We are leaving this region of Calabria soon, Monday night to be precise. While we didn't see all too much of the area, we did have some real fun. Just hanging around and working and eating with the owners of PiraPora has been great. Getting to know the carpenters and other staff who help out during the tourist season was also cool. But it is time to go; Rome and Tuscany are calling and we, like obediant Djinn, must answer.
The weather here finally got sunny and hot again the other day. This is good. It allowed us to tackle some of the big outside projects that have been waiting for fair skies. It also allowed us to shed our sweaters and stocking caps. The projects we are trying to wrap up are, help plant ten million vegetable starts, and fence and enclose a chicken yard suitable for 600 chickens. Hey, we have like 10 hours to get it done, so, no problem.
Giovanni is the primary cook come tourist time, and also the brewmaster on off days. Down in the laboratorio he cranks out 100 litres of homebrew at a time. Usually every three weeks or so. This is good too. The water he uses comes from a village about a ten minute drive from here, San Giovanni or something like that. See, the water is much fresher and bubbles out of a spring, better for the beer.
Anyway, we went to the spring, bottled the water for transport and while it sped back to PiraPora for brewing, we set off on foot in the opposite direction along a muddy old ruined road to find fossils. The road winds through ancient olive groves and finally comes to an end at an old limestone quarry about 15 minutes from the spring by foot. Here a giant cliff is exposed showing signs that numerous tractor loads of limestone have been carted off. A closer look revealed fossils. Thousands upon thousands of fossilized sea creatures. 500 meters above sea level, thats like 1500 feet or so. After an hour of digging around we had amassed a decent collection. The stand outs were two giant old volcano shaped sand dollar relatives. Isaiah found one imbedded in a large boulder. It took about 5 minutes to free it intact. We were told by the folks here that they are exceedingly rare and probably around 2 million years old. That was pretty much the highlight of the week; that and the sun appearing.
At this point in the trip almost everything we own has holes in it or has been mended at least once, my work pants nine times I think. We have salvaged at least one nice outfit each that we don't even look at unless it's for travel and visits to the bigger towns on days off. Our muscles ache, our necks are sunburnt, and we each have many new scars, but it is great. Truly.
We will return to the city we love on June 13th!
Next up: Overnight train to Rome! Vatican City and the Colosseum.
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