[ July, 2015 ] The place we stayed in Calabria, southern Italy, was just outside the small town called Roccella Jonica.
First, we visited the town and walked around there.
There is a ruin of a castle on top of the hill and we chose to stay near here because of the lovely pictures we had seen.
In fact, they were doing repair-work on the castle when we were there.
It seemed that this work has been going on for more then two years.
There were some old houses in the town, which we enjoyed taking photos of, but most of the houses were ordinary renewed ones.
That reminded me of travelling in Sardinia where we moved around looking for old quaint villages.
Not only in this town, but we often noticed houses under construction.
They were clearly not completed, but people were living or doing business there.
In the past, I remember hearing that when they have enough money, they will continue the building work.
The real reason is that because the authority cannot demand tax from a building that is not completed, people keep this situation going for as long as possible.
I bought a hat in this town.
I wanted to use coins to pay, but I did not have quite enough.
The shop owner said “don’t worry” and gave me a small discount.
This kind of generosity is the strong point of southern people, but at the same time, I thought this may be the cause of the fact that the work goes on and on.
