7 May

I woke with the alarm at 8. Although breakfast was on from 8, there was no point in getting up too early as I needed to catch up with some sleep from yesterday, nothing opens too early and the main point of the day (catching up with Connie) couldn’t happen until after midday.
I was prepared and down by not long after 8:30. I asked for tea and got the dinkiest cup, teapot and milk jug you have ever seen. It gave, in total, around 150 ml of drink. This was supplemented by a fruit tea cake, very nice, but not my real choice in the morning. There were also some real biscuits, though small in size.
After breakfast I took a walk to find the Tourist Information Centre. After nearly an hour I had no luck, despite following the walking directions from the SatNav. I returned to the hotel, packed up and checked out. Then I scouted to find where the airport was – I was going to meet Connie there about 12:30. To my surprise I hadn’t even cleared the inner suburbs when I was at the airport – it was a stone’s throw from the city centre. Buoyed up with confidence, I set the SatNav to find the Tourist Information Centre, but after an interesting drive through Reggio di Calabria, I still couldn’t find it even when I was supposed to be right in front of it. I headed back to the airport, after taking a little stroll along part of the beach, and circled the airport, couldn’t find Connie so rang her. She said she was on her way and suddenly I saw her walking across the road in front of me! We met, then drove back into the city centre and looked for a parking spot. That was interesting as we found a spot easily enough, but you have to purchase the parking tickets from agents who walk along the street, or from shops nearby. We couldn’t find an agent and Connie couldn’t find a shop with tickets. We moved on in the car and eventually found a small space (but large enough) in front of a car showroom. Then we walked around a little until Connie settled on vianvaneto as the restaurant where we could have lunch.
In there we had to wait a few minutes for a table, then had a dish which was rice and ham with lettuce and vegetables (so, Fran, I have had some vegies). It was very filling and took quite a time to eat, as we were catching up on Niddrie staff at the same time. By the time we finished it was well after three, so we went to the local museum. There they had a very complete display on early man at a settlement (Loric) near Connie’s home. It covered buildings, pottery, jewellery and two statues recovered from the ocean floor. There was a school group going through the display too, so again it almost felt like work (but I resisted the temptation to tell the gum-chewers off).
Then we walked down to the beachfront. The area has a large promenade, which we walked along with large ice-creams (to be technically correct, we walked along eating the large ice-creams; they weren’t just keeping us company). It appeared like a film crew was filming in the amphitheatre area there, so after getting a few photos we returned to the car.
Here is where it got interesting. In Reggio di Calabria, like Turin, people literally park anywhere and everywhere. If you look at the photos, you will see cars parked at corners and even on the corner (and that is a feat in itself). Double parking doesn’t even figure in the possibilities of bad parking as it is so common, so I was unsurprised to find someone double-parked behind the car. Using the basis of education that everything you learn will come in handy one day, I remembered Barry’s words in Almeria – when they double park, just hold your hand on the horn and they will appear. I did, and they did, which surprised Connie. After getting out, it was then about twenty minutes to driver her back to her flat (it really would have been quicker walking). Just before she got out, I said I had programmed Brancaleone in as my first destination, as it looked to be far enough out of town to be a little less crowded and held the possibility of having a place to stay. Connie was surprised as it was her home town and she knew there was a B&B there. Buoyed up with confidence again, I said goodbye and headed off. I went to fill the car with diesel and got another “helpful assistant” who put the hose out at the first click an the gauge barely hit the full mark, where I am used to it going beyond. So although I can work out consumption figures, they won’t be accurate until I can fill the tank up properly.
I headed out and had a good run to Brancaleone, discounting the people who overtook me at about 100 km/hr in a 50 zone and the one who overtook over double lines because there was a turn lane ahead, nearly ran up the back of the car turning in that lane (who was stopped for oncoming traffic), flashed his lights and tooted his horn for that car to get out of his way and then braked heavily and forced the car on his right to go into the grass (fortunately there was no guard rail there) and then disappeared at about 140.
I got to Brancaleone and couldn’t obviously see a B&B. I cruised up and back, then up again to see a sign staring me in the face. I don’t know if it was the one Connie meant, but I eventually found it and then eventually got in. The owner (a teacher who works in a family bar as well) and her husband made the room up, we chatted briefly (her parents live somewhere in Queensland) and the returned. I settled in to my suite, with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and balcony. The Mediterranean is a stone’s throw (I tested!) and for €30 including breakfast at the bar tomorrow morning, it’s a great place (Via Lungomare, which is the beachfront street, and you can’t miss it if you look).
I processed the photos, wrote this blog, completed yesterday’s and went to sleep with the genle sound of the Mediterranean waves lapping the beach.