Meratea

Meratea is a 40 km coast of Basilicata which is north of Calabria. 

There are at least 5 beaches with hotels and restaurants 

The tyrhennian sea. The clearest water I've ever seen 

A good place 

Agriturismo

We are in Torre di Ruggiero moving up the toe toward the heel. This Agriturismo seems to be an event facility 

Yesterday they had a huge event celebrating three first communions

They had a DJ and singers. 

Really big event  Very sketchey Wifi here 

Tropea

We stopped for lunch on the way up the coast in this beach town. Nice lunch. 

Tropea is famous for their sweet red onions. 

I am ordering broiled fish every where I go. 

This is the pool at our new Agriturismo. We got so lost. We are lost in the wilds of the toe of the boot. Help!

Scilla

So this is Scilla. Very beautiful beach and water. 

Around the rock in Charybdis. 

No people. Beautiful beach. Incredible. 

This blogger has become very difficult. It won't let me edit. Please forgive the mistakes. 

Reggio

So this guy was waiting for the ferry with us. 

This guy was waiting for the ferry with us. 

And then the next day we saw these guys at the museum. These guys are the Riace bronzes found in 1972 by a diver. 

They are dated at 450 BC. Incredible metal work. The only reason they were saved was because they were hidden under the sea. 

This is an example of a building in the Arab tradition. 

A monument at the sea. That is Sicily in the background. 

This is their promenade. It is quite long. 

Taormina II

This is the view from our place. 

This is Ernesto. He and his cousin run this place. He's an Econ major. He tells me they have a 30 year mortgage. 

We left our car parked and took the Hop on Hop Off bus. 

This is Bella Isola a private island once owned by rich people but now owned by the government. 

Here we are having lunch where The Godfather was filmed. Also a famous restaurant. 

This is the church in the movie where he married the Sicilian girl. 

It is very beautiful here. Caio. 

Taormina

This place has been on the Grand Tour since it began. Oscar Wilde and Andre Gide hung out here. 

The problem is the steepness. There are 3 sets of these leading to our place. No elevator. Nothing. 

This is their Greek theater. 

This is the proscenium. Pretty cool. 

I'm showing you steepness here. 

From what I can tell, there's not a lot of green space here. 

And I must mention that it's a complete screw job.  Mitch only spent a few hours here. We're spending 3 nights. 

Ortygia

This is our friend and factotum Antonio. He was like Figaro to me. Figaro where to get my nails done. Where is the bus

And he spoke great English!

This is the hotel where we had dinner. It's a 5 star and the name is Les Etrangeres. 

We ate on the roof (5 stories) and this was the view 

We are all still alive. 

Noto

UThere are 5 hill cities south and west of Siracusa This is a war memorial to WWI

Noto is the first one.  This is arguably Sicily s most beautiful street Corso Vittorio Emanuele

It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1698. So it's new!

They rebuilt it 

Absolutely no one speaks English. And when you translate the menu to English it makes no sense 

It's a walking street. No cars. The triumph of our day was that we found it!

Very little green space on this street