Buon Giorno da Scopello

The part I like least about travel is the travel. We got up quite early to drive to Schiphol for a 9:30 flight to Rome. We waited around a little longer than expected because the fine Dutch weather broke into tears at our leaving. There was only one runway running and lots of cancelled an delayed flights. Our was not delayed by much.

We had good seats with a bit of room so we both snoozed our way across Europe. 

Then a short afternoon flight to Palermo, where it was sunny when we landed and grey by the time we got to our car and headed off. I asked Marjan what she should say, fully expecting her to pick up our European driving mantra "keep to the right....keep to the right.....", instead she immediately said " I don't want to die!". She has no faith in my driving.

Anyway we drove along a lovely autostrada heading west. Amazing mountains inland and the sea to our right. Countryside and village kind of melded into one another and the road was strewn with rubbish. We had booked a seaside villa in the summer resort of Scopello. As we left the autostrada the roads became quite rough and very narrow, but I think Marjan managed to keep the heart rate in check. Today is NOT the day she dies.

We stopped off at the Scopello Market for some basic supplies.....sausages, bread, salad, wine......just as the skies opened up for a small downpour. Our lovely clean SEAT Arona is now full of mud. We managed to miss our turn-off and ended up doing a lap of the nature reserve car park........not the best car park I have seen......back we went and yes it was the ridiculously steep and broken pavement we had to drive up........after several false tries we found our villa.

Vittorio the airBnB host's father was there to meet us and show us around. He only spoke Italian and my Italian is pretty average, but I think I managed to understand most of what he said.

We have not left the villa this evening. We settled in and enjoyed some nibbles ...artichokes, tea, wine, bread, alici (anchovies?)...... on the verandah and contemplated the beach below us.

The clouds were still looking threatening and there was moisture in the air.......the mountain to our east was generating its own weather.....

As the sun set we got a wonderful colour show

As we aired the bed we got another one.....

It's a hard life!