Castrovillari (LIKA) - Reggio di Calabria (LICR).
Italy.
Flight No. 016.
Quick announcement: I’ll divide the flights from now on into small “etappes” which get a full description instead of rambling about every single village in every single picture.
1. Castrovillari - Cosenza: We crossed Castrovillari itself (Pic 1), then followed Highway A2 southwards (Pic 2). We were now in a part of Italy so small, you could see both the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian Sea from 4500ft altitude (Pic 3 for the Adriatic). Passing Aviosuperficie Cosenza (Pic 4) and crossing Mucone River (Pic 5) we arrived in Cosenza (Pic 6).
2. Cosenza - San Mango d’Aquino: We saw snow in the southern Appenines near Santo Stefano Rogliano (Pic 7) where we joined Savuto River and followed it past San Mango d’Aquino (Pic 8) to the sea.
3. San Mango d’Aquino - Pizzo: Arriving again at the Tyrrhenian coast near Marinella we came across a proper airport - the Aeroporto Internazionale di Lamezia-Terme (Pic 9). We then followed A2 further along the coast to Pizzo (Pic 10) where we could already glimpse the outlines of Sicily.
4. Pizzo - Feroleto della Chiesa: We had to leave the sea for a short while near Sant’Onofrio (Pic 11), passing Acquaro and San Pietro di Caridá (Pic 12) and finally rejoining the coastline near Rosarno with this beautiful view of the mountainside villages of Laureana di Borello, Plaesano and Feroleto della Chiesa (Pic 13).
5. Feroleto della Chiesa - Viadotto Stalassà: The sun was already setting when we finally saw the Strait of Messina near Taureana di Palmi (Pic 14). So we gathered our last reserves and sped along the Highway “across” the Viadotto Stalassà (Pic 15) towards the sunset.
6. Viadotto Stalassà - Reggio di Calabria: After turning around the southwestern tip of the Italian mainland we could see both the Etna as well as Messina across the strait with Catona on our side (Pic 16). Beginning our descent we flew along the coast until Reggio came into sight (Pic 17). Finally, the landing shot - our last landing on the mainland of Europe for the time being (Pic 18)!
