Very cold night at Gambarie which was not surprising considering 1300 metres altitude, mid January and clear skies. In the morning it was sunny but not warm. We set off north through forests with still some snow on the ground and patches of ice on the road which had formed overnight.

We crossed a high plateau with fantastic views to lowlands to the west.

Eventually we started to descend towards the Tyrrhenian Sea firstly through an area of intensive olive cultivation where nets were  laid out out below the trees to catch the falling berries........

.........and lower down through an area of citrus fruit cultivation.

Before too long we came down to the coast and went northwards. We could see the volcano of Stromboli out to sea to the west. Then a really strange thing happened. We decided we had gone far enough for the day so we turned left off the coast road and a hundred metres or so down to the beach and came to the exact spot where we had stopped for the night on 22nd April 2012! Really , really strange.

This place is called Gizzeria Lido and we knew it quite well as we had been here before. We watched these guys net fishing - they caught almost nothing despite a massive effort - as I said before I don't think that there are too many fishes left in the Med.

There is a freshwater lagoon here inland of the beach - not dissimilar to Slapton Ley in South Devon.

As in most Italian towns and villages there is a marvellous walkway for the evening promenading. At this time of year however the promenading is mainly done in cars.

As it got dark this evening, looking out to sea, there appeared to be smoke coming out of the Volcano of Stromboli and blowing to the south with the prevailing wind. It was unfortunately too dark to be able to photograph this


.