Fireworks, friends, beaches & thunderstorms.

Mattinata Beach at our camp.
And this was the quiet season 

We headed back to Montemiletto unexpectedly, having sustained some minor panel damage (perhaps the day we left M), and as Mario (Rico's cousin) is a panel beater\painter it was thought expedient to engage his services now, while timing was

One of the many mortar explosions during the 3 hour seige

still loose, rather than later in the UK. This was also convenient as his workshop is directly under the apartment of Rico's that we use. Easy Easy.The hard part was to get Mario to take payment, but we worked hard to make it happen. I was also able to help paint their twin boys bedroom, so we all got a good deal.
Another week in Montemiletto was not a hardship, the fireworks were still going strong everyday at surrounding villages, there are possibly 10 villages within a 10 km radius, almost running into each other, all having their own Saintly celebrations. The money spent on fireworks must be phenomenal!!!! Mario, Carmelina, and boys took us on a Thursday night at 8:30 for a roadside BBQ in a good viewing spot for Montefalcione's display. It was an experience in that we set up a table and BBQ  on the road side (no curb or footpaths here) with a dozen friends and proceeded to have a late (by our standards) meal then await the display. Dinner was over by 10 and the display reputedly starting at 9:30 but all quiet except for the stream of cars and people  up and down the hill, food stalls etc everywhere on the roadsides, kids everywhere.

A dug out dwelling in Daunian Necropolis

Bill looking gravely into burial cavities 

Then 11.30 it went off, amazing! And we've seen a few now, 20 minutes of stunning, body slamming, eye popping, mega display. Some of our group took it calmly, not even taking up position to watch, then when it was over, no one moved??? Turns out this was the first one of 4 competing displays...... 30 mins later round 2 started and so it went on. Getting home at 2AM.... Talk about being body slammed, we were shattered, deafened, blinded, traumatised. How do the kids manage it, let alone the local animals. It is something else. Carmelina asked us, after we said it was probably the most sustained fireworks we had ever seen, how the "Catolics" celebrated their village saint days in NZ. We were nonplussed. Indeed how do they???. One thing for sure, nothing like this at all !!!!!!
Whilst there on our last night Rico's mother and sister, Bernadette and Sandra, turned up  from Switzerland, for a wedding of a relative. Was good to once more catch up. Always a big affair these Italian weddings taking many days of bride and groom events, nothing as crass as a hen or stag night as we are familiar with. Big family events with open doors at both families houses over the week leading up to the wedding. The couple are shifting into a renovated part of the grooms family home, so son still living under the same roof and bride only shifting across the valley a km away, indeed can still see Mum & Dads house. This is still very normal in the small villages of Italy. It is good that this lifestyle is still attainable in this day and age.

Vieste Old Town

Sea cliffs of Vieste

Vieste Church out on the point

This mechanism keeps property in family hands for countless generations though can cause some confusion down the years as to who owns what? On occasion some one will sell out their part to relative strangers, or parts will be inherited by in laws etc causing much fragmentation of family holdings. There seems to be an awful lot of old housing stock in ruins, and as much partially renovated. Much seems to be renovated but unused, if as a holiday home?? I understand that property is not often moved out of family control so can stay empty for a generation or two, till family fortunes change, and or the families heritage is once again taken up.
The weather has produced huge rolling thunderstorms for 3 consecutive afternoons, They roll around the district sometimes hardly affecting your own locale, often staying hot and sunny, torrential rain a few kms away or perhaps torrential rain at your place. The thunder may last for two hours or more.We have witnessed these storms in several places during our tripping. Always awesome!!! Once more leaving Montemiletto  we crossed Italy to the Adriatic side in search of... well warm water, sun and more chilling.
We are meandering up this coast known for its nice beaches, and good facilities to cater for the crowds, IE lots of lidos, camping and apartments. What we find so amazing is the amount of infrastructure in place that is used for 2, sometimes 3 months and over that time is truly only busy for four weeks over the Italian holiday

