Under the Calabrian Sun

New Pictures!

The Amalfi Coast. Biking on these cliffs was incredible. The road was winding but not too steep.

The town of Amalfi. We went on a hike up the cliff between these two towns.

This is Atrani, our little town on the Amalfi Coast.

Maybe my tractor driving was part of the problem?

I am in a tree watching the sunset on my Calabrian farm.

Well, a lot has happened since my last update! I spent a week in Atrani with friends from Spannocchia, which was great. The Amalfi coast is gorgeous, filled with enormous cliffs. We took lots of walks to Ravello, a little town where Virgina Woolf and some other famous artists worked. I can see why. Also did a lot of sitting on the beach and cooking. All in all, a great week. Next I took a train down to Catanzaro in Calabria to work on another farm. I was pretty much on my own the whole time, which was a cool experience. I don't think I've ever had so much unfocused time to myself (i.e., not biking all day). I started writing some songs, drawing some, doing yoga and meditating a bit. Another WWOOFer came for a few days, and that was also fun, and a nice change of pace. He's from Catania in Sicily, and I'm actually on my way down there now to meet up with him and hike Etna (if all goes as planned, he hasn't gotten back to me yet and email in Sicily is apparently really spotty). Any way, after several days of not showing up to the farm, the boss-man, Antonio, finally had some free time on the weekend and wanted me to basically work the entire time, 8-10 hours a day. I was not into this idea. I was already upset with him for leaving me hanging at the farm, always having to be ready for him to arrive, and him never coming. I was perfectly happy with the work (I still had things to do while he was gone), and I learned a lot about gardening, olives, vinyards, and handyman type stuff. So yesterday after working 8:30 to 1, I told him I was ready to be done working for the morning and he started telling me about how I wasn't happy there, and told me to go eat if I really wanted to. So I decided to leave that evening, half kicked out, half leaving on my own. A surprisingly bitter end to a pleasant time in the countryside. So I took a train back to the west coast and slept on the beach, which was quite pleasant aside from some mild showers. Now I'm back on the road with my bike, heading south. I'm in Tropea, a cute little tourist town with tons of Germans, English, and Italians. I'm going to keep heading south and plan to arrive in Catania around Wednesday evening. Then about a week of visiting the area, two more weeks of farming, then off to Greece!