Tuesday 10th November 2009 – Condufori Marina, Italy

We drove the short distance up the steep hill to the ancient site of Tindaris but had to park in a huge car park well below. The reason for this is the the site is much more famous in Sicily as the site of the Black Madonna, kept in a huge sanctuary specially built in the 1960's. Large numbers of pilgrims come to pay homage to the statue that originated from the East and is claimed to have performed a number of miracles. Whilst we were there, there were four coaches, include two of school children, and many other individuals were filing in and out of the church.
The large number of children who had just arrived made us decide to look at the archaeological site first. Tindaris was one of the last Greek sites in Sicily, flourishing even in Roman times when they were grant special privileges. Much of the ruins are from the Roman period with a large villa with excellent mosaics. The impressive Basilica stands tall at one end of the site although this was reconstructed in the 1950s. The whole hilltop was occupied, surrounded by impressive defences that, together with the steep slopes, made the city virtually impregnable. Much of the ancient city is covered by modern housing, the ground floor of many of the houses are now tourists shops mostly selling religious souvenirs including incredibly naff copies of the Black Madonna. It is always strange to see modern houses next to and sometimes incorporating the walls of an ancient site.
Returning to the church, we were able to visit it all on our own apart from a novice nun who was cleaning the floor in front of the altar. We were quite impressed by the church – huge mosaics lined the walls showing scenes from Christ's life and the ceiling held a painted scene of a, strangely white, Madonna and Child attended by angels clutching rosary beads.
It was only late morning so we decided to take the motorway to Messina and catch the ferry back to the mainland. This went surprisingly easily - the city traffic wasn't too bad and the ferry was very efficient with no queue at all. We left Sicily covered in black cloud and landed on the mainland in glorious sunshine.
I had found an Agroturismo site in Reggio, one of those where it is free to stay if you have a meal in their restaurant. This was useful because we wanted to go to the museum in the city centre to see its fantastic finds and we couldn't find any campsites close to the city. I put the address into the sat nav and was surprised to find that it was in the centre and close to the museum. We followed the directions into the centre but there was no sign of the restaurant. We found a car park close by and parked up. I asked a parking warden if he knew the restaurant and he identified the picture shown on the restaurants entry as a place just a hundred metres away – easy! Unfortunately there was no sign of the Sant'Anna restaurant, so I walked into another restaurant and asked if they knew where it was. A great discussion followed and it became clear that we were where the picture was taken but the restaurant was somewhere else. We decided to leave Henrietta where she was, go to the museum and ask them or the Tourist Information Office to direct us to Sant'Anna. We walked the couple of hundred metres to the museum that was covered in scaffolding. Finding the entrance to the museum we read the notice that we translated as “The museum remains closed for renovations”. We have encountered such a notice so many times and, of course, there is never any indication as to when it will be re-opening. One thing for sure is that we weren't going to see it on this trip.
With no need to stay in Reggio we headed South going around the toes of Italy's foot, an area that we didn't visit on The Odyssey. The mountainous interior here is know as the Aspro Monte (White Mountain) National Park and looks very pretty but we stuck to the level coast road with the sea on our right and the white mountains on our left.
There are very few places to stay on this stretch but we had found another Agroturismo site in Condufori Marina. It was another restaurant but without the free stay option. It was a curious site in the large garden of the restaurant owners house on the opposite side of the road to the restaurant. It was very basic but did have electricity and would be ideal for a train enthusiast, as the railway line ran along the bottom of the garden. Fortunately the trains don't run at night.
Photos: A 3rd century AD mosaic from a Tindaris villa's baths showing the three-legged symbol of Sicily; The Basilica at Tindaris; The view from the Tindaris Acropolis – perhaps the quarry is where the Tindaris stone came from; The Black Madonna – the non-PC inscription underneath translates as “I am black but beautiful”; Leaving Sicily as the storm clouds gather.