Night times the right tme in Italy, every place
comes alive

The seaside fishing village of Peschiera

break when the country does stop for the month of August. We would think that staging the holiday season would work better for the country, the schools are off for the 3 months as are the universities, them supplying many of the staff for the holiday resorts. As we know from last year the shoulder season leaves the areas deserted with only a few foreign tourists taking advantage of the heavily discounted accommodation and meals whilst the beach peddlers and stores are trying to desperately rid themselves of stock. Then the lido are stripped from the beaches and all that is left in these towns are the few residents, truly turning into ghost towns. The cycle kicking off again the following summer.
The Daunians were some of the original inhabitants, about 9C BC on this part of the coast, with little known about them leaving only graves hewn out of the rock in a few places. They predate the Romans and Greeks, only really known from the Greek writings, and some pottery shards. Not much to be said about them except we visited a necropolis, simply an area with many burial holes on top of a hill overlooking the coast. The holes then turned into cisterns with channels cut to collect water for subsequent dwellers who enlargened some of the dugouts and lived there trying to eke a living from the desolate hill top. Interesting but light on detail for the consumer. The timeline of how all the mediteranean cultures overlapped is intriguing, and detailed, and a little beyond what I'm able to keep track off. Still I can't ignore looking into these graves and wondering!!

Trabocchi (Fishing machines) dotted all along this coast

Walked a long beach, an isthmus, with a large lagoon supporting a large mussell industry. Was sad to report the beach was awash with thousands of plastic stockings used to culture the mussells.

Where is everyone??
Broken chair is a sign someone was!

These long beaches are now deserted,
All the chairs & umbrella's will get packed away.

That and the habit of beach users to discard there rubbish as they leave, including all the broken beach chairs umbrellas and toys, despite the many signs extorting people to be tidy. This has been dissapointing and oft repeated.
The weather has stayed indifferent now for the week as we continue north with an amazing lightning storm at sea, thunder following, for many hours, finally fining up only to followed by another electrical storm during the night. Looking at our options it might be an idea to zag back to the otherside of the Italian isthmus and chase up better weather.
Time will tell.

Roadside stalls very colourful

Scenic fishing boats on the lagoon

Local fishing the river mouth!

Italian Summer Holidays

Marina di Camerota

From Montemiletto we headed south, not far down the coast to a town called Paestum. An area we chanced on in some reading, the Greek Ruins attracting my attention. It turns out these are the best Greek Ruins outside of Greece and as the photos show simply astounding.

One of the Greek Temples

In an Exhibition that was on in the Museum
Items on display that had been retrieved from Looters

Bill giving some size perspective of these temples

Paestum Archaeological Park

We found a Camper park 200 m from the Archaeological Park and staying 2 nights here were able to spend the whole day in the museum and amongst the ruins. The ruins are really accessible with little restriction on movements or access with only one of the large temples out of bounds as its high gable end after 2400 years has weathered, and may not be as sound as other parts. Paestums history is impressive. From the Greek Builders at 400bc and then changing hands to the Romans, the Italians and then being deserted as it was not a healthy place to live (malaria). Well worth the time and with the museum, gave great insight to the historic machinations of clashing powers & cultures over the millenniums. Also of interest is how often neolithic remains are found down deep, signalling the spread of man and the desirability of these areas as a place to habitate, albeit with in this case its incipient malaria, now gone we hope.

One of the many beaches on the coast,
the umbrellas marking the different Lido's.
Ten Euro for the day gets 2 chairs & an umbrella

The coastline we followed down,
the road is about a third of the way up the hillside

We wended on south to a bump on Italia's west  coast to the little old fishing port of Marina di Camerota. A quietly popular Italian beach area, with little in the way of flashy resorts. This may come and indeed some may be tucked round the corner, but presently is populated by many many camping Italian's and 2 Kiwis. There are few foreigners here (from rego plates) but as the short holiday season (the month of August) tapers off, we would expect to see a steady stream of Northern Europeans coming in with their camper vans.
The lido's crowd the beaches but our camp was perched above a small deeply shelving beach with limited access, so tho boasting 3 lidos (not as busy as they would like) has plenty of room for us and more. We have been rising and going directly for a dip, the beach being 10mins  down the track. The water crystal clear. Returning for a cold shower and starting our day. This consists of a 40 min walk to town, find a cheaper bar than yesterday, pick up a pepper & zucchini, walk home, spend 3 hours on the beach till the sun is gone, go up to the camp, have a shower, have tea, worry about how hot the night will be! The weather is stunning with temps. in the mid 30s during the day & night, then dropping to the late 20s in the early mornings, our little fan runs all night.

