Spontaneity rocks
Trip Start
May 16, 2006
1
24
28
Trip End
Jun 13, 2006
Amantea, Italy
Friday, June 9, 2006
Messina has suffered. A lot. Plague, cholera, earthquakes (one in 1904 killed 84,000 people) and Allied bombings in the 40's have left it torn to hell. We have no lodging tonight. This should be fun.
We crossed over to the mainland into Saint Giovanni and then headed North toward Naples. On the way, I see beaches flying past the window. the train stops to pick up passengers in Amantea. It's gorgeous and I convince Wende to jump off here for the night. (Doesn't take much convincing on my part)We have no lodging, no plans, no clue. I LOVE this stuff! I don't think I could have pictured abetter town. Beach, mountains, nice people and ruins. I love small towns....at least for visiting. We found a rather nice hotel room with a reasonable rate. It is close to the beach and we can see ruins on the mountain from our window.
After securing lodging we scope out the Internet point. We do the necessary only as the cost is ridiculous, plus they need a life story for every customer.
We take a gander at the beach and then go to a restaurant. Oh my. So, I want a salad and a first course and Wende wants the same first course and we plan to split a second course. Not only does our waiter not speak English, his dialect is not traditional so what we have learned still doesn't quite translate. He brings out the first and second courses. We desperately try to tell him we wanted two of the first courses. He nods, leaves, and returns another clean plate. We try again and think he has understood. Then he brings out my salad and Wende's first course...on 2 plates. Doh! She eats all but one fish stuffed ravioli with crab and shrimp sauce. All of the empty plates are on my side of the table. It appears as if I have finished a basket of bread with oil, a salad, a first course and some of the second course leaving Wende with something akin to table scraps. We find this greatly amusing and can NOT stop laughing. Our sides are sore and we can no longer sit up straight. We ask for the bill and realize that we had inadvertently ordered three first courses instead of two. We laugh harder. It dawns on us that we just put away a hell-of-a-lot of food and we are laughing like fools. We have't been served any wine, so they probably think we are stoned out of our gourds. We find this even more amusing. Ridiculously amusing. We can't quite walk a straight path to the hotel. We must have been quite a sight.
It seems the World Cup is tonight and the town is abuzz with activity. We go to the bar for a cappuccino (because we NEED to be more hyper) then back to our hotel where we convince the desk clerk to allow us to check out between 2 and 3 the following afternoon so that we can go to the beach tomorrow. Good boy.
