Month: July 2012

After a few days of packing away and cleaning Mercier, ensuring she is ready for the Roman winter, we have landed in Florence, and our first night ashore in 2 months.

So we take the Eurostar from Rome Friday afternoon (travelling at up to 140 knots according to the GPS), find a lovely little B&B, travel outside Florence Centro Storico during the day and wander the streets at night.

We found a room off the grand Piazza Del Signoria, the wonderful La Signoria di Firenze, seconds away from the energy and activity of the surrounding piazzas, mercatos and gelato bars. Friday night we went to Trattoria Nella, a restaurant we have enjoyed on our last trip, where we shared a 1kg T-bone steak, Florentine style. Later there was a jazz band playing outside the Palazzo Vecchio, with hundreds of people wandering around the Piazza enjoying the warm evening.

At breakfast the next day, we meet other guests and chat about where everyone is from and it turns out that two of the other guests are singing in a chorale in the Medici’s own parish church, the Basilica of San Lorenzo on Saturday night.

It brings us to what we can’t put into the blog, the sounds. We have been lucky that as we are rambling through the cobblestoned streets of Florence, we are surrounded by  sounds. Early in the morning and through the days we hear the bells of the Duomo pealing, later in the afternoon, a very Operatic young busker, is doing a rendition of Nessun Dorma that would not be out of place in the Opera House.

Last night we went to San Lorenzo and listened to sacred music sung by a choir at the high altar; both the music and acoustics were sublime. Not something we would usually indulge in but for an hour in Florence, it was a wonderful way to see the Church, in full song.

Afterwards we wandered in the evening warmth, heat being released long after the sun had descended.  In a darkened alley of stone street below and stone building above, a haunting violin concerto being played by a statuesque woman followed us down the streets. The atmosphere in Florence at night is dramatic and engaging.

During the day, it is difficult to go more than a few steps in Florence before running into an umbrella lady leading a tour group, so we headed off for a little taste of Siena and San Gimignano. We realised we need more time to visit, but thought we would have a quick look and plan our return, as well as share the photos. Tuscany looks just like the description you have read in books or seen in the films. San Gimignano starred in the film, Tea with Mussolini, one of my favourite films.

We had a lovely sail from Capri to Ischia and this time we tried to do bit more research on the Thermal pools. James spoke to the Captainerie and they gave us the name of two, but he thought Poseidon was much the better.  Anne and I couldn’t persuade the boys to join us, so we jumped in a cab and we were delivered to Poseidon, the Disneyland of thermal pools. Six azure blue pools starting at 28 degrees and then working up to 38 degrees with a 15 degree plunge pool, laid out in a garden setting.  If you are in the area you should find Poseidon, we were so relaxed, it was just beautiful. We thought of Ulysses and realised it wasn’t a seductress that would kidnap the weary sailors, they just couldn’t bear to leave the pool of Aphrodite or the silky warmth of the pool of Ariadne.

The next morning, after one of James’ famous omelettes, we motored over to Ponza. This volcanic island is another that caters to mainland Italians on holidays.

We had a quick scout through the village and then jumped on a bus which took us over half the small island, vistas over cliffs to the Med, up terraced hills and all around incredible rock shapes, some like something out of a nightmare, craggy faces that could haunt your dreams.

Many of the beaches of Ponza are only accessible by water, so after unsuccessfully trying to walk through the Roman tunnels to Chiaiadiluna, a crescent shaped sand beach, we discovered the tunnel closed so we walked further up the hill to see if there was stair access, but it looked like there had been rockfall from the sheer cliffs  surrounding the beach. The beach was deserted and people were swimming off the back of their boats.

Anne and Cam decide to take the ferry back to Napoli, so we make our farewells and head over to Palmarola, another of the Pontine Island chain. We circumnavigate Ponza and then head west to Palmarola.

