"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

Tuesday, July 10, 2001: Campeggios Everywhere! Nicotera to Lamezia Terme, Italy - 96km

Frank here...

Today started with a very, very tough climb of about seven kilometers. I asked the camp owner about the road to take to go towards Salerno. As he was suggesting a route, I overheard a nearby friend of his said, “You are going to kill him.”

I wasn’t concerned because I felt confident of my hill climbing prowess. I have had very formidable climbs so I thought that nothing would be too tough for me. Well it was probably the toughest climb of the trip. I think some of the difficulty stemmed from my incorrect assumption that the climb was only going to be three or four kilometers. The first climb, which took me into the town of Nicotera, was one of the steepest that I have encountered on this entire trip. The blazing sun did not help, but a German tourist was very helpful in his overly enthusiastic encouragement to me. Thank you for the boost.

The ride began on the south side of the Promontorio di Tropea (Tropean Protrucion). This is the section of Calabria that looks like a bunion of a foot on a map of Italy. It is funny, when Italians want to describe to me where they live, they often show me the bottom of their leg from the knee to the toe and point to where they live.

The rest of the day saw many climbs of over 4 km and like the day before, the last 25 km or so were nice and flat. I saw more agricultural land than my first day on the mainland, and I also saw signs to hundreds of campsites both north and south of the town of Tropea. I was used to seeing signs pointing to three or four places at many intersections on my trip so far in Italy, but today I would see signs pointing to over 30 places! Tropea which still has many 16th and 17th century family homes was teaming with tourists. I would not like to be there in early August which is the middle of heavy tourist season.

A pasta lunch stop in the small town of Parghela was a good energy boost. I was feeling tired after only about 35 kilometers. The heat can drain one’s energy very quickly. The view back to Tropea from Parghela was astounding with the cliff and building seeming to be one unit.

After passing another intriguing town called Pizzo, I met my first cycle tourist in Italy. His name was Vince from England who has been travelling for about one year. He was headed in Tad’s direction, so I was going to be sure that Tad know about him. Pizzo is historically known to be where Napoleon's ill-fated brother-in-law Joachim Murat was imprisoned and died in 1815.

After a bit of confusion and asking of directions, I finally found the campsite of Ulisse where, after a refreshing swim, I was swarmed by a bunch of nice kids asking many questions of my trip. Like many of the other campsites, this one had a juke box and a type of line dancing. I bought some tuna and bread (that the campowners drove to buy for me) and ate it with the fresh tomatoes that I bought earlier and chatted as I had my cold dinner and as I watched the dancing.

-People only drive slowly when you are in a hurry.

-Frank Pollari

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