We woke up today to find that Stromboli had disappeared. We thought that it might have sunk but decided that, being camped at sea level, we would have been obliterated by the resulting tsunami. This reminded us of a similar situation when we were last on the Greek island of Santorini, thought to be one of the possible locations for Atlantis. In the description of Atlantis it is mentioned that islands appear and disappear. This was certainly the case on Santorini. There are a number of islands quite close to Santorini and one day they would be so clear that you felt that you could reach out and touch them. The next day, they simply weren't there and this was not because there was a bank of fog in the way. There was obviously some haze obscuring them but you couldn't detect it. If you had seen that view for the first time, you would swear that there were no islands there. It was like that with Stromboli today – we knew exactly where it should be but staring really hard, we could not discern any sign of it. As Jane would say “very spookie!”. It made us realise how difficult ancient sea navigation must have been, they could have sailed within a few miles of an island and simply not seen it. And then there were the storms and sudden squalls like those caused by the electrical storms that we had again last evening.
Late morning we walked up to the town and wandered aimlessly around it. The town is in a wonderful position and has some really interesting buildings but they are sadly neglected. Southern Italy is very poor and reports of organised crime do not encourage businesses to invest or people to move to the area. Previously beautiful houses have fallen into decay and people seem to take little pride in the appearance of their houses or their towns. This does not only apply to the very southern part of Italy, in Rome, Pompeii and Erculano (Herculaneum) the vandalism was terrible. Whole Metro trains were absolutely covered, inside and out, in graffiti to the point that you couldn't see out of the windows. Every unmanned Metro station was covered and even the manned ones were not spared. In streets and especially alleyways buildings were sprayed even in some cases private houses. And the rubbish is strewn everywhere with fly-tipping evident whenever you look over walls or in derelict buildings (of which there are many). Naples, with its much reported rubbish collection crisis was a total disaster area when we came through the suburbs. Piles of uncollected rubbish lay everywhere and there was a great deal of evidence of fires where desperate people had burned the piles rather than attract a plague of rats. It is such a shame to see such an intrinsically beautiful country looking so scruffy. End of rant!
Despite all of that, we really like Tropea and we have never seen such a concentration of very reasonably priced restaurants and pizzerias. We had pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven at lunchtime and they were excellent. The lady in the Tourist Information Office was extremely helpful and enthusiastic and directed us to a local Internet point, so we were able to get the blog and emails up to date. We are now heading off into more rural areas so Internet access may be a little more difficult for a few days.
Photos: The campsite at Tropea with the former island of Isola behind. The magnificent building on Isola is actually in a very poor state of repair; An example of Tropea faded elegance. This house with its internal courtyard, double staircases and covered porticoes (now topped with a corrugated iron roof) must have been beautiful in the past. The outside of the building was in a poor state although it was still in use as a number of private homes.
Late morning we walked up to the town and wandered aimlessly around it. The town is in a wonderful position and has some really interesting buildings but they are sadly neglected. Southern Italy is very poor and reports of organised crime do not encourage businesses to invest or people to move to the area. Previously beautiful houses have fallen into decay and people seem to take little pride in the appearance of their houses or their towns. This does not only apply to the very southern part of Italy, in Rome, Pompeii and Erculano (Herculaneum) the vandalism was terrible. Whole Metro trains were absolutely covered, inside and out, in graffiti to the point that you couldn't see out of the windows. Every unmanned Metro station was covered and even the manned ones were not spared. In streets and especially alleyways buildings were sprayed even in some cases private houses. And the rubbish is strewn everywhere with fly-tipping evident whenever you look over walls or in derelict buildings (of which there are many). Naples, with its much reported rubbish collection crisis was a total disaster area when we came through the suburbs. Piles of uncollected rubbish lay everywhere and there was a great deal of evidence of fires where desperate people had burned the piles rather than attract a plague of rats. It is such a shame to see such an intrinsically beautiful country looking so scruffy. End of rant!
Despite all of that, we really like Tropea and we have never seen such a concentration of very reasonably priced restaurants and pizzerias. We had pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven at lunchtime and they were excellent. The lady in the Tourist Information Office was extremely helpful and enthusiastic and directed us to a local Internet point, so we were able to get the blog and emails up to date. We are now heading off into more rural areas so Internet access may be a little more difficult for a few days.
Photos: The campsite at Tropea with the former island of Isola behind. The magnificent building on Isola is actually in a very poor state of repair; An example of Tropea faded elegance. This house with its internal courtyard, double staircases and covered porticoes (now topped with a corrugated iron roof) must have been beautiful in the past. The outside of the building was in a poor state although it was still in use as a number of private homes.
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