Calabria-Take Three

Well I just got back this morning from my final trip to the South, a place where I conveniently feel very much at home. The main intention was for the four of us girls to all go down together, see the families, tour a bit of Calabria and stay at Federica's beach house. The first day we were in Castrovillari but we also drove over to Murano and San Basile. Here I am playing Pirates with Silvia, Azzurra's little sister, on the balcony:

The amazing video

Visiting Federica's aunt

Then we went back to Murano, the magical place I went to Christmas night with Azzu, Ale, and Shawn. This time I went to the castle in the day, with the girls, and it was nice because the view was no longer covered in fog!

Then we made our way to San Basile, where we were to watch the EuroCup 2008 finals (Forza Spagna!) at Alessandro's grandparents. First, though, we stopped at Vittoria's grandparents to say hello. They actually lived in Hartford, CT for 15 years and spoke remarkable English! They were the sweetest and the grandmother could not stop offering us coke and cookies and candies which we would have been ill-mannered not to accept.

Vittorio's grandparents

Alessandro's grandparents

The next morning we made our way to Marina di Sibari, to Federica's beach house and went straight to the beach. It wasn't a spectacular beach but it was so nice to be in the water to escape the heat!

La mia Italiana in her tomato-themed bikini!

People wander around selling beach stuff...that cart's on foot!

This was a really freaky lady who from the back looked 30 but from the front looked like, a million.

Me, mastering my Italian body language

That night we spent some time releasing our inner children...

...and then grew up and went to La Cucaracha bar, the main hang out for drinks and dancing:

Alessandro's and my dancing debut

After the next day at the beach, our friend Vincenzo came to pick us up and took us to his town, Altomonte, which I had also visited last Christmas, but without such a great guide! As soon as we arrived, he wanted to show us the horses, and after Charlotte's example, I ended up like this:

Riding a horse in a strapless dress

Then he continued with his tour, which involved climbing the town's lovely tower to see it's even more beautiful view:

Then we stopped at his friend's restaurant for a small drink which turned into an entire antipasto sampler (on the house) which was buonissimo.



Afterwards, we went to eat our actual dinner at Vincenzo's house with his family, and then headed to the outside amphitheater to watch a big dance performance.

Vincenzo's grandparents

Night view of Altomonte

The next we headed evevn farther south to visit the town of and area around Tropea, a town I had heard so much about from the girls because it's known for it's onions! And around these parts, I am the Onion Queen. It was so neat to finally get to go. Before seeing the town of Tropea, however, we went to a smaller one called Capo Vaticano to go to the beach. It was so lovely with crystal blue water and lots of rocks and tide pools to explore. Ale had brought snorkeling gear so we took turns playing with that. For lunch, of course, we had brought a pasta salad as well as fruit, because we're Southern and therefore are too cheap to eat out. Federica was telling me there's a comedian who makes his living comparing northern and southerners, and a big joke of his is how southerns bring their entire homemade lunch to the beach, including bread, sausage, lasagna, the whole deal. It may seem ridiculous, but let me tell you, it's not far from the truth!

Il mio Italiano del Sud with pasta salad and Italian beer, on the beach

Later on in the afternoon, Azzurra, Federica, and I were in the little cove playing around when all the crabs and such decided it was time to come out of hiding. We started yelping everywhere we turned and trying to swim away but we were all laughing to hard at the other's yelpings to successfully do so. At one point Federica screams out that she got pricked by a sea urchin but we don't even believe her because we all, including her, are still laughing at our predicament of being stuck in a cove surrounded by crabs. So we finally swim our way out, amidst many more screams at random objects floating in the water (that totally could have been fish or other monsters wanting to gobble us up), to a point where we can stand up, and I take a look at Federica's foot, and there they are, a lovely little clustered neighborhood of black pricklies.

The attempt to remove the pricklies



The amazing video

After our day at the beach, we went to check with a doctor at the nearby and totally horror-flick inspired hospital about Federica's foot. The remedy? Apply hot olive oil and they'll start to emerge so that you can pluck them out yourself. Olive oil, how great is that?

So since he was very little help, we just continued on with our day and went to Tropea, exploring the shops and drinking granitas. Here's me with some lovely onions:

The lovely stand we stopped at to buy Tropean onions and homemade wine

Then we went to Pizzo for dinner and Pizzo's famous gelato.

