Not So Bad Afterall!

Just before the Moment of Truth

Actually it was pretty terrific.  After we got there, that is.  I set the alarm on the phone for 7 AM.  I forgot that the battery had been out of the phone for a while and the phone's clock had reset.  So when I got up at 7AM, took a shower, washed my clothes and laid them out to dry, and packed our picnic for the day, it was really 5 AM.  Good thing Bob had turned on the laptop to check his email and noticed the discrepancy in the time. 

I worked on my blog and email while Bob slept, and then at the real 7 AM we got ready, had breakfast, and left for the 1 1/4 hour drive to Castelmezzano. Well, maybe Italians could make it in an hour and a quarter.  We got lost getting out of town, then got on the freeway in the wrong direction, then got lost again getting off the freeway.  We arrived in Pietrapertosa about 10 minutes before we were scheduled to take the zipline from Castelmezzano -- we were in the wrong town.  Va Bene!  No problem.  The operators quickly rescheduled us and instead of flying from Castelmezzano to Pietrapertosa first, we did the trip in reverse order. 

It was incredible and fun.  Getting into the sling was a little awkward, and no one around spoke English so we did a lot of charades, hoping they understood what we were saying and vice versa.  "Blah-blah-blah-issimo", we heard.  Did that mean, "If you start to fall out of your harness over the gorge say a quick prayer and enjoy the ride to the bottom?"  About this time I was wishing I had found the wooden rosary store on the ferry from Croatia.  Once they had me strapped in they attached the parachute, the purpose of which was to slow me down at the end.  It was about 1 foot square.  What???   Was this some sort of cost cutting measure?  Don't they realize how much I weigh? I start to complain.  "Tranquila, Tranquila!" the operator coos, just before she slyly unclips the safety line holding me to the platform, and off I go, too stunned to scream.  It was really great, though. 

Once I opened my eyes and caught my breath, that is.  This first leg, from Pietrapertosa to Castelmezzano, is the short leg, and not as steep as the return flight.  The only scary part is landing, when you get closer and closer to the side of the cliffs and it seems you will run into the huge steel supports at the end. But you don't, and just when I was beginning to relax it was over.  I was actually looking forward to the return trip.  

We had about two and one half hours to spend in Castelmezzano, whch was a really beautiful but tiny town. Unlike the other towns we'd visited so far, this town had sort of a Tyrolean feel.  It was up in the mountains and must get snow in the wintertime.  When I was flying into town, I soared over a marching band that was playing and marching up the road to town ("Where did they come from?" I wondered. The nearest town was Pietrapertosa, several miles away up a steep cliff), and by the time Bob and I had landed and got a shuttle to the piazza outside the church, the band had reached the town square and was continuing to play.  We realized Mass was just about to start in the church so we decided to join in the celebration, and it was pretty interesting.  It was the feast of the Assumption of Mary - that's why the band had come to town - and the church was packed.  There was a nice choir during the service. We noticed the guitar player's music was not written in notes or chords but rather "Do Fa La So Re" etc.  Very interesting.  Bob called Communion a free-for-all because just like everywhere else in Italy, people pushed and rushed into the aisle jostling for position - no orderly row-by-row procession like we have at home.  And there were nine altar servers - about 60% of whom were girls.  Bob referred to two of them as bodyguards becaused they seemed to go everywhere just ahead of the priest, as if they were ready to take a bullet for the team. 

Another thing we noticed -  people here are VERY small.  We felt like Amazons.  There were only two people in the church taller than me, and I think they were tourists.  I could see over everyone's heads from the back pew.  Most of the doors to the buildings in town had a regular sized door and a midget's entrance that was about 3 1/2 feet high. 

After services, there was a parade with probably every soul in town, the priest and altar servers, the band, and a statue of Mary raised up onto a platform carried by some of the children.  A loudspeaker coming from who knows where started playing Salve Regina loud enough to be heard across the valley.  After that finished, the conductor struck up the band and everyone started processing to the east side of town.  That took about two minutes. Then they returned to the west side of town - another two minutes. then up a side street - one minute - then back to the piazza.  Fireworks ensued.  They sounded like (and probably were) M80's along with some fountains which sprayed about 50 feet into the air.  The rain had started to drizzle at the start of the parade, and was now coming down fairly hard, so everyone retreated to one of two local bars.  A shop selling clothing was passing out its umbrellas to bystanders - presumably they would return them to the display window after the storm passed. 

We had to leave to get back to the pick up spot where we would be taken to the starting point for our second flight.  We wondered what it would be like to rush through the rain at 120 kilometers an hour but luckily, the cloudburst passed and although it was overcast, it was dry.  I started to get a little nervous but realized the developers of the zipline had thought of everything.  To take your mind off the upcoming journey, they made you climb about a mile up an incredibly steep hill, so you were so exhausted and had no blood left in your brain to think clearly about what was to come.  Unfortunately, the hill leveled off about two-thirds of the way there, so I stalled by taking pictures of every kind of wildflower I could find along the trail to the launch pad.  I am sure some devious civil servant had planted them as another distraction to keep right-minded people from turning around.

One of several hundred wildflower pictures I took while stalling on the hike to the launching pad

Once at the top, I could no longer avoid the inevitable so I took a couple of swigs of Patron, strapped into my harness, and took off.  This ride was even better than the last one.  Although it was longer, steeper, and farther off the ground, the tequila did its job and I was able to look around and  enjoy the incredible views.  Sadly, it ended too soon but I can honestly say it was one of the coolest things I've ever done and I wish that everyone could try it.