Like alll our days so far in Marano Marchesato (Maraschino Cherry as we call it) Today started  with cats and a short run among the hills of the village

Luigi came ’round at 9AM and we headed to the cast. Our destination today was the town of Fiumefreddo Bruzio which is the closest point on the Tyrrhennian Sea to us.  Fieumefreddo is another city divided into two parts. Lower Fiumefreddo is a beach village with lots of restaurants, a nice long beach and lots of hotels.. The upper villiage is an ancient fort city.. kind of a standard pattern around here it seems.

 

First stop was the nbeach. The water was clear and cold.. we didn’t go in.. but stood in the water a bit. What was amazing abotu the place was the variety of colors in the pebbles on the beach.. unlike anything I’ ver seen.. bright greens, yellows reds.. that sparkeldwhen wet.. and looked like rocks when dry.. and evidently when photographed 🙂 

 

Here’.. let me play with the colors a bit.. Here’s what my iphoen camera captured

 

and here’s moe like what we saw

 

Similarly before and after

 

I put this near the wterline and watched it get taken by the sea.. felt good/sad

 

we walked for a bit then headed back to find luigi

 

The road up tthe old city was curvy, narrow and  steep., I tr4ied to get some pics.. Not too successfully.. There was this local take on the  ‘Christ the redeemer’ statue in rio

The old city was a medieval fortress surrounded by a  wall, with narrow streets and alleys and a crumbling castle.. Like every place we’ve. gone in this country.. I think the US should invest more in Crumbling castles. 

This one is from 1200s if I recall correctly

here’s the view up one of the old chimneys

 

Luigi met us up at the castle with  his good friend Fabio. THey met back in college and have stayed close ever since. He’s a super nice guy .. he showed us around the town.. 

 

We came across this great square with a beutiful view of the ocean

We were surprised to see this on one of the church buildings essentialy read ‘The Mafia cannot enter here’

We ate  at a really  nice ‘slow foods’ place that also associated with a wholistic breasty cancer center ‘La Casa di Rosa’

 

Interestingly that poster was just near this one 🙂

 

We all got combo antipasta plates.. vegitarian for us. They were so tasty !

 

These folks were militantly healthy

 

It was time to go.. so we all said good bye to Fabio and headed for the van

 

We got back to our place in Marano Marchesato in time to meet our hosts family. including Juri , His very pregnant wife and their 2 year old son Gianfranco

 

AN our neigbor came by to say hi too (I think thats what she said) 

 

This evening we met Luigi for a light pizza dinner at a place near his B&B.. It was  a really nice place.. with a  different spin on pizza than I’d ever seen: eg pistachio and potatoe pixza.. and they weren’t even  trying to be fancy..  

One surprise  was that I managed to break two differnt chairs while I was eating. Must be all the pasta !

 

then it was time to go home

 

full day !

niote all, nite sam

-me