Sign in with Facebook
Crotone and Capo Colonna
"Crotone and surroundings"
We first spent one week in the eastern parts of Calabria, near the town of Crotone. We visited in September, so tourist season was totally over, not that I believe a lot of tourists visit this part of Italy. The weather of course was still marvellous, so we actually had the beach to ourselves.
The surroundings of Crotone are absolutely fabulous. It's just a very rough landscape, most of it is still the way you imagine things to be in Southern Italy, just like in movies like Kaos, or even Novecento.
Now, Calabria has been Greek territory, a long time ago, when most men still wore long grey beards. You know, Plato, Socrates, those guys. And somehow some of their buildings even managed to survive the ages in Italy. Now that IS amazing, believe me.
Capo Colonna once housed an entire temple. Nowadays only one column still remains upright.
"Capo Colonna, Capo senza Colonna"
That one column still resisting the test of time is obviously the main attraction of Capo Colonna. Italian authorities have now understood that it might just be necessary to protect this last surviving column, so they've clearly marked an area surrounding the column as forbidden territory.
Now if you have a look at the picture, you might notice that there are quite a few persons within this forbidden area. And what are they doing so close to that column, you might wonder?
Well now, besides carving their names into the stone, the good old pissing dog behaviour that clearly distinguishes us humans from the animal world, sentences could be heard that sounded a lot like: "Facciamola cadere!", meaning "Let's make it fall over!"
And scratching they were... Now I'm just thinking that if they get bored after scratching away 1 millimeter and 100 people a year feel the same strange urge... then in a few years... Capo senza Colonna... Nothing left.
"Santa Severina"
Santa Severina is a little town on top of a hill. It's one of those typical Italian towns that seem to stand still in time. You know, the typical square in front of the church where the older inhabitants gather for their caffé and a game of cards. Small alleyways with drying laundry everywhere.
Atmosphere, that's what these towns are all about. And Santa Severina has a lot of it. It basically just invites you to walk around without goal, to enjoy the many alleyways and to enjoy the views of the Calabrian landscape all around.
"Castle of Santa Severina"
The castle was built around 1100 A.D. It was built on older structures and during renovation a lot of things were discovered that are well worth visiting if you're into history. Besides, it's always nice to walk around in a castle without any other tourists around you. As I said, Calabria is not really tourist destination number one and especially in September it's downright quiet.
"Traffic signs and missing signs."
On our trips through the inlands of Calabria we've come across a few interesting things that might come in handy if you'd like to do the same. To give you an idea I'll tell you about some of the strange situations we encountered.
So picture this... we were driving in the middle of the landscape you see on the first picture of this travelogue. As a matter of fact, we reached the white mountainside you see in the middle of that picture. The road was amazingly good, black tarmac, no problem, pretty wide road, so we were cruising!
Then suddenly the road stops. That means, the tarmac stops. The road continues but directly on the rocks! Now that's weird in my dictionary. So we hesitantly edge forward, since the rock looks rather slippery and is amazingly bumpy. At one point we stop to take the situation into account... We look up and notice that there used to be a genuine road, with tarmac, road signs, curbs etcetera, but that it has basically dropped down the edge of the mountain. Earthquake maybe, we guess... so that's why now we are driving on plain rock... the real road is no more...
The problem now is that the road is quite steep. And it is simply too steep and too narrow to turn around. So we don't have a choice... Carefully we move forward, slowly making our way up the mountain. Then the pretty steep climb changes into an incredibly steep climb. And I'm talking steep steep. Never seen anything that steep and believe me, I'm not exaggerating.
It really is too steep. I'm afraid that the rocks don't offer enough grip to make it and there's no way I can turn... backing up seems the only possibility but with all the steep turns and slippery rock not really a nice option either...
So we decide to move forward and give it a go. Luckily (I mean, I AM here to tell you this story), the wheels find enough grip and we make it all the way to the top, where the regular road survived the earthquake, or whatever it was that destroyed that road...
Luckily on our way back we found a new road, not on any map that safely brought us back to our apartment...
(Picture: Santa Severina)
"Hotel California Calabrian Style"
On one of our other tours through the inlands, we ended up in yet another strange situation. More funny this time. We drove into this very little town but when we tried to find our way out of the town again, all traffic signs told us that that wasn't possible. One way streets leading us around, but always back to the same position.
After a while we followed this Volkswagen Golf Convertible from Milan that clearly had come to the same conclusion. There was no escaping. The guys in the Golf were getting more restless by the minute so we figured they were running out of gas...
At least we now know what happens to all the people who disappear in the dark inlands of Calabria...
And for those of you that can't stand the suspense....
After trying all the options and not finding a way out, we simply decided to go against traffic and head back out of that town the way we came in. I remember that the kids playing in that one way street were disappointedly muttering... "But you can't go THAT way...".
