We made it to the southernmost point of our long journey on June 1st, a Saturday, as we drove from Rocella Jonica to Reggio Calabria and all the way up the lower shin of the boot to the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. In the morning we drove from Rocello Jonica around Reggio Calabria at the toe to Scilla for lunch. Along the way the scenery changed markedly from the sun-baked southern coast to the greener western coast.
We had been to Scilla in 2018 and really liked it, so we were glad to return. It's a scenic swordfishing port, with the fishing village of Chianalea nestled beneath the mighty rock that formed half of one of the tests of Odysseus in The Odyssey, the twin perils of the great rock of Scylla and the vortex of Charybdis.
Lunch in Scilla was at the Ristorante Grotta Azzurra. Lorna got the swordfish, of course; we were dining in a premiere swordfishing port so it was absolutely fresh. You can see in the photo that they cut it twice the size and half the thickness of what we usually see at home. She likes it well-done, so maybe that's how they do it well-done, or maybe that's just how they do it. I did see him cut the piece from what remained of a whole swordfish in the kitchen, with the head propped up on the counter behind him. Melissa had an excellent pumpkin risotto. That's really a more northern tradition from Lombardy, but a vegetarian in a fishing port has to make some limited choices.
My lunch was another new thing for me. Buccuni, the Sicilian term for bocconi, the murex sea snail, like a mini-conch. There's snails and there's snails. Escargot and the lumachie of the Piemonte region are land snails, common to vineyards where they eat the vine leaves. My buccuni were sea snails, steamed in the shell and then popped out and cooked in a sauce of tomato and fish stock with the ubiquitous Calabrian chilies, and served with crusty bread. It was a wonderful seaside summertime flavor! I know that I can get sea snails at Champlin's sea food in Galilee, RI, so I plan to make this at home the next time I can get back from Point Judith with my murex.
It was a long drive from Scilla up the coast to Salerno and ultimately to Pompeii. At the start, at a gas station with a little market attached, I found a treasure trove of Calabrian specialties, including salumi (all sorts of sausages, of which salami is one), cheeses, wines, vinegars and olive oil, pastas, pastries and more. I bought a variety of things to bring to our next two hotels.
Very nearby is the town of Tropea, famous for scenery and for red onions of surpassing mildness and flavor. I couldn't buy one onion, so I bought a bag. You'll hear more about that when we get to Sorrento in a couple of days.
The drive was made more aggravating by another hotel problem. Fortunately I called ahead to our scheduled hotel in Pompeii and learned that they had only two beds. I had clearly requested three beds at Booking.com, but throughout Italy and especially in the south they expect everyone to sleep en matrimonio, two to a bed. The innkeeper saw my notes and was unable to find a third bed for that night, but he recommended that we switch to Il Vecchio Fauno, which worked out fine. By then I was exhausted so Lorna and Melissa went looking for dinner but I had to rest. I opened up my cache of Calabrian goodies and set about recording the day's events.