Around Tropea

Tropea has turned out to be a great place to slow down to the rhythm of life in Calabria. We are staying in Il Barone Residenzes in the old town at an apartment (called a 'suite in Italy'). Beautiful old stone place with very friendly owners and staff.
This part of Italy certainly goes by the siesta rule with nearly all places open 0900-1300 and then again from 1600-2000. Sure makes you slow down and fit to the rhythm of the life here. Lots of school kids here with 2 elementare scuola e 1 compresivo e 1 instruzioni intelligentia for the bigger kids. Great to see that kids are kids the world over - playing tricks on each other and generally having fun.
The coastline here is high cliffs punctuated by small beaches and some deep gorges running to the sea. The old town is built on a cliff-top some 50 metres above the sea - a railing at the end of the main street separates you from toppling over the cliff!
Food - settled into the calazione of pastry, bread rolls and coffee with fruit and yoghurt. This pretty much does you for lunch as well and then cena at about 1930 of spaghetti and house rosso to cap off the day. Also maybe a gelati at some point as well to keep the wolf from the door. We are the only foreign tourists here and there is very little English spoken by the locals which is great. Tiny lanes and alleyways through the old town with still lots of scooter and Fiat traffic though - Italians are in love with the wheeled vehicle as well as talking and texting at the same time as dodging pedonale and other cars and scooters. Kristina Keneally's hair would be blown out of its fixed position if she saw the traffic here.
Spent 3 nights here it was so nice. Off to either Pizzo or Diamante a domani.
Another thing we really like are the nibblies you get when you order an alcoholic drink during the day. We had a wine around lunchtime, which came with an antipasto plate of chips, pickled veges, crackers, olives and bruschetta. So it makes for a very cheap lunch. Food in general is delicous. Dinners are made fresh to order. Pat had sardines last night and this morning we walked to the harbour, where fishermen were selling them straight from the boat, so that was probably his last night. I've been enjoying the local pasta with a variety of sauces, (red onion, eggplant, mozzarella) washed down with the local vino.So food miles aren't huge here. But the gelatis are just SENSATIONAL! I have to limit myself to only one a day!