almost home

I have been back in Holland now for a week and have spent most of that time in bed with a nasty stomach virus, maybe I was a bit vulnerable to picking up bugs after the 10 week exercise , I don't know. I am flying back to Auckland tomorrow and I am looking forward to it.
So I still have to write about my Italy experiences which were a mixed bag, I met some great people, enjoyed wonderful hospitality, also received the worst welcomes and service of my trip. I saw some amazing landscapes, buildings and sculptures, also cycled 2000 km through the rubbish which got me seriously depressed.
I told you before that the weather is just doing the weather and in this case that meant 35 - 40 degrees Celcius for a month, I lay down under a tree , if the rubbish allowed me , for a few hours between 12 and 3 and I had to drink so much that I could hardly eat anymore.
Anyway I owe you guys the drug story which started when I arrived in a small coastal town south of Salerno. I found a small family orientated camping that was packed to the rafters but they found me a little spot in between a few caravans and soon I was surrounded by a few local lads who invited me for a drink. One of them had just returned from his OE in australia and had a good command of the english language which is very rare in Italy.
The Don of the camping decided I was to stay for free , which we celebrated by buying his wine for $4 a bottle. After some pizza from the neighbouring resort for $6 , the daughter of the camping boss appeared all dressed up and ready to rock and roll and to hit the town. It was 11pm so I took a bit of convincing to go with them, at least 5 seconds , and off we went.
The five of us walked up to the road and they started to hitchhike as they did not want to walk the 3 km into town. 2 minutes later a little Fiat stopped and a squeezed into it. The driver had obviously spent too much time in the gym, he was very muscular and a sharp dresser. he started talking to the girl who was sitting in the front and my mate translated a bit and said that this guy was from Colombia and that he spoke very good Italian.
We stopped at a Hotel as Mr Colombia indicated he needed to deliver something. My mate poked his head out of the window and asked him if he had some weed. He looked at us indignantly and said " I only do Cocaine" and showed us this plastic egg that he was about to deliver. As he went inside the youngsters got scared and excited, they obviously already had a few puffs at the camping, and started looking for a gun in the car. When he came back my mate got so nervous that he tried to joke with the Colombian by saying "I thought you were going to kill us ", the guy just laughed and dropped us off in town and wished us a pleasant night.
He was the kind of man that could turn up on Career day at your kid's school and after listening to him you would probably seriously consider it a good career option for your child.
We chatted a bit about him in the pub and we came to the conclusion that he was the real deal as they did not know of any Colombians in Napels and Calabria who came there to pick tomatoes.
These kids were about 28 years old and all university trained but that did not stop them from having seriously fucked up ideas about women and relationships.
They started with giving me tips on the price of Pizza in Naples and quickly moved on with tips you will not find in the Lonely Planet guide for Italy such as the price of Nigerian hookers which lies at 10 Euro ( NZ $20 ) in the whole of Naples because of the Comorra, the Napolitan version of the Maffia. They were all regular visitors and they assured me of the quality by saying "Riccardo , she is going to make you sooo happy "! When I pointed out that this was modern day slavery and that the girls would probably get 5 Euro for the privilege of being violated they just shrugged their shoulders. In fact one of them explained that it was good for relationships because his girlfriend knew that if she played up or started nagging him he would just go around the corner to the nigerian girls. If it costed 50 Euro he would have thought twice about it but for 10 Euro it was an effective way to keep his girlfriend in check, so they were happier as a result and the nigerian hooker still got some business from him so all in all everyone was a winner ! You can't argue with that.
Arrividerci

Dino and Marina's B and B near Messina

just a little plug for these guys who hosted me in their fantastic family home in a little town called "Villaggio di Mili " , just outside Messina in Sicily.

I had a great meal with home made wine and fresh fruit and veges out of their own garden and if you wish Dino will arrange great deals to the vulcanic islands , cycling tours or horse trekking.

for more info or bookings email : escursioniinbici70@libero.it or phone 00 39 348 4096 198

Rome , the end !

strange feeling to not cycle anymore, i am doing some sightseeing in rome today and trying to find a box to put my bike in for the plane ride to amstrerdam.
Internet cafes were invisible in rest of italy, I still have a few stories in the pen like the one wehere I got a lift from a colombian drug dealer and we had to do a delivery of cocaine to a local hotel. It is all in a day's cycling !
So updates from the last 2 weeks and photos will follow early next week.
ciao

messina !

Sorry for the long delay in writing, I had already given up on finding internet cafe here in Italy, but the man from this fantastic B and B has kindly given me access to his computer.
I have cycled right through to Sicily where I arived yesterday and I have one more week to make it to Palermo. Done 6000 km in 60 days , not too bad for an old dude eeh.
Anyway I have lots more to tell but that will have to wait maybe til Rome.

Hotels closed for a summer break !

Down from the Dolomites mountains, I arrived on the shores of the Lago di Garda, it has steep mountains all around it and beautiful old towns on its shores with little ports and lots of al fresco dining, so what is the cath ?

It is very popular with tourists and being Italy, egoes are running wild here. Ferraris, Porches etc. are plenty and out of them emerge bronzed people dripping with gold and Chanel glasses, they really put on a show , the poor bastards. The men wear white ironed designer shorts with matching Polo shirt and the whitest sneakers I have ever seen, they must look at me with my old t shirt, pants 2 sizes too big by now and my Crocs and think that I am here to scavenge in the rubbish bins. They are not far wrong because the cost of living is considerable. I booked into a little camping ground up on the hill, away from the crowds and that set me back Euro 20 or about nz $40, makes Norway look like real bargain. For that you also have to provide your own toilet paper. The fact that the weather was great and I was parked under some big olive trees with grand views over the lake made it slightly more bearable.

As beautiful as it was, it was too busy for me and I left yesterday. I spent the first 2 hours manouvering between the kerb and the cars, there is only space for one road between the lake and the mountains, there was a constant traffic jam. When I arrived at the bottom of the lake and finally was able to turn into a side road that directed me south to the country side, the traffic was literally gone within seconds and after 5 minutes I was on my own on a country road to Mantova.

I did meet a great dutch couple at the lake in Castelletto and after a couple of beers we had dinner together with a good conversation that was a welcome relief from the usual "where are you from and what do you do" kind of mindless chatter.

Sometimes you meet people who you start sharing personal information with after a couple of hours because you feel you are on the same wave length, very satisfying and it leaves room for thoughts and opinions to come to the surface that you would otherwise not be exposed to.

I still have to get used to the fact that everything closes here between 12 and 4 in the afternoon, that there are no campings outside the real tourist areas and no Broccoli in the shops, which for me is a staple in my diet.

I cycled in this reasonably big town called Carpi and asked for a camping, yes turn left and then 1 km and ask again. After cycling around for half an hour and repeatedly asking people ( most of them do not speak english ) I figured out there was no camping so I went into the centre looking for accommodation and found that there were 2 big hotels and both had a sign on the front door saying that they were taking a summer break and closed down for 2 weeks !

So today it is off to Florence, one city I do want to have a good look at.

Arrividerci !!

17 aug more photos

From the north of Norway to here in Italy people have the same habit, throwing their rubbish on the side of the road.

The north point of Lago Di Garda

Deatail of the centre of Trento

The photo with Fausto Coppi on the top of the Passo Pordoi

wrong video , sorry