Susie's Report No 30

Salve - BUON GIORNO to all, 

We arrive at LESINA .

Let me be the Tourist Info Officer here.  Please do not think about going on holiday here - even for 1 night, especially if it’s the weekend.  First of all you MUST enjoy the delights of children big and small continually letting off Fireworks the size of Tuppeny Bangers all day and all through the night.  Adults, Yelling to one another (in conversations), their children Screaming  (having fun) and dogs continually barking Day & Night, chasing cars and roaming around in packs. 

Also, which is a novel idea, is let the whole town out for a Sat/Sun drive, along the foreshore promenade. all the local small, old cars, with the odd Maserati thrown in as he has nothing better to do, ( we think he is the local D.D.) This promenade is only 300 metres long, so when there’s a break/lull in the crawling cars, the Maserati breaks loose and does a burn out. Even did one the Monday morning we were leaving! The promenade has a very small turning circle just near us, the cars move along at a funerals pace up and down the Esplanade and when it gets dark their light come on, and continues throughout the night, with lots of tooting of horns. There is a small lull in this display between 12pm - 3pm as they ALL go home for lunch, then back out again Kids, Adults, Dogs, Cars.

 Now I know your all dying to know why is this so, because H.H. is parked in a wire fence enclosure, like a parking lot, 20 metres from the Promenade. It has power, water and 1 x toilette & 1 x shower, all for 12.00 euros a night (including all this free entertainment) NOT!!!!! So we are right in the hub of all the action.

 I will always treasure my EAR PLUGS and promise to value them forever.  The almighty bang of these crackers is a shocker.  Lesina  is on a lake, but I think its fairly stagnate, the shoreline is choked with sea weed and local refuse. (this is written without prejudice).

On the road again, and we are off to see the TRULLI HOUSES, in ALBEROBELLO, these were built in the 19th century, and a lot have been restored, just fabulous to see, photos explain these. We were parked at a site in amongst Olive trees and went for a look around town, lots of Tourist buses in and hopefully buying lots of souvenirs.

We are still working our way South, we are going down to the boot, across the heel, into the instep and onto the toes soon.

The CALABRIAN COAST with it’s Greek, Albanian & Italian heritage is a huge melting pot and with lots of different dialects, and they have retained their cultures. They have lots of Earthquakes, and are bounded by the Ionian and Tyronian Oceans/Seas, with beautiful coloured waters. Unfortunately the roads aren’t real flash, (bad condition) lots of heavy truck use, the verges are filthy with plastics and plastic bottles everwhere, the beach’s are the same and IT”S such a shame!!!!

CORIGLIANO - we had a storm that night, they lost a couple of limbs off the tree infront of H.H, luckily we parked away from the trees and pine cones. I went for a walk along the beach next morning and it was scattered with lots of small Oranges, obviously the local Orchard had lost its fair share.

 But I must tell you I had two interesting attempts in showering in the toilet block!.

First time: It’s getting dark outside, so shower time, I pack my bag & off I go, it’s quite a walk to get there as the other blocks are closed off. I fumble around for the light switch - yeah!! Lets go. Terry had already had his so he was able to brief me on the workings (on arrival you are given a token for the shower).  So I wash my face at the basin, close & lock the door on my cubicle, get everything ready, flannel, body wash, token etc,. Get undressed, shower cap on and stand waiting (this whole system is very old and rusted). Terry said "stand back" as the water bursts out. Put my token in, and it’s stuck - won’t go in, can’t get it out, with many expletives ongoing, luckily I was the only one there!!!

 I have to re dress and now its dark and walk down to reception about 200 metres, and try to explain what’s happened (charades again). She understands and gives me 3 tokens (just in case) back I go again, this time I choose No. 5 cubicle and not 6 again, success it works!! Its on a 2 minute timer but the 1st minute is freezing cold, 2nd min O.k. So back to H.H. to tell my tale of woe.

Second time: I have 2 tokens left. i.e. 4 minutes. Tomorrow we leave so I get up at 7am for a shower and wash my hair. Off I trudge to the block, get inside, turn light on. I’m the only one here again, same story...get in cubicle, undress, line everything up etc, put my token in, NO burst of water, NO nothing, NOT a drop, many expletives once again. The stray cats outside had heard it all before, but wait... the door opens and a oldish German Nana comes in. I come out absolutely starkers & do CHARADES again that there is NO WATER coming out. She goes back outside and I think gives the system a swift kick/hit/bash and my shower starts to trickle out (she’s done this before). Its not enough, but enough to do the trick. She puts her token in and no problems. Now with mine, the BLOODY thing won’t stop dribbling. Door opens again, and another German Nana come is, they greet one another, she puts her token in, next minute, ( I guess it’s German expletives) she comes out covered in shampoo & soap…. her shower has stopped mid stream, so outside they both go wrapped in towels, and she shows her the trick, back inside again, shower starts up again, everybody happy. I said Danke for your help and left to the sound of a shower and a blow dryer in the distance !!! Bloody hell.

