We returned to the Sila Mountains for a drive farther north through the national park. We took the Road of the Peaks to Monte Botte Donato, the highest peak of the range, and the terminus of the ski tow; at the higher elevations there was a bit of snow on the ground. The views to the valley, villages, and lake below and across to the surrounding mountains were very beautiful, and during this in-between season, we pretty much had the vistas to ourselves. The road was in less-than-peak condition, and we were in and out of lots of sizeable potholes.
We also passed through several towns that had originally been settled in the 15th century by Albanians fleeing Muslim invasions. The only real evidence we saw of this history were some road signs in a definitely-not-Italian language.
We headed to Sibari to see the ruins of Sybaris, originally settled by the Greeks in the 8th century BC, and eventually by the Romans. The city had been silted over and its exact location discovered only in the 1960s. We had read about the excavations of the Roman ruins and were eager to see them, though only a fraction of an area estimated to be 200 times the size of Pompeii has been uncovered as yet. This was probably the strangest visit to an archeological site we have ever made. There was some road signage indicating the presence of excavations, and an unmarked, unfinished contemporary building in a fenced area that appeared to be a visitors' center in the making. We parked outside and were able to walk in through an open gate, but there was no one around. Venturing into the site, we could begin to see excavated buildings, some columns, and two wide and long streets. There was some rather new-looking signage, and some overgrown visitor paths into the ruins, along with some new walking paths above; it was a bit like a modern-day ghost town superimposed on the ancient ones. We wandered around for a while, expecting someone to show up, if only to apprehend us once the video surveillance cameras had revealed our presence, but we were undisturbed.
Our destination today was Morano Calabro, far north in the region of Calabria. We have yet another fantastic apartment in a city that has to be seen (or viewed in Tom's photos) to be believed. The houses climb a mountain, which is topped with the remains of a 9th-century castle; the whole scene looks as if it came from an artist's brush, or film set designer. (In fact, there is a famous M. C. Escher woodcut of Morano Calabro, which you can see here.)
We drove part of the way up into the town, then walked higher -- but not to the top! The narrow streets give way to much narrower lanes, many of which are actually staircases, with lots of little nooks and crannies and houses stacked in layers climbing above, below, and around each other. The views to the green mountains around Morano Calabro were as fine as those from the surrounding area to the town.
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