September in Italy

We like it hot at Italian Harvest, and a trip to check out the hot pepper festival in Calabria in the fall seemed in order. Even without the festival, country folk and aristocracy here have been grating hot peppers on just about EVERYTHING they eat. All places in the world that are hot from the climate down to the passion of their style of living... have something in common with Calabria. John had been down there from when he was about 8 years old, and more in the 60s and 70s and it was really wild back then. Fishing village folk mostly dressed in black would crowd around our little Fiat 600 in 1961 like we were from Mars! This year we revisited a pretty good slice of it, from the stunning craggy coastal bays with fine sand and clear emerald waters below steep volcanic cliffs, to high mountains that have clear running streams... and skiing (!) in the Winter. You can still find some of the old peasant Italy going strong in this region. Check out the photos in this album to and get a feel for this southern Italian region.