Italy

Sarah

Italy was a treat, and a real relief after Greece.  We were feeling a little burned out of the Med and tired of being tourists, but the first town we stopped in - just a normal old little port on Sicily - evaporated all our negativity.  We fell in love again.  The people were charming, the language wonderful, and little English was spoken, but they were extremely patient and helpful with our Spanish/Italian limited vocabulary and mime. Just being able to read the alphabet for a change was great!!!   I think Australia was the last time we were able to do that.  The fresh bread and butter was divine, and every single little crammed packed supermarket had delis better than most delis you ever see back home - the salamis and prepared meats and cheeses - YUM.  Another thing we loved about Italy is almost every town we were in the Italians all go out walking after dinner - along the promenade - there is often a wide street right by the water, and it appears everybody, young and old, go out walking and socializing late into the evening.  After Sicily we stopped at the Aeoli Islands.  This was an eye opener in terms of Mediterranean tourism - it was packed!!  And during anchoring we were very distracted by seeing our first flying dinghy - an inflatable dinghy just like our Ieuan with ultra light wings was cruising by us and it TOOK OFF!! We couldn't believe our eyes, it was just like "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".  It spent all day flying around the volcano.  We went up the more traditional way - on foot, not being comfortable with dinghies that take off.  The crater was pretty impressive, and the sulphur crystals around the rim were beautiful.

One of our favorite places in Italy was the Amalfi coast, very scenic.  We spent about a week in Amalfi, taking day trips on the bus from there.  It was full of tourists, but with great atmosphere, interesting little streets, and we were tied up right in town.  We had to take a hair-raising bus ride around a very narrow road along the cliffs to Salerno to get things done (bigger town).  We wanted to get Emma's bladder looked into again, and once again this turned into quite an exciting time.  Just finding the right part of the building, and locating someone with a little bit of English is a major accomplishment.  We did find a very nice English speaking Doc, but otherwise it was pretty much mime.  We were told to come back next day, early, and Emma was to have a full  bladder so they could do an ultrasound.  So off we set next day, with Emma with a full bladder and an hour long hair-raising bus ride and a twenty minute taxi - she demanded a toilet on arrival.  OK, just pee a little bit if you can.  She did pretty well with this, only to find the ultrasound wasn't ready, "go pee" they said and then drink lots of water - and when your bladder is full again we will do it.  OK. So Emma drank 1 1/2 litres of water.  We are ready!  Just wait a bit more.  Finally Emma gets called, to go and sit in another room waiting with all the other patients.  I need to pee, she said.  Hang on.  Half an hour goes  by, I need to pee!!!  I go to the nurse and say she needs to pee just a little bit, in Italian - you can imagine.  No she says.  I make it clear that the situation is desperate - Emma is actually in tears, so she takes us to the ultrasound room, barges us in when the next person comes out, and I tell Emma she will just have to pee on the table if she has too. When he finally saw the size of her bladder he said - get her to a toilet!!

 We also took bus rides up to Naples for the day, and to Pompeii.  Naples was fun, although pretty dirty, lots of graffiti and not nearly as nice as Seville.  Once we found the centre we liked it a lot more, and all the narrow streets and balconies were pretty. Douglas had put a lot of pressure on us going to Naples in the first place, and then eating pizza there.  So we went to a real backstreets place recommended in the guide book, prepared to be let down, but it was without question the best pizza we have ever eaten, and probably the cheapest pizza too.  The restaurant had a big wood fired clay oven on each floor, and they popped those pizzas out really fast.  The place had three floors and it was jamming with local families.  The only other tourists were easy to spot as they were also carrying "Lonely Planets".  We left the city late and tired, taking a fast intercity train in order to meet up with our bus. However we had forgotten about Italian train schedules.  It arrived 45  minutes late, and went incredibly slowly, and we had to pay extra because it was intercity.  Needless to say we missed our bus (last bus) by five minutes, and the only option was to take a taxi costing $60 dollars!!!!!  

 Pompeii was fantastic. The entrance to it, with all the touts and sleazy souvenirs reminded us uncomfortably of Egypt, but once inside it was peaceful.  By the end of the day we knew the layout of the town and had walked on every street and looked in all the houses and shops, and it is impressive what you can see, everything is so well preserved.  The artwork, and the cobbles on the streets and the shop counters and bakery ovens, and mosaics on the floors, were almost like new.  The city really comes alive.  There are also some casts of bodies that were made as the bodies were found, as at the moment of death. I found that fascinating - a real step backwards in time.

 The weather had us hunkered down near Ponza in the Pontine islands for several days as we waited to cross to Sardinia.  We listened to the Italian forecast every day, and every day strong westerlies were forecast. There is such a thing as getting too much weather forecasting.  Oh well, the scenery was beautiful - high, dramatic, white cliffs and clear water.  We took a day to install our cockpit speakers - bought in Cyprus.  Put off for a while because it entails crawling into the bowels of the boat in order to try and snake speaker wire back from the stereo to the cockpit.  Just deciding on location took about an hour - sawing big holes in the cockpit fibreglass is fairly irreversible.  A very successful project though.  We did get determined and headed out early one morning only to turn back and find a new hidey-hole.  When the kids woke up we tried to make believe we were in Sardinia but they didn't go for it.

 We made a couple of stops in Sardinia.  One at Puerto Cervo where the rich and famous hang out on their mega yachts.  A totally manufactured town that we didn't like at all. We kept a good look out for Mick Jagger and Rod Stewart but no go.  We  did hear Hugh Grant had just been there.  There certainly were a lot of large boats, actually a fleet of Maxis gathering for a race week.  They had an exciting time on our second morning there as a gale blew in.  They were all stern-tied close together and beam on to the wind, and all starting rolling severely, which set these 15+ crew boats all into a panic to get out of there.  A huge powerboat with a J-26 stored on it's upper deck was rolling ear to ear.  Securely at anchor we watched all morning as a tug got employed to slowly pull them off one at a time.  The channel into the anchorage was scary looking with breaking waves.  When we did leave the weather was fair and the maxis were heading out for a race.  We sailed out in front - and then behind - and then slowly meandered around and watched them all jockeying around for the start.  It was a beautiful day, with sheltered waters between islands and pretty surroundings and we had a blast.