Basil is marooned in a sea of mist like the Marie Celeste. Not at all what we had in mind when we came to the south of Italy.

We had a peaceful night, save for an owl or two, on our free picnic spot, sandwiched between a deserted seaside town and a coastal forest. I discovered through the wonders of the internet that our location, Metaponto, was home to some ancient Greek ruins, but we were aiming to see a major Italo Greek site at Paestum in a week or so, so we decided to give them a miss and move on.

These days we tend to think of the ancient Greeks as having lived, unsurprisingly, in Greece, but in fact much of Southern Italy was colonised by the Greeks before they were, in turn, conquered by the Romans. There are consequently Greek remains all around the southern Italian coast and in fact some of the best preserved ancient Greek ruins are to be found here and in Sicily. The most successful Greek in the ancient Olympic Games was Milos of Croton, who was from what is now called Crotone, just 10 miles or so up the coast from our current location.

Anyway we upped sticks and drove across the “arch” of Italy’s foot to the “ball”. We were heading for another ACSI campsite to have a couple of days to catch up on the washing and soak up some sun.

We found a lovely place next to the sea, with another magnificent display of wild flowers, for lunch. After lunch, as we were driving at speed (well what counts for speed in Basil) there was a loud thump from Basil’s rear. We looked at each other but could not account for the noise. I drove on gingerly pulling over as soon as I could, getting out fearing the worse. But I could find nothing, so that remains a mystery.

Another lovely lunch spot

Wild flowers everywhere

As we drove the last few miles what at first appeared to be smoke drifted across the road from near to the sea. But as we progressed it became apparent that it was sea mist. It has been warm today, up to 23º C at times, and so we assume it is caused by warm, moist air drifting over a still winter cold sea.

Despite the heat some locals still have their puffer jackets and scarves on. We speculate that there is some date in the calendar, unrelated to weather, when we will find the whole of Italy casts aside it’s winter woolies and emerges in it’s summer splendour.

We arrived at our planned campsite, Villagio Punta Alice, and checked in. It is essentially shut down for the winter but has a few motorhomes and caravans, some, with potted plants around their pitches, appear to have been here the whole winter. We found a pitch adjacent to the beach. The longer term residents seem to be away from the sea – perhaps they know something we don’t.

The mist rolls in at Village Punta Alice

The dogs have been for several runs on the beach with Sarah.

As I said, we intended to stay for two or so days, but if tomorrow dawns misty I’m not yet sure whether we will stay or push on further into Italy’s “toe”.

BTW, the post title is a film reference, but I hope the film’s plot does not repeat itself here at Village Punta Alice.