Awesome truck I saw on the road that brings gelato strait to your house.

The next day we were so exhausted that we spent it lying around the house chatting. Late in the afternoon we decided to try to get into one of the resort clubs to use the pool. There was no one checking memberships or room keys at the front gate so we just walked right in. In Italy, you're supposed to always wear a swim cap in the pool to keep from clogging the drains, but only had one. This meant we had to ask the lifeguard if we could go in without them and just not go under. He said it was against the rules, but I guess as long as you don't go under it's alright. At this point a sour middle-aged woman said oh, the young beautiful girls can just do whatever they want, eh? And it was really quite funny but made us nervous because we didn't want to get kicked out! A little bit later he came back over to us and asked how it was possible that we didn't have caps when everyone here knows the rules and Azzurra was ill-equipped to lie so Federica came up and said listen, we're not staying here but we live in the town and I've been coming here since I was little and you're totally right that we're wrong and shouldn't be here but my cousin used to work here, oh yes you know my cousin? and the previous owner is my next door neighbor, oh you know him too? oh how funny, well we just wanted to show our Californian girlfriends a little something different and it's just so beautiful here, oh could we? oh thank you so much for letting us stay, that's so very kind of you! She totally mafia-ed her way into the pool! It was one of the most awesome finagle-ings I ever have seen.

Afterwards though, the lifeguard became very buddy-buddy and kept hanging around chatting with us, but whatever; I hadn't been in a swimming pool in over 10 months!

Speaking of the mafia, it really is a serious thing in the South. Not to say everyone's involved, but people who aren't have to stay on their toes to avoid precarious situations. One time Azzurra and another girl in her middle school class liked the same boy, and little did Azzurra know, but this girl's father was a very serious mafioso. After a short time of fighting after this boy, Federica gets a call from an uncle who says that they both better stay away from that boy or else. Another time, Azzurra's mother was driving in Altomonte, saw a tortoise on the road, and wanted to take it for her parent's garden. A car comes up and she asks them for help picking it up and putting it in her car. The guys pick up the tortoise, say it's theirs, and put it in their car! And she just says, ok, and drives away. And the same has happened with her over a parking space. You just let it go. A house just a block down the street from Federica's beach house got burned down a year ago, supposedly by the mafia. It's very much a real situation down there, and the farther South you go, the more you need to watch your back because no one, while in the south of Italy, wants to get an offer they can't refuse. That said, of course we had no problems whatsoever!

Our last evening, before heading back to La Cucaracha

The next morning we went to Lungro to have lunch with Azzurra's gradparents. It was so nice being able to see them again and lunch was excessively delicious. I will never understand how they think it's possible to eat all that they put out to eat. After every Calabrese meal I have to pull back from the table and say sto scoppiando, I'm bursting, or sono arrivata, I have arrived. And let me tell you, until you have eaten a family meal in the south of Italy, you do not know what it means to eat until you feel you will surely explode.

Zio Roberto and Giuseppe playing soccer on the balcony

Silvia and me

Zio Roberto and Ale having peaches drenched in homemade wine

Nonno and me, having to kick back after the deliciously pesante meal nonna had prepared. He was super sweet and asked me if I'd call them sometime after I get home, and then proceeded to take three minutes to patiently right their number out for me. We bonded. ;)

Funniest thing ever: the Italian dog eats pasta!!
When I commented to Azzurra how funny and strange that was, she said, how could a dog live without pasta?!

In the afternoon Zio Roberto took us on a drive through the mountains, where it was much cooler.

In front of the boy scout camp flags

Ale made a tennis racket out of sticks and grass to kill the mosquitos

After my terribly sad and wet goodbyes with the gradparents and Zio Roberto, we stopped by another uncle's house, which doubles as his used-car lot. Here's me in the classic 500 (cinque cento).

Leaving Calabria the next morning was really difficult for me because I'm so attached to so many of the people and the customs there. Some of my happiest memories are from my trips down there. I know that I won't be back for at least a couple years and I'm frustrated by it. Azzurra's family I've adopted as an additional one of my own, complete with grandparents that I never got to grow up with and the little sister I always wanted. I miss them so much already.