Day 11 - Monday April 24, 2023 Crotone, italy

By Ellen Outten


Crotone, Italy, a nice little town.  Small by a lot of comparisons.   Bigger ships would never be able to dock here, but  since Viking's shipis small in comparison to the big liners, we docked instead of having a sea day while heading to a bigger port.

We took the included tour, "Crotone on your Own".   Viking gave us a map of the small town and let us walk around on our own after shuttling us in from the ship. The ride in was only about 5 minutes   It was almost like a scavenger hunt while we looked fof the church, the archeological museum and the castle.  

Sunrise from the ship nearing Crotone 


Our first stop on our walking tour.   The church of St. Mary Immaculate in Crotone. 

The town had "historians' dressed as Pythagoras and Pythia giving us the history of the town.  The town was founded by the Greeks in 70 BC.  There was a portion of a wall from the Byzantine empire next to the church.

The town was all cobblestones and everything was either uphill (steep) and of course we had to come downhill as well.

The next stop was the National Archaeological Museum of Crotone.  I went in to explore.  Wayne stayed outside and made new friends.  The museum has gathered many of the artifacts dug up in archeological digs throughout Crotone.


restoration and cleaning being done

Medusua and Gea



From the museum we walked UPHILL over the cobblestone pavers to the Castle of Charles V.  The castle dates back to the 16th century.  The castle remains, mostly unscathed and we were able to climb to the top and look out the watchtowers.





 
The view (our ship) from the highest watchtowers of the castle



All of this, except the castle, was free; paid for by Viking with a tasting of granita (slushy water ice) and if we chose, a typical dessert served in Crotone.

We walked back into town to look for lunch.  The restaurant said it would open at noon.  At noon we entered and typical Italian.  They said they would open in about a half hour (or thereabouts).  We walked around the corner and had a beer while we waited the half hour.  It was a side walk cafe and they brought a small piece of spinach pie, some nuts and some pretzel like 'things' to much on. They also brought some candy (dark chocolate cherries, the real sweet kind).  Beer and chocolate?! After two Peroni beers, we had, had our lunch.  No need for anything more.  

Italy is different.  It's like Mexico or Spain.  All the stores closed at 1 pm and reopen at 5:30 pm (or thereabouts), I guess.We caught the bus back to the ship after our beer.  

8,809 steps for me as I write this.  Time for dinner soon.


Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 24, 2023 at 8:52 AM

    Church does resemble those in Mexico. The town does look small.

    ReplyDelete

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