Sorrento to Sicily - the dash

29/10

Another thundering storm played us its music through the night.  Ahhh, so cozy inside.  Scared of the narrow roads & heavy traffic, we woke at 0630 for our ride and took a route out over the tip of the peninsula, west of Sorrento toward Capri.  Not as aerobically taxing, we stopped on the fake grass patio of a large hotel out of the wind for a moment and beefed it up with planks and sit ups.  Back on the bikes, we took a magnificent ride along the quiet country streets towards Capri, now golden in the morning sun.  Our wheels crunched through dropped olives, pine cones & chestnuts shaken down by the heavy winds and our butts were splashed to soaking as we sped through large puddles to beat the scooter or car around the tight corner.  On the ride back, we shared the strada stretto with the morning traffic including chugging school buses and so joyfully rounded the corner home to Ed and our darlings. 

Breakfast, school, Ed clean up & empty out and we were off back toward Vesuvius’ cone with the lava of Naples spilling down it’s sides and then SE towards Sicily.

Bye Bye Vesuvius

We drove 382 kms easily, past the port of Salerno, stopping for lunch and coffees on the way and listening to music, reading, ‘IT” time, chatting and noticed the ever-present spine of mountains alongside us to be dusted with fresh snow heralding in the next season. 

Salerno

another cracked egg town

100% cropped

By about 1900, it was dark (day light saving started yesterday) and the rain on the unlit, always-under-construction highways was making the driving really tiring.  So, taking our chances with impossible noise all through the night, we pulled up in a servicio alongside the roaring highway, under a giant gum tree.  In no time we were boxed in by trucks but surprisingly, we had one of the quietest, calmest sleeps in weeks.

Wil’s favourite part - waking up with hail on the roof & snuggling in for a read knowing I was safe & dry inside

Kel’s favourite part - watching Wil draw a troglodyte and Mum tying a sock onto Savannah’s head.  All the BKs then were dressed in socks!

Jeff - the morning bike ride and seeing the Isle of Capri & a totally different take on the Amalfi Coast

Jen - same as Jeff.  Doing it despite the cold, rain and traffic. 

30/10 SICILY

Up with the truckies pulling out, we had a quick breakfast and drove on South stopping on the way for a big grocery shop and then the obligatory trip to Decathlon for a skate and some new clothing.  The kids smashed out their second last maths tests and Kel also did an English literacy Naplan.  Jen arrived back at Ed with the goods and the kids were beaming having completed their exams well.  A further short (<2 hrs) drive into the dark southern tip revealed some magnificent coastline,

view across to Sicily

Then to the ferry from Villa San Giovanni where a 20 minute trip had us in Messina - a very different country indeed. 

Maybe once this part of Sicily was grand but now it is dry, eroded, over-farmed, polluted and clearly struggling.  Road rules seem similar to Naples - a solid double line down the middle of the road seems to mean that scooters can travel 1.5 m either side of it in any direction they choose!

A down & out druggie looking chick in her early 20’s draped on the toll booth machine, handed us the bigliette asking us in exchange for soldi.  Masses of run down block-like ghettos squeeze into dry river beds with swarms of giraffe like TV antennae marking their presence.  But overcast as the day was when we rounded the hill to see the marvellous Mt Etna all was forgiven.  A taste of great things to come.

Mt Etna

We’d set TomTom for Taormina, a really pretty little coastal/hilltop oasis full of chic shops and lovely views but no sostas or campsites, and the road through the middle had washed into the sea so had to make a giant detour.  Giovanni (our friend from Roma, PleinAir) had given us an RV camping booklet that led us to an agritourismo ~7 kms further on in the thick of suburbia where we found another Giovanni tending his citrus crop, his 3 yr old Angelina and his younger Romanian wife.  He offered us a park beneath the lemons and his homey facilities for a small fee.  We flopped about gathering ourselves over a coffee and doing more detailed research on Mt Etna and our Sicilian plans.  We perceive a stronger level of planning is needed with petty theft and a very hard pressed economy & thus unpredictable tourist infrastructure.  Besides which, I think we’re slowly running out of puff given home is around the corner….

With dark coming earlier and cold closing in, we snuggled into Ed and our books.  Kel drew some amazing dreamy pictures inspired by Meloniski from the Amalfi Coast.  Jen popped up to the house to ask about the route & roads to Etna and was met with the famed Sicilian hospitality having had a bitters & mandarin, discussed politics, where to get gelati brioche, the future of education in Sicily, how to grow lemons and the trouble with tourism and the Mafia.  With only 2 rooms total, the centre piece of the welcoming family room reminded Jen of Ed - a small table spread with a Moroccan rug, all its corners given over to something different; sewing, kid’s colouring in, bills and the piles of dinner plates ready.  The oven oozed the aromas of fish baked with chestnuts and the 3 yr old sat in front of an LCD screen bigger than the table as the adults found communication with fragments of Italian, German & English.  She returned full of smiles and carrying a bag of produce.