energy to shower and fall into bed. But, as always, I’m awake before Peter this morning (Thursday 5/30) so I thought I’d post before we start our day.
Anyway, we left our beautiful flat in Caserta yesterday morning heading for the ancient Greek ruins of Paestum, about 1 hour and 40 minutes south along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is famous for the well-preserved remains of three temples dating back to 550 to 450 BC. The town was quite large (accounting for almost 7500 of our steps) so we spent about 2 hours roaming the ruins.
In addition to the large temples there was also the remains of other buildings, just not as complete.
After walking through the ruins, we visited the museum which housed the artifacts found during the excavation of the site. The building was massive and after about an hour our brains were saturated with ancient Greeks and our feet were screaming so we headed back to the car.
Our original plan had been to head back to Salerno (about 30 minutes north) and take the ferry to Positano on the Amalfi Coast for the afternoon. We drove the famous coast the last time we were in Italy, but we thought it would be fun to see it from the Salerno ferry. But the weather was just too bad. While sunny in Paestum, we had driven through dark clouds and intermittent heavy rain in the Salerno area, so we decided to take a pass on a ferry ride in the rain and headed straight to Sicily.
It was about a 5-hour ride from Paestum to the ferry at Reggio Calabrio with a couple of stops along the way. The ride was quite pretty and since Peter wanted to watch the view, I drove. While this tiny car sometimes comes in handy (see photo below), it has absolutely no pickup which is a problem on the autostrada (highway). It’s like the little engine that could as it’s trying to merge onto the road. Once it’s up to speed it’s fine but getting there takes a while.
We got to the ferry just as it was finished loading but the guys managed to squeeze our car on. I mean they literally squeezed it on between a truck and the tailgate of the ship.
We decided to stay at a hotel in Messina that we found on booking.com and after driving for about 5 minutes, I remembered all the rules of the road for driving in Sicily.
Rule 1: Yellow lights are nothing more than pretty colors.
Rule 2: Stop signs and red lights are just a suggestion.
Rule 3: Right/left turn only lanes mean nothing; if you want to go straight instead that’s okay.
Rule 4: You can park anywhere you want as long as your car fits in the empty space.
After driving here for over 2 years while I was in the Navy, I had to relearn how to drive when I got home. I think I might be doing most of the driving while we’re in Sicily, especially in the towns.
Today we’re heading west along the northern coast of Sicily, probably spending the night in Termini, where Peter’s grandfather was born…very cool.
Peter is up so it’s time to get dressed and have some breakfast. Talk with you later.