Sicily to Calabria

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Leaving Sicily

After a last spectacular breakfast on Paola's terrace overlooking her extensive gardens and, in the distance, the Gulf of Catania, we were on our way to Messina, on Sicily's northeast corner.  There, we took a sunny 30-minute ferry ride across the sparkling Strait of Messina
to Calabria, the tip of the boot of  Italy's mainland.

From there, we drove northeast to Catanzaro, then north into the Sila Mountains National Park. We spent the afternoon driving up and down the mountain roads, as the sun gave way to clouds and the mountain air chilled.  The dark green of the forested peaks was accented by masses of yellow flowers that lined the roads and blanketed many of the hillsides. As we passed through small mountain towns, the views of the surrounding natural beauty and the hill towns sited there were spectacular. The Silas are popular venues for winter skiing and Lake Avro, also in the park, is a summer resort; things in both areas were pretty quiet this early spring afternoon.

As often happens, we wound up just a bit off the beaten path and spent about six breathless miles on a road that was barely the width of our car and had the added feature of fallen rocks strewn about.  We were far enough off that beaten path that our fears of meeting an oncoming car were never realized, and there were no rocks in motion this afternoon.  The only close (very close) encounters we had on that road were with a herd of sheep and a few cows, and they (unlike Italian drivers) willingly yielded the right of way.

We expect to drive through more of the park as we drive north tomorrow, but tonight we're happily at home in the town of Rogliano in yet another gorgeous apartment.