A couple of photos of the cathedral in Reggio. Note the Greek inscription over the entry – it’s not too long since they used to speak Greek in this part of the world. Prior to emigrating in the late 50s, my mother still had an uncle from a Greek speaking village slightly inland from her home village.

To borrow from Dostoyevsky, and then turn it around 180 degrees, I have a charming little anecdote about my visit to Messina.

Yesterday on the bus back from Tipoldi, I got to talking with a very ancient old man sitting next to me. Before he got off the bus he gave me as a memento of our chat this hand carved flute.

You should never stop believing in the goodness and generosity of most people.

Tipoldo is about 16km south of Messina in the hills above the shoreline. As you can see, the view is amazing and I assume that is some ancient hill top fortress.

I got there by riding the tram south from my hotel til the end of the line and then doing likewise with a bus.

iPhone photos cannot do justice to the spectacular sights I see along my trip.

Like most people I have a vain side, although I try not to indulge it too often. In Italy, people with university degrees frequently can lay claim to the title ‘dottore’, as it indicates that they are educated. So someone called me dottore yesterday, and despite having dropped out of my masters degree over 20 years ago I still felt rather chuffed about it and learned.

This building on top of the highest hill in Cosenza is a Norman castle.

I don’t normally take photos at night but I was at dinner with the group I’m with, and the castle was so well lit.

Dinner was good fun with everyone quite rambunctious and I will be sad when this conference is over tomorrow and we all go our separate ways, except for the sad reality that all wine and good food makes Ernesto a rather tubby boy.

After this, on the rest of my travels in Italy I will need to simply eat the free breakfast in the hotel each morning and no other meal most days, and walk everywhere! Otherwise I am going to come back rather overweight!

I’m in Cosenza for a few days at a cultural conference. Yesterday we went on a bus trip into the hills outside Cosenza. There we visited a very unique wine making project outside Acri, an ancient hill town which predates Greek settlement.

A local archeologist, with the sponsorship of a university, has recently embarked on making wine the Ancient Greek way, as people would have done here 2500 years ago, in amphorae buried in the Earth.

The whole idea is fascinating, especially as I am an amateur wine maker myself. The wine, Acroneo, is made from very ancient grape varieties and is very tasty too.

When I get home I’ll need to try and get some of it shipped over.

Just to show that I am actually seeing some interesting sights rather than following news from Australia on my smart phone, here is a shot of the 800 year old cathedral in Cosenza.

There are some other buildings in the same street which are even older.

It’s tricky to fathom all this, given the terms of reference for Australia in relation to old buildings is 230 years.

Right now I am in Cosenza in Calabria for a few days, but I can’t escape AFL and nor would I want to!

GWS is into its first grand final after giving Collingwood supporters more pain than the federal government’s refusal to increase Newstart allowances and quite frankly, I am happy. One of the sweetest things in following AFL after your team winning (2016 will keep me happy a long time) is enjoying the suffering of Collingwood supporters.

A simple life hack for people who are keen to attend an AFL grand final is to become a GWS member and pay up for the premium membership. You won’t see much competition. I may now think about adopting them as my second team.

There is abundant archeological and recorded evidence that the ancient Romans used to drive and walk on the left side of the road. It comes from keeping your shield on your left and your sword arm quick to draw, in case of ambush.

Driving on the left is what made the Romans great, and probably caused the British to do likewise. All this right hand drive comes from the French Revolution and the Americans adopted it in thanks for assistance in the war of independence. Crazy stuff with no sense to it except revolutionary nonsense.

More practically for me, it is doing my head in. Forty five years ago Hector the Cat taught me how to cross the road safely, and it all hard wired me to expect cars to keep to the left. It’s not safe for pedestrians like me in Italy, and I get the general impression the road toll here is ten times as high as back home.

And perhaps an urban myth, but I heard tell that the bloke who used to wear the Hector the Cat costume got killed crossing the road….

This train is a Frecciaargento ETR485. It has a maximum speed of 280 kmh. It will take me most of the way to Paola.

Why don’t we have trains like this in Australia?