My first journey this year.
I'll mainly concentrate on the pictures.

Might not be absolutely chronological but I feel a need to share the lovely sights of this trip.

Me and my parents went from Vienna to Tropea by car.

We've had unbelievably snowy weather in Austria in late December and feared it would be quite cold even in southern Italy. We were proved wrong, however.

The way down through Austria and Italy:
Somewhere in Carinthia:
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/9607/kalabrien060069ux.jpg

Italian Motorway:
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/5964/kalabrien060037ds.jpg

We had to do an overnight stop somewhere in Tuscany. We decided to stay close to Montepulciano, a town where we had been very often before and celebrate the New Year there.

Crappy picture:
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/3010/kalabrien060115te.jpg

The next day, the 1st of January, we continued southward.
Close to Naples:
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/1923/kalabrien060398zy.jpg

Near the Basilicata/Calabria border:
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3659/kalabrien060529xm.jpg

Weather getting better:
http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/9726/kalabrien060718td.jpg

We finally arrived in Tropea in the evening.
I'll now show some pictures of the town and the hotel I stayed in:

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6264/kalabrien060789uf.jpg

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/4703/kalabrien060825nj.jpg

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/5559/kalabrien060854eg.jpg

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/5299/kalabrien061038yi.jpg

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/944/kalabrien061171tu.jpg

Pictures of places to see will follow soon.

from Vienna to Tropea.. wow, what a Trip!

how long did you take to arrive in Tropea by car?

great pictures, thanks :)

It took two days, from the (ver early) morning (ie 4.00am) of the 31st of December to the 1st of January, about 8pm.

^^ show Yukon and Alaska, too, please :D

Sure, I've already planned this.

Countryside around Tropea:

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/718/kalabrien061434ha.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9195/kalabrien061454kx.jpg

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/5082/kalabrien061506vw.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2475/kalabrien061546sf.jpg

Pizzo:
(Please excuse the poor quality, but I forgot my tripod at home.)
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8772/kalabrien061589rw.jpg

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/6506/kalabrien061597eb.jpg

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/7220/kalabrien061608uk.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5297/kalabrien061615vb.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3686/kalabrien062295kc.jpg

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/769/kalabrien062355fp.jpg

On the way to Gerace on the southern coast:

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1015/kalabrien061734nm.jpg

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/2835/kalabrien061759qt.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4039/kalabrien061790es.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6593/kalabrien061837mz.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2492/kalabrien061855me.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/767/kalabrien061888fr.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/6540/kalabrien061961jj.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/691/kalabrien062008hn.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2002/kalabrien062034az.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9098/kalabrien062122ng.jpg

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/8439/kalabrien062178km.jpg

Catanzaro, the (ugly) provincial capital:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5094/kalabrien062381nm.jpg

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4283/kalabrien062421nz.jpg

Tiriolo:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6749/kalabrien062448yv.jpg

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5352/kalabrien062525zy.jpg

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6672/kalabrien062716ze.jpg

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5410/kalabrien062759te.jpg

We decided to cross the Strait of Messina and visit the Sicilian town of Taormina:

The (originally norwegian) ship that took us from Villa San Giovanni to Messina, "Vestfold":
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/8458/kalabrien062810dc.jpg

Heavy ferry traffic:
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4849/kalabrien062916qp.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/3112/kalabrien062840ot.jpg

Messina:
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7954/kalabrien063048my.jpg

The Taormina gondola:
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7986/kalabrien063109dl.jpg

Taormina itself:
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5084/kalabrien063179jy.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7229/kalabrien063230km.jpg

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5168/kalabrien063272nl.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/8402/kalabrien063374qu.jpg

The ancient Greek theatre:
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4468/kalabrien063548fu.jpg

Towards Calabria:
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/3861/kalabrien063456sh.jpg


More Tropea in a few minutes!

Tropea:

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3593/kalabrien063792hn.jpg

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/1186/kalabrien063824rw.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9213/kalabrien063835yk.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5013/kalabrien063879hq.jpg

On the way through the Aspromonte mountains:

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8318/kalabrien064046ss.jpg

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/590/kalabrien064066cd.jpg

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/2181/kalabrien064095bv.jpg

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/9434/kalabrien064188mo.jpg

http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/1843/kalabrien064195ct.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7161/kalabrien064220sz.jpg

Through Reggio Calabria:
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/4336/kalabrien064328qm.jpg

Scilla, the plane where the bridge to Sicily will start:
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6200/kalabrien064342os.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3125/kalabrien064352br.jpg

Already on the way back:

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/1227/kalabrien064519tw.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/111/kalabrien064546xt.jpg

Vesuvius:
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7897/kalabrien064590pp.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/2027/kalabrien064602zz.jpg

The first hint of home, the Italian dolomites near Udine, between Venice and the Austrian border:

http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/7619/kalabrien064705ff.jpg


That was that and I really hope you liked it. Please comment!
Stay tuned for at least one or two other trip reports today or tomorrow!

..

wow...passed already a year since the last post...anyway...Catanzaro is really horrible...but exatly which was all the travel?

Well, I have to be honest, I don't really like it. Some parts look like exactly the same as poor Brazilian cities, too much dirt and all. But it must be interesting to see cities like this in Europe, a place you'd normally correlate with perfection and cleaniness.

but really, David showed not the usual pics of these areas...anyway...these are the poorest areas of Italty (14.000dollars the GDP), but scenes like the cars abandoned are not usual... O.O

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/4336/kalabrien064328qm.jpg

Why do the municipal authorities permit shoddy construction projects like these with exposed concrete and cheap brick blocks?

I've heard many people say that Calabria and other parts of southern Italy are full of half-built buildings that seem to have been abandoned, is there something wrong with the planning system?

^^ Chi gli spiega l'abusivismo ? :D

Thanks for the photos davidkunz/VIE, I loved them all, including the ones of the shoddy buildings, parking on pedestrian crosswalks, the skeletons of buildings that were never finished, and the abandoned cars, etc. : they are part of the Italy too.

Some areas have really good potential, I think you should preserve more the old buildings. I've been to southern Italy and I liked Pompei and Viteri del Mare (though the last one also needed some reabilitation).