Italy, Again

From Greece I took a 16 hour ferry to Bari, in the Puglia region of Italy. There I explored the white city of Alberobello and the Sassi di Matera, a vast amalgam of stone buildings and cave dwellings. Established more than 10,000 years ago, it is likely the first human settlement in Italy and one of the oldest continually populated sites in the world. Even as troglodytes, the Italians had style.

Modern Italians are farcically Italian. The verve, ariose speech, and hyperbolic gesticulation, the way they shout from fourth floor balconies, the fact that people are actually named Luigi... it's like a Pixar film. The only logical conclusion one can draw is that Italians are just permanently doing impressions of themselves, and it is offensively accurate. Sadly, I haven't seen a chef's kiss in the wild yet, but I did hear a "mamma mia!"

From Puglia I crossed Calabria to reach Sicily. The weather here is milder, so I've been shocked to still encounter freezing temperatures and snow along my routes. Calabria and Sicily are home to the 'Ndrangheta and Cosa Nostra - the prototypical Mafias whose activities comprise more than 5% of Italy's economy. The mob is just a fact of life here, an inexorable institution acting as a parallel government. They provide certain services and exact certain taxes - namely not fucking your shit up, and the pizzo, protection money.

But snow and criminality are the least of my worries. I've ridden motorcycles in the bedlams of South America, Africa, and Asia, but Southern Italy truly feels like the most dangerous. I'm not exactly sure why, perhaps it's just something in the Nutella. But I theorize that in these other places, roads are dilapidated or congested enough so as to keep the albeit lawless traffic at a snail's pace. Meanwhile, here the infrastructure is decent enough that Giovanni Knievel can pick up considerable speed with which to act out his death defying stunts. Red lights are merely decorative. If Slovak drivers were cold and calculating, Italian drivers are temperamental and vocal. Yet everyone is warning me that Naples will be the true madhouse. Better eat lots of Nutella this week 😗👌