Maratea, Italy...breathtaking!

While travelling, I am glad I made the choice to relax and enjoy the wines of the areas after a year of not consuming any alcohol. We are back into wine country here, wine and corn fields...lots of them, just as in Switzerland. I really must google and see what all the corn here is raised for...it's a bit of a mystery to me, but my guess is to feed the cattle to produce the milk for cheese!
I am so happy to finally be getting this opportunity. Its been a long time coming, and really just so hard to believe that we are finally here, and still asking myself, what is it that has always drawn me to want to explore this beautiful part of the world. Why has Italy always called to me, when so many other places on the map never have? I wonder if maybe the next few weeks will answer that question, as I wander and explore, and we gather this experience together.

We made it to Maratea...by the skin of our teeth. Our train broke down in Sapri, and when i looked at the map it was closer to go from here Maratea than our planned stop at Scalea and back to Maratea was. We had time with the breakdown to go and find out that we could get a cab here for 40euros, about the same as trying to arrange train and cab when the train was fixed so we opted for that. 
The view between there and Maratea was breath taking, but the ride was death defying! Never have I ridden in a vehicle with a driver that was so prone to attempting suicide on every hairpin curve and bend! The ride over was approximately 30 minutes, but it was hard to tell when you're hanging on with white knuckles, looking over the cliffs to the sea below. The direct switchbacks along the road were endless, and our cab driver was not opposed to pulling out and passing the vehicles that were going a shade slower to him at any bend in the road...and there were many, many bends!
I was very surprised to see that we made it  safely and in one place, although to the wrong place. We ended up at the top of the mountain at the Ritz!  It's another hotel with the same name as ours, but several hotel standards above with marble floors and 360 degree views of the sea below. Didn't take too long to see that we were in the wrong place, but fortunately they sent the hotel van to take us down to where we were meant to be.
We arrived at Club Residence Pianeta Maratea, a large sprawling series of apartments in a timeshare area. We got checked in with little problem,but unfortunately, everything here is stairs...which will be fine when we are not toting our luggage up the miles of stone steps to get us to our little bachelor pad. Of course I tend to view everything through the disability lens when I'm travelling...knowing what would and wouldn't work with the experience we lived.  This would not work if your mobility is an issue, that was for sure.
There is nothing fancy about the unit, in fact it did look a little tired and worn. However, we must admit, the place was chosen because it was close to water and was within the limited amount of points we had with our timeshare, so it's not expected to be a 5 star. 
That said, it does have everything we need right here...pool, laundry, travel centre, mini-mart, restaurant and bar. 
We ventured down for supper when we got settled, to find that they didn't start serving until 7:30 after the staff had eaten. So we settled in for a wine and beer and relaxed with the amazing sunset that I was unable to capture as I left my camera and phone in the room.
 I had a 'special pasta' with tomato, mushroom and bacon sauce, while Cec enjoyed the grilled seafood entre. Mine was okay, his was very good, although not too filling, but the piece de resistance was ending the meal with a Sicilian Canolli...now that was amazing! Our meal including beverages, came to only 40 Euros. 
We ventured over to the mini-mart to get a few supplies. They have a butcher on hand, with many cuts of dried/smoked meats, as well as olives and cheeses. we ended up with 4 bags of food that included 6 beer and a bottle of wine for 38 Euros, less than expected for sure as we really thought that the onsite store would be much more expensive for sure!  When we later looked at our bill, we realized that the 250ml of Pepsi was our most expensive purchase!  Costing more than a litre of white wine, and almost as much as 4 Peroni beer!  Who'd have thought!
We climbed the many steps back to our apartment, managed about 30 minutes before we fell into bed. Except for the leg cramps from lack of drinking water the sleep was wonderful, and caught up on about 9 hours! Yay

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