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| The road from Lapio - reminiscent of the Yellow Brick Rd! |
We left Piedemonte travelling fast on motorways to rendezvous with the Petrillos in Montemilleto. We planned a 3 stage drive down trip with a free day in each area.
First up was a small river camp (yet to see the river) in a heavy transport corridored valley, south of Bologna. Bologna had been described to us as being worth a visit, so
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| Lovely Portico's in Bologna |
we caught the the train in and spent the day mooching around. It is a university city sporting up to a 100,000 students but mostly on summer vacation while we were there, so the place had a feeling of being a bit empty with many shops bars and cafes also on break. The students like many students world wide have a bit to say and sadly the graffiti was rife, the city fathers oblivious of the need to keep on top of it. It left us not wanting more and happy to be returning to our little riverside camp with swimming pool to spend a pleasant evening, though coming back found a van on our site and plugged into MY power lead as his was too short. His rego suggested to me it wasn't cricket as we had won the war, as I unplugged him and we decamped to another spot. Best not mention it I suppose.!!!!! The War that is........
Our next stop Piediluco
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| Piediluco across the lake |
The scenic Lake Piediluco and small village is home of the Italian National Rowing Team, busy with rowers this time of year. We managed a bike ride to the other side of the lake and followed a canal to the top of large waterfall. Romans drained this area with
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| Lovely passageways of Piediluco |
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| Mouching in the main street of Piediluco |
large canals to reduce malaria and simply tipped the water over a cliff. It caused consternation downstream for some centuries afterwards, the Popes getting involved (this was their turf) and digging other canals to mitigate the effects. The canals & falls only turned out to be the highest multi drop falls in Europe, a major tourist attraction. We visited the top as it was a long way down and expensive to enter the Park to boot. The falls are turned on and off as water levels allow, as it now also drives hydro power. From the top a lovely vista and pleasant place to visit. At the bottom undoubtedly awesome and very wet, many people being conspicuous in their yellow 1$ ponchos.
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| Vista from the top of the Falls |
We knew we were getting down south and away from some of the tourist traps as we ordered beers at a picturesque cafe on the Piediluco waterfront and it arrived with a bowl of olives, a bowl of nuts and two bowls of crisps. We ordered more beers and waived the offered new nibbles and after an amicable hour settled the acct. at 8 Euro.
Interestingly at the very quiet camp akin to any at home (but no kitchen{never a kitchen}) an English couple came across introducing themselves as English speaking,.... should we be in need to speak to some one, reasonably rare off the beaten track. We spent an amiable 20 mins in conversation which admittedly is often welcome.
And thus on to Montemilleto, arriving on the auspicious day of the villages patron Saint Gaetano.
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| Street lights of Montemiletto - Saints Day |
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| Villagers party on with The Saint safely tucked up |
We hardly got out of the van when we were swept along in the village procession with the priest, mayor, hangers on and the big statue of St.Gaetano complete with stops for incantations, thunderous fireworks, all accompanied by the village brass band. Getting to the square Rico tried to extradite us from the procession and led us round the front of the official party only to be trapped right in the circle of honour as the fireworks started corralling us for 20 mins or so. Wow, what a display, and sooooo close we were covered in soot and ash, lost another 30% of precious hearing, our eyesight compromised and suffering severe shell shock. Holy Hell on earth. But wait theres more.....then the monsignor & mayor gave us the nod and off we went to the church to put the well travelled saint down for the night before heading back to the square for a concert and sideshows etc. It was an eventful evening, one we won't forget for a while, a scene being played out at every little village through out Italy every other night somewhere. Great atmosphere with it being so family orientated - babies through to very elderly all out till after 11pm (or later but that was late enough for us)
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| Luna & Caio a year older, but just as cute |
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| Dinner with the Petrillo Whanau |
Of course every village has cause for many celebrations through out the year, though these are the main ones for summer you're never far from a celebration here, always with a religious overtone and always with amazing fireworks all day, anytime of day. These explosions will often start as early as 8 in the morning, sounding much like bomb strike or hail canon and go off randomly all day. There will be a reason, culminating in a huge display as late as 1am in the morning. We have woken to what we thought was a full scale war on our first encounter here last year, quite frightening initially, and remember all the nearby villages are doing there own thing as well. The expense will be considerable , no money for footpaths or weed control though.
R&A stayed 3 days with us then left us to wend their way home to Switzerland as their summer holidays were coming to an end. We stayed on for a few more days, it being peak time of the holiday season, a very busy time of year to travel. The Italians are great local tourists and throng to the beaches over a very defined 3 week period. By all accounts however times are not good and there are still vacancies found and inland locations are feeling the pinch.. not being overly busy at all.
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| Monte Fusco up another hill ..... |
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Community well - once a busy place of
gossip & doing the laundry |
A day excursion was had to Campagna, a pretty mountain village that has a month long water festival," A Chiena" where they divert the river thru the town streets and have huge water fights.This brings in thousands of people for a wet and wild time, undoubtedly reinvigorating the village. It was a lot of fun, though we kept well clear of the action.
Also got on our bikes for a couple of rides to nearby villages, one a pleasant 3 hours return the other a 5 hour marathon though still enjoyable, in very hot conditions and amazingly with only a single stop for beers. Monte Fusco & Lapio being the recipients of our August visit, not on the tourist routes but pleasant real small villages perched on hill tops with many churches and few shops often relying on weekly markets and travelling fruiterers, fish mongers etc. Indeed difficult to find a comfy cafe(for us) as these villages often have nothing more than what can be termed someones front room with a few chairs in & out on the narrow street and generally a group of old men playing about 10km from home. The little
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| Campagna - a quiet stream |
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| Campagna in full flow with water & buckets |
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| The river returned to normal, things drying out |
private park with basic facilities, shade and a small pond 15m across with about 15 kids fishing and occasionally pulling in 50mm-- 75mm spotties or some such to much excitement. The sad thing was that many were immediately skewered or thrown
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| Petrillo's and friends |
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Bill trying to untangle tackle & talk to the boys
His Italian limited as was their English |
straight onto the BBQ but only cos.....? none were eaten or even edible.. Probably a life lesson to be learnt lost there, a bit difficult for me to give much of a lecture, but I was a itchin.......
We spent a pleasant afternoon with this friendly bunch of people ,feeling most welcome, communication very limited though not for lack of trying, sampling several family produced wines, mostly red and chilled, and other typical Italian dishes. We felt like our grandparents must of, the oldest in this group benignly sitting in our camp chairs, smiling, not really knowing what was going on, but enjoying the family interactions, the boisterous Italian children and the warmth of families enjoying a day together.
