We crossed from the Puglia region at the heal of the boot to Calabria at the “toe”. Our first stop was to visit some friends in Crotone, an unassuming city in the “instep” of the boot. Our impression of all beach towns in Italy is that they are a little rough around the edges. Aside from the beautiful cities of Amalfi and the Cinque Terra, or our beautiful beach cities of Sperlonga and Gaeta, which still look “picture perfect” Italian. From the beaches just south of Rome all the way down to Calabria, the beachside cities are less than ideal looking.