Arriving at Palmarola, which has a summer restaurant and a few holidays houses was akin to arriving first at Smiths Creek, when no other boats are there. Sunshine, blue water, BBQ is readied and the books are out, in place for those minutes right after your swim.  (nb: I don’t swim in Smith’s Creek but Shelley does, you get the jist. Also I would swim if I could see the bottom of Smiths Creek and I hadn’t seen that baby Hammerhead at Sharks Point).  The description of us would have been “relaxed, fully relaxed”.

We realised no longer had a reason to sail to Nettuno, that was to drop Cam and Anne over to the mainland, so we slept at anchor and motor sailed the 60 miles to Ostia on Sunday.

Now the hard part, clean and prepare the boat for the hard stand. Thus ends our sailing blog, but we will still keep in touch with the tourist portion of the trip. If you have any wonderful tips for “winterising the boat”, please send them.

Happy Birthday to Erin and Ed, see you both soon.

Anne and Cam joined us in Ischia and we took a long and winding bus ride to San Angelo and the beach there. We thought there were also hot springs there, but later we found you had to jump into a water taxi to get to the hot springs. What we did find was just a nice beach after the long walk down the hill and the water was like silk and a perfect temperature. The showers afterward were bracing and cold and gave us the energy to walk back up to the bus stop.

We actually ended up off the main road and seem to be walking through passage ways between houses, built into the hillside.

Monday, we did a short trip over to the very unspoilt Procida. This is a very small island with very little concession made to tourists. We were in a wooden docked marina across the island from the largest town, at Chiaiolella, nothing near us but a few small basic cafes and a lovely beach. (Cam and Anne the water babies, say “what more do you need?)

James and I took the local bus over to Porto and if you can imagine a mini bus packed full of people hurtling through one and a half lane streets, no side walks at a breakneck speed.  Ah, I see you think the house are built back from the road, or that’s it one way – none of that.  At time you were looking straight into someone’s window and felt like you should say Sera! or you are holding your breath as we pass another car going the other way. You can’t see daylight between them. Suffice to say, Procida isn’t a panel’s beaters paradise because they just leave the dents in.  Cam and Anne saw one scooter had a the whole of the front fender held together with sticky tape.

Porto was a lovely place, a bit shabby on the paint job, but with vibrant lovely people and lovely shops selling gelato, watermelon and wine but not many tourist tacky items.

Tuesday found us going south to Capri. Capri wants you to email them for a berth, which we had done days prior but didn’t receive an answer until we were underway. Sadly, they said no they were full, so we knew we would be anchoring in Marina Piccola, in the south of the island.

We decided to go via the famed Blue Grotto, but there was a swell and a sea way, so we couldn’t take the dingy in.  On we motored to Marina Piccola and found a wonderful large bay surrounded by soaring limestone cliffs, a verdant garden of a town, stone ruins of a pathway leaping up the cliff face.

On the  south eastern side of the bay were Il Faraglioni, magnificent pillars of rock, which are often photographed and star in post cards, films and books.  They were majestic and we went over to see them close up and you see there is an arch in one of them. Staring up at them from the base, you realise their roots go all the way over to Sorrento, of which they and alll of Capri, were once attached.

A westerly swell came in with 15 knot gusts of wind, so James and I stayed wiith the boat, while Cam & Anne went ashore. We would be so sad about this turn of events but we hope to be back next May and we will spend a few days in Capri.

Thursday afternoon, we braved the whirlpool entrance to Nettuno, with strong current running in, then out and with rocks to the south of us.  Once inside, the marina was comfortable and quiet, underneath an old walled village. There was such a nice breeze on the boat, we sat with a plate of chilled watermelon and spring water and just relaxed.  It is very warm here in Italy at the moment, at times we are melting.  Sailing and motor sailing are great, because we find the wind cool but on land it is hot.

