The highway skirted around the back of Naples and Mount Vesuvius, not that you could see much because of the smog. We were told this wasn't really smog but dust brought up by the Sirocco, the southerly wind that blows from northern Africa. That may be so further south, but around Naples I'm convinced it was smog.
Paestum is an amazing place, located south of Salerno which itself is at the southern end of the Amalfi Coast. It was a major ancient Greek city in Magna Graecia. The ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek temples in the Doric order, dating from about 600 to 450 BC, which are in a very good state of preservation.
After its foundation by Greek colonists Paestum was eventually conquered by the local Lucanians and later the Romans. It was abandoned in the Early Middle Ages and left undisturbed and largely forgotten until the eighteenth century.
We had a lovely B&B for $76AUS which, thankfully was upwind of the buffalo diary; we found a great beach and a had a wonderful meal - homemade gnocchi and fried seafood for Paul and fresh artichokes followed by artichoke pizza, for me.
From Paestum we drove 150 km south, down the coast road, which took just as long as the previous 300km on the autostrada.
It is rugged country and you can definitely see the African dust in the air.
Our next overnight stop was Praia a Mare in the Basilicata region which I thought would be great because it is close to Maratea, said to be the Amalfi Coast of the South. It certainly looked prosperous enough and this lovely walkway outside our B&B was absolutely packed for passeggiata for three hours in the evening. Alas however, Praia was really just a typical Italian seaside town where we struggled to find anything decent to eat.
Forward another 250 km and we found lovely Scilla. A mediaeval village almost at the tip of Italy's boot in Calabria and only 20km from the ferry port of Villa San Giovani where we would get the ferry to Sicily.
Not much room for cars here in Scilla although the locals manage well enough. We left our car further up the hill and came down to our B&B with our luggage in a three wheeled Ape. Pronounced 'uppay' this motor scooter with a utility tray replaced the donkey and became the mainstay of commerce, building and agriculture in tight ancient towns.
Talking about donkeys reminds me that when Paul and I first went to Positano on our honeymoon in 1998, there we no Apes. Donkeys still carried tourists' luggage up the steep laneways to the cliffside apartments and also carried up everything needed by the cliffside businesses, often in the same load.
But I diverge ...... back to lovely Scilla where tourists are important and there is never enough floor space. So they just build out! Eating here over the water would be lovely - but you wouldn't catch me on the section balancing only on the acrow props.
The houses along the "main road" are three or four stories high and two or three houses deep. So about every 20 metres you come to a gap between the buildings that leads to the water. Most of these alleyways are ramped and would originally have had fishing boats winched up between the houses. But these days there are no fish left in the Mediterranean, so fishing is no longer an occupation and is for fun only and the alleyways have been stepped to provide humans with access to the water.
Some are narrower and steeper than others.
Two buildings along from our B&B, a building has been demolished and a new build seems to be underway. Access is so prohibitive that I can see this build taking years.The mini excavator was parked in a tiny lay-by just allowing the bobcat to get past. The concrete mixer bucket on the front of the bobcat carries one load at a time from a mixing site up the hill. In the photo the bobcat is inching its way through the gap between the buildings and is about to swing into the building site to drop its load.
Here is the happy crew with the fresh load of concrete which they are bucketing into a "hole" to stabilise the rear wall. Judging by that sag in the structure above, and the depth of the "hole" they are filling, it is going to take a lot more buckets before they are done.
From the tiny port you can see the old town caressing the bay on the lower level and the new (ugly) town on the top of the ridge, separated by the main access road.
From the tiny port of Scilla we walked around the edge of a rocky headland that had a fort on the top, and came to the beach of Scilla.
Looking back from the beach you can see the great rocky outcrop with the old fortress on top.
Farewelling Scilla we wound our way up another mountain then dropped down to sea level again to catch the ferry to Sicily.
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