MARATEA

August 28 Tuesday

I went back to Maratea after learning that the first time I went there I really did not see the center of town.  And there was the statue.  I could see the statue from where I got off the train.  It was very high up on the hill overlooking the ocean and the valley.  I wanted to go up there on my first trip but with no one at the train station to help me, I decided to just go down to the coast and see the ocean.  That was the first time in Maratea.  I had to go back.  Before I did I looked it up on the computer to get any info that would help me.  I knew I couldn't walk up there.  It was just too far and if I did walk I'd have to walk down and I didn't know if I could do that.  So I took a taxi up there.  Good thing.  It was a really long trip.  When I got up on top  I was even with the top of the clouds.  It was so much higher that it looked from down below.  The statue is of Christ and it's about 60 feet high.  It was built in 1960 among the ruins that were so old there wasn't much left to them.
So then I had to take a taxi down to the center of Maratea.  Most of the center is shops with stone walkways where no cars are allowed.  So I walked around and then went in to a store and when I came out there was not one person outside and all the shops were closed.  It was 2 p.m.  It happened so fast. (siesta) I couldn't imagine where all the people went.  So I started walking down. Back to the train station.  It was a lovely walk-hardly any cars.  I got to walk among the houses on the very windy, narrow road.  It took me an hour and a half.  It was 6km or 4 miles.  I thought maybe I could catch a train that stopped in a beach town on the way back to Sapri called Aquafredda.  But no train was stopping there. So I went back to Sapri a little early and decided to look for my calico.  Maybe I could feed her again.  But she wasn't where I'd seen her before.
I had a wonderful day on top of that mountain overlooking the sea.