Day 30: Cosenza, Italy

We ended up staying here in Cosenza another day. Not because of the many things to do, but because we couldn't find a hotel in Capo di Rizzuto area for under $300 (sometimes the last minute action comes back to haunt us). We did book a room for tomorrow in Crotone (town next to Isola di Rizzuto) after 45 minutes of help from our very nice and patient hotel staff. It would have gone a lot smoother if only we spoke just a little more Italian.

After all that, we decided to explore Cosenza. We asked the hotel for a map, but only got 3 directions: left for new town, right for old town, and behind the hotel for shopping.

We headed for old town, knowing there was a castle on top of a hill. Sounds easy, just keep walking up and we should get there right? Wrong. An hour later we still had not reached the top, and the only way higher was through narrow a street/sidewalk with big dogs barking at us when we got close (there didn't seem to be enough holding them back to convince us to go further up). We started following a road down, which finally led us to the path up to the castle and we arrived about an hour and a half after starting.

The castle was a weird experience. We reach the top, walk in, and the only person to be found is one park-type employee/security guard at a card table. So we walked around this very neglected castle for a half hour all by ourselves, which was pretty cool.

Old town Cosenza reminded us of Ogdenville in the Simpson's Monorail episode. It's like a ghost town. Basically, it seems like they tried to become a tourist town ten or twenty years ago, but abandoned the plans half way through (possibly after no one came) and there are only remnants left. This made walking around a unique experience relative to previous Italian cities.

On the way down from the castle at about 11, it seemed that the city started to come alive. After stopping for a beer we went to the shopping district, arriving at about 1. We found another ghost town. A huge pedestrian street with all its shops closed (shut with what look like garage-doors). Turns out, it was a siesta time. We headed back at about 5 and it seemed the entire city, from teens to senior citizens were slowly walking up and down the street.

We ended the day with a 4 course meal at our hotel (amazing what we get ourselves into because we don't speak the language). A bottle of wine later, it's bed time.

PS - Major development today, we bought plane tickets home. We'll be flying a Boeing 767 (not Airbus) from Dublin to Chicago on August 5th.