Beside the Seaside

« In Which Things Heat Up | Home | In Which I Flounce Out Of Italy »

In Which My Soul Remains Unsaved

July 8, 2008 by Mike

Numana

Route: Lido del Sole - Pescara - Civitanova - Numana

I could have turned inland today to visit the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. San Giovanni Rotondo is home to what's left of Padre Pio, the only man whose face is more ubiquitous in this country than Berlusconi's.

Padre Pio is HUUUUUGE business across Italy. There are pictures, ceramics, books, postcards, statues and posters in every town and village. Mostly the same picture. I'm afraid it looks to me like he's just smelled something on the sole of his shoe. I've seen nothing like it since I was in Naples when Maradona played there.

Pio, declared a saint by Pope John-Paul II, was a monk who lived in San Giovanni. For fifty years until his death in 1968, he exhibited signs of the stigmata -- the wounds alleged to have killed one J.Christ in Palestine some 2000 years ago. Now I may find all of this hard to believe -- and the veneration of the man hard to stomach -- but it wold have been an opportunity to see for myself, ask questions and hope to find some answers. Also, as his body was recently exhumed, it would have had that extra 'yuck' factor.

Except, by all accounts, San Giovanni is the most overblown, overhyped, over-commercialised tourist-trap in all of Italy. And that's going some. And -- the clincher -- when I asked locals in Lido del Sole, just 25 miles away, they shrugged their shoulders, looked away, went silent, pretended not to hear, pretended not to understand, smiled and stayed silent or changed the subject. They were embarrassed to be asked.. for fear I would demand an answer.

Padre Pio doesn't appear to have done any good in keeping this small factory open, does he?

So instead I rode north along the coast road through rich farming country and lush green hills.

"This is like Kent," I thought to myself. "The Garden Of England - with sunshine."

"Or in other words, Mike," I replied, "it's nothing like Kent at all."

By the roadside, a badger corpse. Another traffic death. I'm afraid I've seen more dead creatures on or beside the road in Italy than in all the other countries of this trip put together.

I want to give this country the benefit of the doubt and remind myself that it could be the hot weather -- the best of the trip so far by a distance -- causing the animals to move out of their safety zone. But the appalling driving (remember, every traffic accident I've seen in over 30,000 miles and 21 countries, has been in Italy) and the appalling litter problem, mean I find it hard not to blame the locals.

As summer comes posters are going up in shops and bars advertising fundraising football matches, between local amateur teams, in memory of former players who have died. Lots of them. Young men dying? In Italy? What are the chances they died in traffic accidents?

The most bizarre news story of the day (of the trip?) also says more than most about the Italians and their roadworthiness.

It was frontpage news in the Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno.

The Mayor of Bari announced a new road safety campaign. Anyone caught riding a motorbike or scooter without a helmet will be given a free helmet. 'But', ran the headline on the front page, quoting critics of the Mayor, 'this will increase the repression of those who do not respect the law.'

I checked. It's not April Fool's.

Look closely and you'll see a wasp behind the lenses over my left eye - it hit the sunglasses when I was doing about 50mph and somehow ended up inside. I stopped to take this picture.. which was when the little critter started to move its wings. Eeeeek! Off came the sunnies (2€50 - a bargain) and the wasp crawled round a bit.. stunned.. before departing this mortal coil. Sorry Mr Wasp.

I stopped a few miles south of Ancona. Because the town is called Numana. Because of Gary Numan. I'm already suspecting this may be a mistake.

Beside the Seaside

In Which My Soul Remains Unsaved

Comments

Leave your comment

Latest comments