Arrivederci Italia

We jumped ship at Brindisi on the East coast of Italy. Al had decided to leave the boat there so we rented a car for the 6 days we had left before our flight back to the States. We decided to head for Catanzaro in the far South of the country and make our way to Rome from there. At the outset, I should say that driving in Italy is a unique experience. I have driven many places all over the world. Nowhere does anything come close. Italians are either the best drivers in the world or they are the worst. I’m sure they all put themselves in the former category, but there is considerable room for doubt. While many buildings could use a fresh coat of paint, the government wastes money on paint for lane dividers on the roads. Traffic signs are open to interpretation, “Yield” means give way if you can’t manage to nose your way into the traffic. “Stop” means . . . well I’m not sure that “Stop” means anything. It seems that every driver thinks he is competing in the Grand Prix. You can be traveling along at 85 miles an hour and someone will pass you like you were standing still---inches from your car. Our route took us through some interesting towns. First, there was Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Clustered in the central part of town is a collection of circular dwellings topped with conical, stone roofs--trulli.

You almost expect to see Hobbits in the doorways. Outside of town, similar structures are scattered about the countryside. Our next stop was Matera. Again, the attraction was architecture. For millennia, humans have carved out shelters in the soft stone that makes up the cliff above a small stream. The earliest humans simply dug out hollows in the rock. Later inhabitants elaborated on the caves by building façades to enclose the opening. Looking at the cliff from afar, it simply looks like a collection of small, boxy structures.

Behind each of the boxes is a cave dug out of solid rock. People lived in the caves until the 1950s when they were forcibly removed by the government. Disease, particularly malaria, was rampant in the very unhygienic environment. Then, in the 90s, a rehabilitation was undertaken, and a revival was under way,

The site is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and many of the caves (Sassi) have been modernized and turned into bed and breakfast rooms and modern dwellings. Naturally, many of them are now shops selling high end merchandise and low end souvenirs.

While we were in Matera, Claudia struck up a conversation with a young man who was a tour guide. He asked where we were headed next. The surprised look on his face was unparalleled when she replied, “Catanzaro.” “Why?” he asked, “There’s nothing there!” He was right, of course, but it’s where my grandfather was born. I’m sure that he would not recognize it today.

The drive to Catanzaro afforded some great views of the countryside. Most of Italy is agricultural and the south is dominated by fields of wheat, grapes, olive groves, vegetable and fruit farms. It is mountainous terrain and the overwhelming size of the mountains makes you feel small. The land lies in great humps that seem to hold the earth in place by their sheer weight.

The tops of the mountains in many places are festooned with wind generators. We saw many wind farms composed of over a hundred wind generators each. Then, in the broad valleys, we saw acres of solar panels.

Further north and on the West coast is the renowned Amalfi coast. The narrow road there is composed of switchbacks that take you on an unending climb to the summit of the mountains that border the sea.

So, the time came to bid arrivederci to Italy. Goodbye to markets offering incredible selections of the freshest fruits and vegetables. Goodbye to shops where you can take your empty wine bottles for refills (a liter for $2!). Goodbye to narrow streets shared equally between pedestrians, scooters and cars. Good bye to volcanoes and Roman ruins.