Learning the ropes at Club Residence Pianeta Maratea

The Tyrrhenian Sea viewed from Club Residence Pianeta, Maratea

After a good nights sleep, a 9am rise. In our shopping the night before,  I thought I had bought vanilla yogurt for breakfast, but turns out to be vanilla pudding. Definitely should have learned more Italian, but a tasty start to the day. As we enjoyed the morning sun with olives, cheese and coffee on the patio,Cec noticed a little collection of lizards of some sort that seem to reside in the plant boxes on the patio.  Not exactly sure what they were called, but they sure move in a hurry.   If he hadn't noticed them before I did, I sure they'd have given me a heart attack!
Before 10am it was already very, very hot out. I didn't expect such heat...now looking back, I wonder to myself what is was that I did expect!
Our Sunday was a lazy day. We headed down to the travel booth about 11 and found a couple of options of tours  to take, as well as possible options for a rental car that would get us to Otranto the following week.
After figuring out a few things, we grabbed a couple of bottles of water, and planned to go to the beach. Beer  in the Resort mini-mart is 80cents, suntan lotion is 13.00 euros...so not everything is reasonable!
We took our expensive lotion and our water and headed to the bus stop to wait for the bus that takes you down to the beaches. After sitting on the benches for about 15 minutes, we got thinking that it was time for the drivers' lunch break, so we walked back to our apartment for lunch...and to look at the schedule that informed us that the lunch break doesn't happen until well after 1, so after gobbling down our olives and cheese we headed back to the bus stop.
We caught the 12:30 that took us down the windiest, steepest trail I have ever ridden on. The view was amazing, but the look over the edge of the road a little unnerving! The first stop at the bottom, the man seated across from us got up and off the bus, so I jumped up and followed, Cec jumped up and followed me... unfortunately, we were not at the beach, as we were the only two that jumped off at the little bar/restaurant that the two trails leading up from the beach meet at. So, what else, but to have a beer, and an ice cappuccino and wait for the next bus.
When it came, we hopped on, only to find out it went about 20 feet then turned around and headed back up the hill to the resort, so I guess were were very close to where we needed to be, but just didn't know it. We decided to wait until the next day to venture down again.
After returning, we had a couple of drinks at the bar then we headed up to the room for a siesta, that lasted almost 3 hours. I can't believe how tired we were, in the afternoon heat it seemed like the sensible thing to do. That evening we made our way back down to the main reception area to do a little more research on getting a cab to take us into town to do some exploring. Waiting for the restaurant to open, we had a great, and very interesting conversation with a couple from Sidney Australia. They have travelled to Italy 3 times now, and had lots of good information on Venice for when we hit there. They had a rental and had done more exploring than us, but seemed as nervous of the other drivers  as we were after yesterday's experience!  However they confirmed for us that it's possible. We'll see.
There was some relief provided in the conversation as they did confirm for us though that we're not the only ones that found having to make our beds a little strange, as well as having to phone the front desk to find out where the cutlery was hidden.  No one ever thought that kitchen tools would be stored in the bottom of the fridge I guess!
Throughout dinner we were entertained by a young woman who sang just beautifully.  Although it was close to the end of the tourist season there, there were still lots of activities going on for visitors.  In the morning there was water aerobics going on in the pool, the afternoon offered dance lessons by the restaurant, and in the evening plays and activities  going on down in the amphitheater.
My only wish was that I'd thought a little more about what the weather would be like, so I'd have been better prepared...for some reason I didn't take any of my sundresses, and very few cool clothes...not sure what I thought the weather might be like...but never thought it would be as warm as it was. But it's all good!

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