An invitation you can not refuse in Crotone

39° 4′ 44.4684” N 17° 8′ 16.278” E
May 11th

“Do you know that in Calabria it is an insult to say no, when a man invites you to his home? You can get away with that in Sicily. But not in Calabria.” The man behind these words seems quite compelling. His name is Pino, he is 70 years old, a big man, that speaks loud and deep and is remarkably good in English – and then he is from Calabria, born in the city of Crotone, to which city we have arrived with our good ship Ronja.

Pino has just invited us to his home, and this is of course wonderful, if it had not been because we had earlier said yes to an invitation to enjoy a drink with our British friends Claire and Derek as well as Elisabeth and Ken on board the boat “Pala”.

“Just bring them all,” Pino insists. “I have a small apartment but a big terrace. There can be a lot of guests on that terrace.”

“Do you also have a bus to drive us in?” I ask skeptically. “Yes, I have,” replies Pino, pointing to a minibus with nine passenger seats, that is parked at the quayside. He also has a Porche, a Ferrari, a motorcycle and a lot of other cars but hurries to add, that we should not think of him as a rich man. Because he is not.

With a blend of my Northern European factuality and Pinos more emotional arguing (“I am insulted, if you say no!”), we quickly convince Claire, Derek, Elisabeth and Ken to drop the planned drinks and instead go a long with Pino and his Danish-born wife, Helen, to their home in Crotone.

And of course, it turns out to be a wonderful experience. On a rooftop terrace on the 7th floor with a magnificent view over Crotone’s commercial port and the ionic sea, we enjoy Pinos and Helens boundless hospitality. We taste local specialties like brandy brewed on cactus flowers and brandy brewed on oranges. In addition bread, cheese and grilled peppers, and yes, some beer and wine to rinse after with. Helen enjoys speaking Danish with Kirsten and I, while Pino serves and talks about classic cars in English with our British friends.

Pino and Helen met in the 70’s, when they both worked in the EU. They still have a residence in Luxembourg, but spend more and more time in their apartment in Pinos childhood city, Crotone, where a daughter and a grandchild also live. And how did we meet Pino and Helen? Well, through the kind of coincidences, that fortunately the sailing life is so rich of. We were in Palermo with a Danish couple, Sten and Rie, for 14 days, and they told us, that if we came to Crotone in Calabria one day, we should contact their friends, Pino and Helen, and if we had some Danish books we had finished ourselves, we should give them to Helen, because she loves to read Danish books but rarely has the opportunity to do that.

Crotone is a wonderful city. From the outside, the eye first meets a number of gas extraction platforms and a large commercial port. But the city has history, culture, beaches, a big fortress with an old city within its walls, as well as a very lively market. Very charming. It is a city we definitely will return to. And by that time not just for two days.