Today we have driven about 150 klms from the north coast of Italy to the south coast and ended up at GIZZERIA Lido a.k.a. Hang Loose Beach - we have actually stayed 4 nights and we are just about parked on the beach with a view to Mt. Stromboli, its an active Volcano with smoke happily puffing out the top.(2000 yrs old).

 

 This beach is renown for Kite Surfing and I guess other water sports etc, The photo’s of Summer here are big sun umbrellas, lots of deck chairs and lots of people, today there is just us and one other van from Switzerland.

 

 The meet & greet guy is from the U.K. so we can speak English, Yahoooo!!!! Amongst other things he also looks after some local stray dogs, one which I wanted to kidnap, they are very friendly and happy, and he’s been good with local info and also on Sicily, which is coming up soon. The sunsets have been amazing.

 

Terry and I decided to go for a walk to the local village to get some supplies, and after many wrong turns, and avoiding the huge pools/puddles from the storm the night before, (this is all bushland with stones,dirt & sand.. hard going) and after skirting some lagoons we come across a guy ahead of us. We tried to ask directions, so he put his GUN DOWN (shotgun) and starts drawing diagrams in the dirt/sand and of course speaking to us in Italian.

 We said our grazie’s and walked off - I turned to T.Lee and said, DO YOU THINK THAT GUN WAS  LOADED????? We now know what they had been shooting, as we rounded the lagoon and in the river we saw some plastic decoy Ducks, and lots of spent shell cases everywhere ( they do come in some pretty colours ). Poor duck ducks don’t stand a chance, we walked on hoping the next shot was not at us.  QUACK QUACK!!!!! We made it to the village and bought the best TOMATOES we have ever tasted or remembered, some frozen seafood and bread, and a yummy Arancine Ball. The local supermarket had shutdown for the season .Damnation! again.

Sunday morning and we are off on another walk along the beach (different direction) but the same difficulty. Lo & behold, what do we come across, but our very own CRIME SCENE. We take swift action not to disturb the scene, but creeping up close to have a ghoulish look we find a body, dishevelled, fingers, feet are missing (chewed off), hair tangled & matted ( you know the look, beach hair) one blue eye staring straight ahead, body rigid, it’s a, it’s a !?!?  washed up, unloved  BARBIE DOLL. Discarded, thrown overboard from a boat, with the flotsam & jetsam and ended up on the tide line.

 We think the culprit was KEN !!! Oh and I forgot to mention she was naked - no designer clothing or jewellery. We didn’t know what to do, we couldn’t call it in ( we don’t speak the lingo), so we walked on by & left her to her watery grave.  We have evidence. exhibit A. a photo, for your perusal.  End of Story.

Italy is full of characters, charm and crazy drivers.  Rest assured Terry & I will never complain about traffic in Australia ever again, if you can drive a motorhome in Italy without incident through the streets & towns, its a bloody miracle !!!! No one gives way, barely indicates, they overtake infront of oncoming cars, they park absolutely ANYWHERE, parking of cars is like watching THATS INCREDIBLE, its extremely interesting, I observe all this with a held breath. But hey ?? it’s Italy. Even the animals are different! But they all get along and it seems to work.

Daylight saving had changed recently, but it took us a day or two to work this out, we were 1hr ahead of the rest of Europe, we only twigged when Sunset was at 5pm instead of the usual 6pm.

SICILY, we arrived after a 20 minute car ferry ride to this ancient isle.  We spent 2 nights at a beachside campsite overlooking mainland Italy with its black volcanic rocks and sand.

 The storms out to sea have been very entertaining and so was T. Lee when he popped back from his shower dripping water & soap suds, his token had run out - short changed again - I sent him off again with another. Honestly we don ’t have much luck with a simple shower do we????? We had to pass through TAORMINA with its ancient ruins as it was raining, so we kept moving along, lots of showers and thunder in the distance.  We have just popped out of a tunnel to a full view of Mt Etna covered in snow.

We are still having lots of trouble with campsite closures, they say they are open in the book, when we get there, CLOSED!  We have missed a few sites because of this. End of story for now ….Arrivederci to all - ciao till next one  Love from Susie, Terry & H.H.  x x x 

P.S. and another sunset….