Before leaving for Gerace this morning our lovely waiter sang me an aria as he was delivering my Americano coffee. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Going to Gerace today was a little bittersweet. I had a trip planned for 14 people for Silicy and a post trip to Calabria. Covid hit and OAT cancelled the trip. On the trip was a friend, Mary Frances Gerace. Mary Frances was passionate about her ancestry and before the trip she had hired a genealogy expert to help her in Gerace. Sadly Mary Frances died several years ago and never made it to Gerace.

Gerace is a sweet little village perched atop a 1,640 foot tall rock, Thank goodness that we didn’t have to walk to the top. Our bus driver took us as far as it was safe and then we took a little trolley train up the mountain. Despite its very small size Gerace was once it home to 128 churches.

One of the main attractions on this picturesque village is the beautiful castle that was at one time inhabited by the Grimaldi Family of Monaco.

Of course, there is always a church to explore but before that we had an enjoyable walk down part of the mountain. On the way I found some great inspiration for the Creative Emporium.

And finally lunch! My all time favorite dish, Pasta alla Norma. For those of you who know you will be invited, I have 5 pounds of the special pasta that you need to make this dish along with other assorted Italian delicacies. I am still on the hunt to find a gorgeous Italian that would be interested in carrying this bag home for me.

Back on the bus for the ride back to Reggio Calabria and some retail therapy. Right now all I can buy is clothes because there is no more room for food.

For dinner Nino recommended a restaurant called La Catina that was very close to our hotel. In almost all restaurants that we have dined in there have been English subtitles to explain what we were ordering. Not this one, plus our sweet waitress spoke very good English but not very good Italian. We cheered when Nino walked in the door to join the 5 of us. I definitely would have ended up with sausage in my meal if he wasn’t there.

Back to the hotel to pack. Our next stop, for one night, is in the Silo National Park, so it was suggested that we all pack our carry ons to use for the night rather than lug around our big suitcases. On to our next adventure.