Last Lap in 2022 a hidden discovery in the city of Crotone

As we finished our trip to SGIF we arrived back in the City of Crotone just at the start of rush hour. By then we had spent most of the day with our driver Vincenzo Panaja, owner of Crotone taxi (www.crotonetaxi.it 39-329-614-7131 I highly recommend him) a very friendly fellow with whom we had several short friendly conversations using the Speak and Translate App. As we approached a traffic rotary from hell I mentioned that I did not think that there was any way that I could drive in Italian traffic to which he smiled and replied “pazienza calma” (patience, calm) the first of which is typically not my long suit. He went on to tell me that he continually tells his son Rocco “pazienza calma” and then shows us videos of his 18 wheeler that he drives, or has driven, over the road, through the snow, in the mountains near SGiF. I wish I had a picture of Vincenzo super nice guy.

Vincenzo dropped us at our B&B which was dead in the center of downtown. Oh, hell yes, I did not need to be driving and trying to park a rental car in that mess! Crotone is a coastal city and we were about 1/4 mile from the Ionian Sea though one could just barely see it at the end of the street. After an excellent meal of Neapolitan Pizza, a nice red wine and some grappa we toddled off to bed as stores were closing and Stephen wanted to buy some souvenirs in the morning. This is where the fun begins as we stepped out onto the main street the next morning.

As we stepped out onto this beautiful tree lined street

So, this is a central shopping area in downtown Crotone and shops were just opening so we stepped into one, a meat market/deli, as Stephen was looking for ideas for souvenirs.

If you notice in the upper left corner of the picture above there is a backdoor which appeared to be another entrance into the shop, so we went through and discovered this:

An open air market! As I am sure many of you know, most residential properties in Europe are small by USA standards with not a lot of room for storage. Thus, the “European” style of grocery shopping is to go to market everyday to buy the freshest ingredients. This was IMHO way too cool! More photos below:

With the stroll through the market and souvenirs secured it was back to the train station to start to make our way back to Rome. This was Friday and our first step was to cross Italy in the opposite direction from which we hiked to get to the west coast.

Just a quick geography lesson about Italy to get everyone on the same page. Italy is a mountainous country. There is basically a series mountain ranges stretching almost the entire length of the country from North to South. This make east/west travel extremely difficult. Thus, our trip back to Rome had to be broken into two days to make connections. As a result our first leg was to travel from east to west from Cortone to Lamezia in a very crowded train/bus which I described previously.

Arriving in Lamezia we walked across the street to the B&B which would be our abode for the evening with a nice meal and an evenings rest. We did have a moment at dinner regarding observations by William and Stephen about a misunderstanding relating to how I innocently asked for the check at the restaurant that, unfortunately, falls into that category of “you had to be there”. Either that, or I just tell it poorly, because the few times that I have told it to others I have gotten kind of a “ha…yeah” type of response indicating to me that the story is nowhere near as funny if one is a third party versus being there. But, trust me, if you were there you would have been laughing too. It is still a running inside joke amongst the three of us.

Anyway the next morning we picked up our train to Rome, which was packed.

Finally, heading for home, Stephen and I each had a plate of a Roman pasta specialty Casio e Pepe (Cheeses and Pepper) it was not on the menu but the dish is so ubiquitous in Rome when I asked the waiter if the kitchen could fix it he without hesitation said “Sure, no problem”. The sauce for Casio e Pepe is an emulsion of finely grated Pecorino Romano cheese, black pepper and reserved pasta water tossed together which coats the pasta with a cheesy, silky sauce that is light, yet bursting with flavor. The trick to the dish is the technique tossing the ingredients together. I recently started fix this dish myself so I wanted to sample it at the source. I give myself an 85 on my efforts but learned a few things while enjoying a delicious dish I would love to learn how to plate my pasta like this.

William had an interesting bacon, egg and cheese pizza. This was at the Mercure Airport hotel so you will note that the pizza is sliced. That is not the way it is done down south and I must say I have kind of grown to appreciate eating my pizza unsliced with w knife and fork.

Well folks that kind of wraps it up for this year. This was a special hike for me and I want to thank my sons William and Stephen for joining me and helping to create lasting memories for all of us. No one knows what next year holds but, good Lord willing, there will be another hike involved, maybe Greece, maybe Ireland maybe someplace I haven’t even contemplated yet but if I am capable you can rest assured that I will be hiking somewhere. So, good by from this intrepid trio.