Wed. Oct. 12

So.... who are all these characters mentioned in the previous episodes.  This adventure really started years ago when Don and Lynne met Bettina and her mother Heilwig while on a tour in Egypt.  Bettina and Rolf have a business giving walking tours in southern Italy and invited Don and Lynne to come with them as they hosted Heilwig and her three friends on a walking holiday based from their residence near Tortorella.  There was room for more people so Don and Lynne invited Cathy and I as well as Linda and Pat to come along.  Rolf and Bettina have fixed up an amazing farm house 6 km. from Tortorella.  It comfortably sleeps 12 people and has numerous kitchens and patios for people to use.

Here are the characters in our play.

Bettina Simoni

Rolf Mueller

Linda Landine

Pat Landine

Heilwig Mueller

Ingrid Maltz

Sybylle Vitak  

Ursula Roescheisen

Lynne Harris

Don Harris

Cathy Watts

Trent Watts

For our excitement today we started off driving to Totorella to attend the local market and then a picnic lunch and a walk back home.  Our first stop was at a local spring to fill water bottles for our walk and for the house.  There were lots of little frogs jumping in the wet grass and climbing the trees.

Wandering up the narrow streets with so many interesting houses, doors, windows and steps it is a visual feast. 

I thought of Aaron when I took this door.

 We also spotted  lots of cute kitties (just for you Sarah O.)

Wonderful fruit truck at the market.

Don was found 'talking' to some local men with his large vocabulary of international charades.  Soon he was invited to sit with the men where he discussed in detail (hand signal detail at least) the weather and how many clothes to wear for today's sunshine.

Don with his two new friends discussing the weather.

Tues. Oct. 11

I still seem to be one day behind in my efforts to catch up on our trip. Anyway, yesterday did begin with another wonderful breakfast with 'real' boiled eggs from Francesco's chickens on the farm next to us. The plan for the day is a short walk, a lunch at a local restaurant known for it's great tasting cuisine and an early return home. We are off as Rolf skillfully rolls us down the rollercoaster road to the seaside town of Scario.

Scaria waterfront

Bettina points out our destination to a cave about 2hr. walking distance from here.

The dragonfly's are out but we have not seen one mosquito so they must be eating other things in Italy.

Italian designed Dragonfly

This view along the trail shows the beauty of this rugged coastline where the water is a turquoise blue reflecting the bottom underneath the water.

We return via an orange orchard where Rolf snags some low hanging fruit and we taste a delicious orange right off the tree.

On our way to a spring delivering clean fresh water where we fill our water bottles we pass a group of horned cattle with bells on.  The bells create a delightful, continuous melodic sound as the cows move along munching grass.

When we arrive at the restaurant the air is filled with wonderful aromas which indicate Bettina and Rolf have made a good choice.  The ante pasta and homemade pasta prove to be every bit as delicious as the smells indicated. 

Our next stop was at an archaeological dig where structures from 300-400 BC were under investigation from a team from Perugia and University of Montreal. This area was very helpful in understanding the life of the Lucanian people who settled here with influences from Greece.

Lucanian rock wall from 300 B.C.

A lovely man met us at the site and guided us through the ruins and then invited us to his home just above the site and gave us a glass of wine made from the grapes growing over his picnic area.

This man owns the land that was under archeological investigation.

Lynne tasting the grapes.

Someone breathed the word gelato and we travelled over another roller coaster road to the town of Sabri where, not only did we get gelato but Cathy was able to purchase some new knitting needles.  The sun was setting over the Mediterranean as we drove back to our home.

Monday Oct. 10

The day begins with a rather cool strong wind.  We finish breakfast and head out to begin our hike.  Our first stop is at a wonderful spring to fill our water bottles.

Heilwig, Cathy, Pat and Don at the water trough.

Close by is a short trail to a lovely stream where we see "Venus's Hair" falls and learn that Otters can be found here.  Unfortunately, we never saw them.

Venus's Hair Falls

I noticed a couple of lovely little creatures on the walk as we came back to carry on the trail.

Spider ready to attack.

Iridescent Bug.

Our trail then wound up and down and around a high hill with glorious views of the valley with hill top towns perched up high.  It leaves a prairie gopher to marvel at how people could build these amazing towns so high up on the hills.  Remembering that this construction has been going on for hundreds and hundreds of years helps to appreciate how it happens.

Hill top town viewed from our trail.

Lunch was served with the obligatory bottle of wine, bread, meats and cheese to round out the picnic. A friend of Rolf's was involved in building an extension to our previous trail that wound us around the mountain.  This was the first time Bettina and Rolf had used this trail.  Part of the trail traversed a large overhang of a rather dangerous looking rock wall.   There was lots of discussion about the safety of walking on this trail. Don kept wondering what would happen if he pulled out one of the keystone rocks that seemed to hold the whole mountain in place.

Trail below rock wall. Notice Lynne in distance to give a sense of scale.

