Tuesday 8 June, Taormina to Bascilicata, mainland Italy

From Sicily to Italy's instep. The lack of action today gives me the opportunity to fill the space with another pointless list.

Five Reasons Why Italy Is My Favourite Country In The World. Ever. (warning: the below contains patronising parallels with Developing Nations and excludes banalities concerning how great the food and people are)

1 The towns have that slightly third world smell of two stroke engines and the distant aroma of sewage.
2 Marvellous oversize Italian flags fly from official buildings. LOOK AT US WE ARE A COUNTRY.
3 Minor public officials and law enforcement officers have wonderful epaulettes and shiny badges that inform their subject of their importance.
4 The graffiti on ancient monuments is classier. Sharonia ti amo Kevinio just sounds so much better in Italian.
5 Italy has not succumbed to the Americanisation of the emergency vehicle horn, preferring the old fashioned, air based, system redolent of a more innocent age.