We took a boat trip out from Marina di Camerota
visiting caves along the coast

Bill swimming in the beautiful waters of one of the caves

Another exhausting day!

                 
 





After 6 nights here we followed the coast further down in and out, stunning vistas to be seen at every turn, how they hung roads on these cliff sides defies imagination. The lidos are only running at 25%, but with this many people around, it could be a lot busier.

Our lovely beach just down from the camp

Beautiful sunsets that our camera doesn't do justice

Again sad news with the earthquakes, a long way away but still shocking. Got the news from NZ first, as usual, but the BBC internet covering it. We have not visited this village but were in the areas this time last year. This is a big timeline story......... The destruction is no surprise, there are hundreds of old & medieval villages built on rock hillsides that stay intact only by virtue of the house next door,like dominoes. They can't practically be strengthened and will succumb if a big earthquake strikes nearby. This will continue to happen as the scale of any preventive measures is overwhelming, however it will take many more centuries to claim them all, and they aren't all on a plate boundary. It will happen again.... and again.......
We left the coast for a few days to visit Matera, one of the oldest cities in the world. The ancient city known then as Sassi first inhabited by stone age Neolithic man in limestone caves in the river gorge. Occupation of the caves in one form or another has gone on for several thousands of years.

The ancient town of Sassi looking over the gorge
where inhabitants has lived for over 7,000 years in the caves

That was until 1952 when the Italian government was so ashamed to still have cave dwellers that they forcibly rehoused the 15,000 residence, which took till 1968 as many were quite comfortable thank you. Now of course, less than  70 years later, they are trying to rebuild and get people back in as it is now a UNESCO Heritage Site,

Inside an original "home", complete with Ass!

A vacated "home" now abandoned

The section of Sassi to be kept in it's original state

a cultural wonder and draws huge tourist crowds & Euros. We engaged an English speaking guide on the morning we left, as we had spent the previous day wandering, and there were more questions than answers. She filled in huge detail, all very interesting. Matera would, or maybe is, an anthropologists dream with the succession of cave dwellers from prehistory into modern times. The inhabitants were understandably suspicious, reluctant to move, and had little comprehension of the outside world. Believing their life was very very  normal. In 1948, no electricity, plumbing (the water supply being rain water trapped in cisterns that were dug under their floors) and very little access to any media, a very insular environment.  Infant mortality at 50%, the family of usually 6 children and grandmother shared a closed in cave, with typically a donkey, (more valuable than a child), a pig & chooks, (no dogs or cats). The manure was retained in the cave as an organic source of heat, at 40 degrees C.  The smell must have been something else, but very normal.
 Our guide explaining that those people remaining alive today are at a loss to understand why it is a tourist thing, many now feeling deeply ashamed of how normal they thought they were, and finding no redeeming features in their earlier life style. There is a complete loss of connection with the former inhabitants and the newbies who are occupying renovated modern dwellings, ( not easy to plumb up a cave). Some dwellings will be renovated back to original as a testament to the deprivations and hardship endured till very recently in our times.There were many interesting angles & stories from Matera and the people of Sassi, that I will be happy to share on our return.

An amazing experience visiting this ancient town - Sassi (Matera)

As an aside, we have now been away from our Nelson home for two years and our plans will have us back in NZ for Xmas. It will  be good to catch up with people and are starting to get excited about our return. Still however there is more travelling to get us home, stay tuned.

Farewell to my wonderful Mother

Sadly last week (8.30 pm 18th August) my Mum (Pat) passed away, with my brothers and partners at her bedside. Pneumonia got the better of her 94 years and she couldn't fight any longer. We got to say goodbye to each other, but sadly I wasn't there to hug her one last time. But I know she was well loved and has lived an amazing life. As one friend said " she will have left the hand of love and laughter in lots of peoples hearts".
so true.
love you lots Mum
xx

Saints, Fireworks and Italian Summer Holidays

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

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

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

Lovely passageways of Piediluco

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.

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.

Street lights of Montemiletto - Saints Day

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)

Luna & Caio a year older, but just as cute

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.

Monte Fusco up another hill .....

