Diamente to Lamezia
Alec is still feeling very grotty but we are both frozen with cold. Signor is very helpful but breakfast was the most meagre so far - just dried bread and a bit of coffee and biscotti, so we have decided to move on anyway.
I was very brave last night and had dinner on my own which was delicious. Pasta followed by veal. There were only 2 of us, but to avoid embarrassment the tables were laid out like school desks, except instead of a teacher at the front there was a Telly to watch. Thus, no awkward silences and we both ate contentedly. We even talked about the Muslim situation as there are currently riots in Milan. The other man is married to a girl from Malaysia, I didn’t quite gather whether she was Muslim or not. Anyway I was tucked up in bed by 9.45 having done lots of washing and laid it all over the air con unit on various hangers.
We caught a train from Diamente to Paula where we had to change to go on to Lamezia. The first train was empty, the fun really started when we tried to board the next one. It just had to be a Friday, the train was packed in fact there were people standing and there was absolutely nowhere to park a bicycle even though it was a bike carrying train. So I put them on anyway, blocking not only the way into one carriage but also the door down to the platform. Where I went wrong was the ticket inspector was in the carriage I’d blocked so he really went off on one (as they say). In typical Italian fashion half the carriage said we should be allowed to stay on and half hid behind their papers or just ignored us. The ticket inspector won and we had to get off. We then had a long cold wait before the next one which luckily was empty so no drama. Still pouring when we arrived at Lamezia but the Bram hotel is seriously luxurious and warm, so we are feeling in clover even if there are a lot of smooth looking men hanging about in extremely expensive leather jackets and dark glasses.
Saturday 13th February.
Lamezia
Day 2 in this luxurious hotel, if anything it’s too hot but we aren’t complaining. We thought we really ought to get the bikes out so went in search of the usual challenge – an English novel for Vivi, and failed. So we headed into the hills to look at the Roman baths (having found that the sulphur baths are now a 21st century spa and currently closed). But after 4 miles the baths were still 10 ahead of us, the Roman road was like a racetrack including lorries so we cut our losses and turned into a bar. Asking for 2 white wines we were surprised to be told they didn’t have any but we could have Prosecco which is we imagine the local version of ‘asti spumante’. In fact it’s quite nice so we stayed and had a sandwich and as we were the only people there had to chat to the owner and her brother/son but we sat outside in the sunshine and the world seemed pretty good really!
Valentine's eve so we had a glass of the local fizz, not much else to celebrate!
Olive picking, this tractor has a vice like grip which grabs the trees and shakes them! The olives fall into the orange nets and that's it, job done.
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