A Rainy day in #Italy

Sun setting over the Mediterranean at Maratea

Eurotravel sent a driver to take us to Lauria, a little town about a one hour drive away, to pick up our car rental. The ride was much more relaxed than the cab ride getting up here the other night, and cost us 70Euro. It was likely worth it, as I don't know who else we could have hired to find the place, so all was good. 
It was a little difficult at the rental, as the young man serving us spoke very little English, and questions I wanted answers to were above his understanding. Sadly our own lack of understanding Italian didn't help matters one bit  but we got our GPS, and got on our way. Note to self...next time we plan a big trip in a different part of the world, spend more time learning the language!
It took us about an hour, and a lot of tension to get out of the town, as the GPS was sending us towards a road that didn't exist!  We found there are at least 20 ways to get back to the same corner, by taking various different streets. Things were getting frustrating to say the least, so I turned on my wifi connection for my cellular service, and though it cost an arm and a leg financially, at least Google Maps got us out of there, when the GPS (at 15 euro a day) could not.
That was not a good start to our driving experience in Italy, but the remainder of the drive was not too eventful, thank goodness!  Although a lot of roads end in unexpected ways, the ride was scenic and we were happy to be seeing Italy in a way the tour buses would not allow.
With the heavy rains occurring on and off throughout the day, all tours were cancelled, so  an afternoon nap fit the bill very nicely when we made it back to the resort.  
The rain continued throughout the afternoon.  We headed down to get a few groceries and to see what was happening, but it was a pretty quiet . A number of people playing cards under the shelter of the roof outside the bar, a pingpong game going on, and a few people with their laptops checking email.    
We stayed for one drink, then headed over to the mini-mart to get some stuff to make a replica of the tomato/olive/mozza sandwich we'd enjoyed at the beach the day before. We also bought a deck of cards, thinking we'd play a game or two of crib with the weather being so off. There we got another surprise, when we found out that typical Italian playing cards are in no means typical to what we're used to. They are called Napolitane , with a deck of 40 cards, so we looked up the rules for an Italian game called 'Sopi?'  Cecil managed to lead 17 to 6, when I was saved by the bell...literally, as Joe and Cyndi from Iowa dropped by to tell us they had their rental, and to look at what would work to travel with them to his ancestral home.
After they left, I  managed to capture a few shots of an amazing sunset, but unfortunately was just at the tail end of what looked to be an amazing sky as it lit up pink behind the statue of 'Cristo' on the hill above. I promised myself that I'd pay more attention to time in the days ahead to align myself to be at hand when the sunset is beginning.
Quiet night on the complex, no music or dancing by the sounds of it, only the wind continuing to blow through the trees in the aftermath of the rainstorm.  Pure bliss.

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