Martina and Jason stayed up late last night uploading the blog to the Internet. The WIFI in the hotel wasn’t operational, so we had to use the computer in the lobby. This morning Salvatore took us to pick up our laundry at the lavanderia. Then, Salvatore and Domenico and his wife drove us to the next stop: Vibo. The name of the hotel is “Hotel 501”, named after a Fiat. The hotel was very nice. Jane and Martina even had a balcony overlooking the Tyrannian Sea.
Giuseppe (Peppino) Sarlo, his daughter Stefania, and her fiancé GianCarlo met us at the hotel for a coffee before embarking upon a walking tour of Vibo Centro (city center). Today is Saturday, so there was an open air market (mercato) downtown. Martina bought a new handbag. Nick took lots of pictures, and Nick, Jason, and GianCarlo talked about American politics. GianCarlo is a financial controller for a real estate company so we all spoke with him about our plans to buy a house in Italy.
Next we visited a famous castle that had a museum and a restoration center. We viewed (and held) artifacts, some that were as old as 500BC. In the restoration center there were literally thousands of boxes of ancient treasures in various stages of restoration. Many of these items were of Greek origin, as many Greeks traveled by boat, and settled in Italy. Vibo was the most prominent harbor in Southern Italy for quite some time, so Vibo was a key port for the Greeks. We also learned that the Romans branded their pottery with stamps, while the Greeks did not. We saw wine jugs that were quite large and took two people to carry them. They were used on ships to transport wine, and if the ship became too heavy, they were thrown overboard. As such, they are often found in shipwrecks. We also saw a foil description of a legend called a mnemosyne. This is a rare artifact; one of only 5 in the world.
Next we had an excellent lunch in the city of Pizzo which included lots of fresh fish (pesce) and pasta (spaghetti).
We then visited Piedigrotta, which is an underground cave (and church) near the sea where a father and son carved religious statues into the rock over the course of 30 years during the 19th century. Religious services are held on July 2nd only.
Finally, we visited the Castle (fortress) of Pizzo that was built in 1492. It was used as a prison and held Gioacchino Murat, who had been married to the sister of Napolean Bonaparte.
We enjoyed dinner with everyone, and also Peppino’s nephew, Gregorio at a typical Italian family restaurant in the country. We enjoyed various pastas. Jane’s tasted the best. Peppino was very pleased to receive the print of Independence Hall, and said he would think of us when he looked at it. He asked us to send him a PDF of our presentation so that he could write an article about us.
If only we could access the Internet!
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