Arena

From the main train station in Rome we then decided to go down south to visit my families original house situated in Calabria, in a small town called Arena situated steeply up a massive hill. As a child I have heard so much about this town, trough family gatherings the family would always talk about what it was like in arena. My father was born in the town and his parents and so on. So I knew there was a large history of my family in this town.  We traveled to Vibo Valencia and when we arrived there we decided to catch the bus to the nearest town but after waiting for a while we decided to take our chances and spend the money on a cab. This turned into a wild goose chase as the road leading to Arena was under construction and had been for the last 5 years! So  the taxi driver asked local people as they would drive past directions on how to get there. Luckily a school bus heading to Arena stopped and gave us a lift there. This is the first time that I knew the language barrier was going to be a concern.  Because this town was off the tourist map we noticed the whole time how difficult it was to get our point across. The only break through we had was when my girlfriend pulled out Google Translate we then realized we could finally say what we needed to say. Arena is a small hilltop village barely changed for hundreds of years. The houses all grouped together literally built on top of one another. It has this amazing old world charm and beautiful views over the surrounding vistas. The streets all paved with cobblestones and the people all still stopping and shutting up hop at 1pm in the day for their lunch. It was a good thing to be able to connect with where my grandfather once lived. The house we stayed in was where he was born so it made it ever more so special.  People were also very warm and accepting as well, we made some fantastic connections with people. Even the old lady next door gave us home made wine, salami (supressa), olive oil, Lemons, Fresh beans, and you could tell when we told her we were leaving she truly was sad to see us go!. I seemed to be quite productive art wise in Arena, I spent everyday playing my guitars, writing and obviously painting. The landscape there was something spectacular; because you were nestled on such a big hill you had these beautiful undulating hills all around you. And all the scenery was such a vibrant green; in Australia the green of the landscape seems to be a lot more muted. I also started walking around as well, out of the town in the surrounding countryside area past people’s old farms and working little plots.  I really enjoyed doing this as it kept me in contact with nature.  It also allowed me to decipher a new type of landscape. One that was close to my heart .In this post I have attached a group of photos that show the town and also the landscape. It really was a great experience.