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

Campagna - a quiet stream

Campagna in full flow with water & buckets

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

Petrillo's and friends

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.

Northern Italy- not all beers and skittles

A little cooling off after a hard days work

Our two weeks went very quickly with our generous HelpX hosts, Julie , Peter & daughter Sophie, Smudgy & Tiddles (the stray dog & cat that moved in with them years ago) , in the Piedmont region, Northern Italy.

Our Hosts home in the centre of the picture,
looking out across the vineyards of Peidmont

Beautifully landscaped property

Not all sunbathing & beers!

A beautiful hilly landscape that has the UNESCO protection for it's vineyards and wine production techniques that have been around since 5th century BC. With steep gullys that are well protected from erosion through centuries of careful cultivation, covered mostly in grapes and Hazelnut trees. The chocolate company Ferrero (the worlds largest consumer of hazelnuts) home factory is in nearby Alba, makers of  Ferro Rocher, Nutella & the famous Kinder Surprises. Piedmont is well known as a wine producer of white and red wines second to none, in some opinions, and our hosts had many to try with our meals. We came away with some lovely wine from the neighbour  Brusalino's vineyard, a Chardonnay with just a hint off sparkle which we will get to enjoy over the next few weeks.

A bit of Bull in Turin

We  settled into a routine of work in the morning (usually 3 hrs), a lovely swim to cool off before lunch around 2.00pm, and then a rest period till 5.00pm when it was cool enough to return to work for the last hour before having another much needed swim. My work was gardening, helping Julie in their park like property, just getting on top of weeds from the end of the Spring flush, and trimming back borders. They have a lot of paths criss crossing the property, so initially it took a bit of time sorting where I was and wanted to go (my sense of direction isn't the greatest at the best of times, as Bill will confirm!). So over the days, we would have clocked up quite a few kms.

Peter & Smudgy ready for lunch

Peter & Julie were in the process of putting in an IKEA kitset kitchen, 3/4's completed, so Bill was happy to help Peter install the integrated dishwasher & fridge, and move the oven to it's higher position. Julie enjoys cooking and created many alfresco lunches and dinners for us while we stayed with them, mostly using their fresh produce. Amazing how many dishes one can make with courgettes Julie! All delicious.
Bill also helped Peter in the garden to bring down the height of the trees along the back of the pool & house that were putting shade over the solar panels, reducing the amount of power gain that could have been possible, and with receiving payment for putting power back into the grid, well worth doing.

The Towers of Alba

Looking across the chimneys of Neivey

Initially we worked more than the 4 hours expected daily, to build up hours so we could take a few days off. We had a day in Turino, went in by train from Asti (Yes Asti wines) 20 mins away. Turino is a lovely old town full of portico walkways, so whether it was wet or too hot (as it was on the day we were there) you have protection from the weather.

Also had a day out visiting the small local village of Neive (Navy), a beautifully maintained historic village full of churches of course. From there we went onto another lovely town of Alba, very pleasant to walk around and have a beer & gelato

The face rings a bell!

to help keep the temperature down. City of 100 towers as it was known in medieval times. For defence of course as the town was on the flat and you needed to keep an eye out on your enemy, that is your neighbours and friends!!!!
P&J took us to a weekly market where Julie & I managed to buy the same tops. Pity we won't get a chance to wear them out together till you come out to NZ Julie. We also went out to their local Craft Brewery, which was lovely to experience the local Italian beers.                                              

This is a 400mm Pizza

Very similar industry to NZ's craft brewers. Just as passionate here, and with Julie's history of owning her own Pub's back in England, both Peter & Julie enjoy trying the different brews on offer.

Julie giving a description
of the local brews

We also went out to a "local" (half hour drive) Pizzeria, where we had the most impressive sized pizza's, enough left over for lunches the next day. But Julie's own standard of Pizza's was up there too.
So with lovely local beers, local wines and a bit of Grappa & Sambuca to finish some of the nights off, we were well looked after. We had thought we might loose a little weight while working hard, but think with all the food and drinks, we stayed about the same. Certainly never perspired as much as we did during our stay.
We are now off to central Italy, returning to Montemiletto, where we were a year ago, and catch up with niece Amanda, hubby Rico, and children Luna & Caio for a few days before planning the next stage of our travels.

Art in the Gardens of Turin