Tropea – April 28 – 31, 2018 – Tropea, Italy

Due to our unexpected sight seeing tour around Mt. Etna this morning we arrived in Tropea after 8:00 pm. Normally this wouldn’t have been a big issue but we had no room reservation. Neither of us was for pitching the tent and using our sleeping bags.

I pulled over to the side of the road: (a) in front of us was a restaurant, (b) then a pedestrian only street, (c) then a one-way street coming at us, (d) people everywhere and (e) did I mention we had been on the road for ten hours and it was dark like in night dark.

Of course we were illegally parked. However, unlike the U.S. no one honked at us. Most likely they assumed it was an Italian driver driving the Texas licensed 4Runner and everyone knows Italians only park where it is illegal!

Long story short on our second try we found a great place to stay. OK, it was on the second floor or three flights up and outside of the high side of our lodging budget but it is now 8:45 and we want a room.

The following morning after a great breakfast we went exploring. The views were great but damn I forgot my binoculars.

For the church not the beach.

This is one and maybe the only church we decided to skip visiting. A lot too many steps going up.

The local yacht club.

The backside of the local cathedral.

And another photo of the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral.

We continue to walk. Tropea isn’t a big town, only 6,800 people not counting visiting tourists. It like most Italian towns is made up of narrow winding streets but has the advantage of overlooking the Mediterranean Sea with a great beach.

Possibly my favorite door pulls since the dragon pulls we saw in India.

I am sure the locals never take a second look at the various religious icons but to this tourist I am always enthralled when we pass by one.

The previous icon and the next two were all in the same small plaza.

We are taking it easy when we hear drums. I step out onto our balcony which overlooks the main pedestrian street and I see drummers and a really tall couple. No I haven’t any idea why or what they are doing but I do know they repeated their walk the following afternoon.

Should you ever be driving from Sicily to Naples make Tropea a stop. Great place to just relax and we didn’t even take advantage of the beach.