"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

Wednesday and Thursday, July 25/26, 2001: Relax - Agropoli, Italy

Frank here…

These days were quiet and relaxing, except for Teresa's two young children who sometimes had those loud, piercing cries. You know, regular kid stuff. We walked to the castle in Vecchio Agropoli, (Old Agropoli) which was up a long set of gently rising stairs. The view over Trentova Bay is magnificent. Unfortunately the castle was closed so we could not enter. Also at the top of the stairs was a little restaurant that had a wooden horse that was not turned on, but Michelle insisted that she wanted a ride on the horse. Teresa gave in and appeased her by letting her sit on the horse. As we left, Michelle again started crying. This time she was demanding that her little sister Muriam ride the horse. Well, at least Michelle is being fair with her younger sibling. We also checked out the weekly market where a vendor tried to sell me a sport coat. It looked real nice and he kept lowering the price, but he did not seem to hear my story that I was travelling by bicycle.

Maria and I headed for the beach where I had a couple of nice swims to cool off. Maria, the oldest of the Cuono children told me a lot of stories of when they lived in my hometown as youngsters. Unfortunately, I did not remember them from my childhood days. Regardless, it was nice to hear about Fort William of the 1960's. I was born in Fort William which, in 1970 was amalgamated with the adjacent town of Port Arthur to become the greater city of Thunder Bay.

I had a difficult time saying no to "Stay one more day", so after eating lunch late, feeling the heat of the afternoon sun, and having so much intriguing conversation, I decided to stay one more night but be ready to leave early the next day.

Ice cream, a great dinner, another late night of chatting and goodbyes ended my Agropoli experience.

-It seems that we have created a society in the western world that put less emphasis on learning by experience.

-Frank Pollari