Boil in the Bag People

Italy is the Ape' center of the world, according to Steve. Apes look like a truck (see picture), but are actually a scooter wearing a truck costume. Tonka builds bigger trucks. Top speed uphill is 3 miles per hour, downhill is 60. They are either driven completely empty or with more stuff than a three ton transit could carry. They are only designed to carry one person, but often carry many more. Steve desperately wants one.

Southern Italy in July is hot. Southern Italy in July in motorbike leathers is REALLY hot! All the Italians are zipping by on their motorbikes and scoots in shorts and tshirts and we're in 30 pounds of hot leathers. It's like being boiled in a bag!

We're 1800 miles into this trip and all the way down almost to the bottom of Italy in the Calabria region. We've gone from pouring rain in Belgium / Germany to total sunshine once we got south of the Alps. This trip has been almost exclusively non-motorway roads so it hasn't been a fast blast down the highway, bit rather a slow wind up and and through the hills, mountains and valleys all the way.

We had a lovely breakfast on the patio overlooking Amalfi and the Med yesterday morning, after a slowish get up and then headed further south. Made it from Campania down to Calabria last night and guess where our Italian dinner waiters have worked? At their uncle's restaurant in ... Preston! Very small world. And they miss it very much!

Today continued the journey through Calabria and tonight's stop is at the 'instep' of the Italian boot, close to as far south as you can get. Calabria has been very interesting, the geography is great, loads of mountains, tons of seaside, but unfortunately the 'ugly architects' had a field day down here! Ugly architects are what Steve and I call the designers of cheap, cinderblock, boring, square buildings with no features of any architectural interest at all. There is mile after mile of tenament apartments. Only once in a great while do you glimpse an old stone Italian building. It's been very interesting and a worthwhile exploration, but cheap house prices aside, Calabria is not for us.

However, I think agritourismos are! Tonight's stop is a working farm which has been converted into a B&B / restaurant. Old stone building, high ceiling'd rooms and (after today's heat) a very welcome pool!