You can spend a wonderful couple of days in Tropea, a little
town on the South West coast of Italy. The town is perched on the
cliffs above the sea.
Atop a separated outcrop is the the Chiesa dell'Isolla, and
from this small church's vantage point you can get a good
view of the town and the coastline.
The village is enchanting.
Narrow twisting lanes where you can shake your opposite
neighbour's hand without leaving your own doorway, small
family-run 'ristorante' where the service and the food is
good, alley ways to explore and discover, and bars where you can
rest and recover.
The town has a helpful information centre and a good map to
help you find the features of its (perhaps in terms of its
architecture) more affluent past. Several grand doorways
(porticos) are featured on the map and we spent this afternoon
seeking them out.
We stayed at a hotel on the port, so to visit the town we had
to climb the stairway that zig zags up the cliff front. This
morning our first visit was to the bank - entry was through a
chamber which did a scan for any metal before the inner door
opened, so I had to leave the camera gear with Jenny who waited
outside. They do supply lockers outside, but none big enough for
the 8kg of camera backpack.
Then on to the post to mail some cards followed by a self
guided tour through the lanes and back alleys. The tourist season
is almost over and most of the ristorante and souvenir shops will
close at the end of September. Some of the streets we have to
ourselves and the prices are starting to fall as the tourists
thin out.
Tonight's meal started with bruschetta, followed by
swordfish for Jen and calamari for me with a shared mixed salad
and a litre of vino rosso locale (the local red and this one
wasn't bad at all). The olive oil we poured over the salad
was superb.
We will remember Tropea. On our first morning here we were
woken by the sound of the goat herd running below our balcony,
the neck bells of the leaders clanging to encourage the
stragglers to keep up.
More Tropea
photos
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