End of Amalfi Tour, Start of Calabria Adventure

Our last breakfast in Hotel Due Torri; we said goodbye to tour mates and got on our minivan to Naples. I was dropped off at the Naples train station.

Bought a ticket Lamezia Terme, Calabria, which was about 4 hours south by train. There I will meet my friend and former colleague Angela who was celebrating her 60th by having a 3-day 55 km (34 miles) hike across Calabria (her home region), followed by a visit to her home town and a big party. I was quite apprehensive about the hike because I did not think I had exercised enough to prepare for this. Also, I had no clue where I would be staying nor what the itinerary was, since Angela did all the planning, so this was really going to be an exciting adventure! Arrived in Lamezia Terme which is a tiny train station in a small town. Angela was late because her Canadian friend's plane was delayed. So I had to sit around a tiny coffee shop to wait. Then went back outside the train station to wait, and watched two carabineiri (policemen) checking ids of selected men. Wondered if they will ask me why I was loitering outside the train station with my suitcases. Luckily, nothing happened and soon enough Angela came by. We went to the airport to pick up her friend. We reached the Hotel il Nocchiero, where Angela had reserved rooms for the hiking group, in Solverato in the early evening. There I met a few fellow hikers who were at the lobby We were from all over the world: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Spain, UK, USA. All were Angela's friends and/or former and current colleagues, 31 would be attending her birthday bash in 4 days; 15 opted to do this 3 day hike in advance of the big event. After putting my luggage in my room, I took the opportunity to walk around town. It was very windy and the area near the beach blew stinging sand so I kept to the pedestrian only shopping area. The group met for dinner at a pizzeria where I sat next to my friend Debi who used to live in Italy. We did a lot of running and marathon training back in the old days, she now lives in Florida. We shared a pizza topped with nduja, a traditional Calabrese sauce, and mozzarella. The topping was rather spicy. Found out later that nduja is a spicy, spreadable cold cut made from pork shoulder and belly, roasted red peppers, and spices. I'm afraid I'm not a fan of nduja although I tried it again later during the trip just to see if I would acquire the taste for it. Nope.

The adventure of the evening happened when the waiter tipped a pint of beer over my back after he tripped over something. Not fun, and the owner was most apologetic. However I did get a free T-shirt with the Pizzeria's branding which I changed into since mine was wet. Still no harm done. We got back to the hotel for an early night as we had to get started on Day 1 of our hike the next morning.