We then headed back into town to get a few supplies.  Don was soon found engaging two young women to try and find out if they could help Cathy locate some knitting needles.  A side note to this story is the sad tale of Cathy loosing her knitting needles to the security system in the airport.  Everyone in the group has been aware of trying to find a store to buy replacement needles.  The interaction of Don doing knitting charades with two young people who spoke only Italian was a delightful moment.

Don trying to explain knitting needles.

Starting our Journey

Friday Oct. 7

There are 6 of us from Saskatoon on this adventure in Southern Italy. We were pleased to find that Lynne and Don joined us on the flight to Toronto rather than travelling via Calgary.  Leaving Toronto we snuggled into our seats for an 8 hour flight to Frankfurt. We did our own experiment with jet lag prevention by various groups using sleeping pills, Melanin or wine, food and coffee to see who would get the best sleep.  It turns out that nothing works like your own bed so we all arrived in Frankfurt exhausted.  The next leg of the journey was a confusing marathon of buses, tunnels, stairs, moving walkways and running, running, running to be sure we caught our next flight to Naples. We did, and then collapsed into our seats expecting a 1.5 hour sleep.  Nobody managed anything beyond a slight rest so we were all exhausted upon arrival in Naples.  Bettina and Rolf, our tour guides for the next 10 days, met us as planned and after picking up our vehicle they drove us to Herculaneum.  This is a wonderful place, similar to Pompei, but not as crowded. We explored the ruins for a few hours and marvelled at the antiquity of buildings that had been covered in mud for centuries and then restored.

Imagine all of this under 15 meters of mud.

We are now travelling with about 30 hours of sleep deprivation and not absorbing all of the information available.  For the devout history buff have a look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum

Now we are in the van heading back to Naples to pick up Bettina's mother and three friends from Germany. After we pick them up we head out to Tortorella (our destination for the next few days) and stop for a 'small' taste of antepasto at a restaurant where Bettina & Rolf know the owner. Well…. This turned out to be a major meal with maybe 10 different dishes and of course some local vino to help keep us awake! This restaurant is registered with the Slow Food Movement and was a tremendous way to start our Italian feasting. After this amazing feast we headed out in the dark to our mystery destination where we will spend the next week or so.

After another half hour of driving in the dark over twisty, turny roads we finally got to bed about 1:30 in the morning.


Saturday Oct. 8

I finally awoke at 10:40 as Pat and Linda came clattering up our stairs to get us all going. They had consumed their breakfast and wanted to get going.  Shortly after walking outside I heard the delightful sound of cow bells clanging as the local herd munched grass in the field below our house.

Cow bells and grazing cows

This day promised to hold big adventures as we drove away to explore the coast line and go for some short hikes. Our first stop out was a Farmacia to purchase medications for those prone to car sickness. These roads are a true test of your susceptibility to vestibular induced vomiting!

This coastline is spectacular with vista after vista of high hills, small villages clinging to the side of rocky outcrops all under the watchful eye of the Mediterranean Sea.

Our furthest destination was a climb (in the car I must admit) to view what Cathy calls 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. This large statue of Christ is patterned after the famous one in Brazil and is visible from miles around.

Here we encountered our fist experience of Don and Pat immediately engaging in conversation any stranger showing a modicum of friendliness. I was busy gazing around looking at some birds flying about and the next thing I see is Don drinking wine offered by a tourist group from Brazil!! 

Our next stop was for gelato, pizza, cappuccino Italliano and sweet cakes. A short shopping trip later we headed back home.

Throughout this whole experience we were given a thorough explanation of local history by Bettina. She is so knowledgeable and capable of explaining everything to the point where even Cathy's questions were answered. The sense of antiquity one gets when Bettina talks about something that happened before Christ and during Roman times is overwhelming for a prairie boy where our recorded history is so short.  Back home again we have a delicious meal cooked by Bettina and Rolf and head off to bed.

Sunday Oct. 9

Our first real hiking day. We drive about 6 km. to Tortorella leave the vehicles and head out on a great walk along an ancient donkey trail leading down to a local river. The walk is steep in places but very safe with a guard rail most of the way. A few of the more adventuresome head down the last few hundred meters to spend time right at the river.

We head back and are treated to a wonderful lunch along the trail. 

I have a wonderful time trying to capture the perfect picture of these colorful lizards.

 Back home we collapse for our afternoon siesta and then head out for the evenings adventure. We are treated to a Piano Quartette of classical music by 4 professional musicians from Naples, Romania and a local cello player. Off to supper at a local establishment right by the sea specializing in fish dishes. Our stomachs are still not used to starting to eat at 9:00 at night but somehow we manage to down an array of fish dishes, pasta and numerous jugs of wine. Off to bed to get ready for another day of hiking.

Starting our Italy trip

We will soon be on our way for an adventure in hiking southern Italy with two other couples.  Look for some new posts once we are underway on Oct. 6.