Around six, we went up to the village and found a Bar – more like a Bakery with coffee and alcohol. Aperol and soda ordered, the girl comes out with a full tray of amuse bouche. Tiny little one bite morsels as well as olives and potato chips, some are pastry with tuna or ricotta cheese and others are bite size sandwiches. Sometimes you can’t fit in dinner when you have all of these taste treats.

At Nettuno, we are circumspect and polish off the olives and go wandering into a newer part of town to provision. We discover fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, eggs back to the boat and finally into town for dinner.
We take a different way into the old village and see some people staring at a wall, so we wandered over to see what they were looking at, it was an old fountain, possibly Roman or at least medieval and it was still gushing water at a great rate.
We went to Romolo’s for dinner, famous for their zuppa de pesce and it was so beautiful, we took a  photo.

It was an early start the next day, as we had to cover about 50 miles, nice for us we had a lovely breeze on the stern quarter.  We arrived at Isola Ventotene, just in time for the start of a mini-regatta.  Boats ranged from 25 feet to 60 feet, all starting and finishing just off the nearby island of San Stefano. Magical venue for a Friday afternoon, anchored between the two islands to watch the race.

Eventually, we made our way into the marina and wandered around Ventotene, an island known to be a place of banishment for the Romans and later Mussolini used Ventotene to keep non-Fascists in one place. The small old harbour, was hewn out of rock, this bit of architecture was orchestrated by Agrippa, a right hand man to Cesar Augustus.  His wife, Julia had a summer house here.  Before they married she created a villa to entertain her paramours out of sight of her father, Cesar Augustus.

We climbed the steep stairs and strolled through the hill top village, enjoying piazza life. It seemed the whole village and day trippers were on the piazza, enjoying the cool breezes at the top of the island.

On Thursday morning, we departed Porto Ferraio on Mercier to make our way to Porto Azzuro.  We almost feel guilty, once again stating the skies were a brilliant blue, the sun was shining, as we know it has been cold in Oz, but you will eventually see the photos anyway.

As Porto Azzurro came into view we saw the buildings were of every shade of gelato and there was a big fortress on the hill overlooking the harbour. As we entered, we were stopped by the Carabinieri in a motor launch.  He asked for our papers, listing what was necessary and handed out a fishing net so that James could drop in over water: insurance documents,  passports, boat registration and ownership papers and Jame’s Certificate for his ICC qualilfication.  We waited, staying close to their stern, until they handed us back all the documents again with the fish net over water a mere 90 metres deep.

We decided to anchor in the the harbour, so we could have a bbq in the evening. The bay is protected from three sides so it is a very comfortable anchorage, clean enough to swim and room for quite a few boats. We also had the added entertainment of a team rowing something like a surf boat around the harbour with a very vocal Cox, exhorting them to greater efforts. They were very practiced, each oar working inline with their teammates’.

We took the tender into the town and wandered around, looking at buildings and shops, buying a few items for the BBQ and of course, enjoying a gelato.

There is a great deal of pride taken all over Italy by local makers of artigianale gelato; some use honey and cream and flavours are quite diverse.  Gelato seems to be the reward we have for climbing stairs or taking a long walk or having a long sail. We took a photo of our Porto Azzurro’s gelato- scrumptious.

Our next stop was to be Isola del Giglio, an email from April, reminded us that the Costa Concordia would be there. We wondered if it was still there and if we would see it. Sadly you couldn’t miss it and sailing by you think of the 32 poor souls that weren’t expecting to perish, so close to shore on a pleasure cruise.

As it turned out the harbour didn’t have room for us at Giglio, which was a pity because it looked really interesting from the sea, so we motored on to Isola di Giannutri, an almost empty island with an anchorage  surrounded on two sides by sea gull breeding grounds.  It wasn’t possible to eat on the stern, because we would have had to many uninvited guests.

Now we are going back to the mainland of Italy. Ciao Bella

Tuesday morning finds us facing a westerly swell on our way to Elba, but it doesn’t last that long from shore and we have a pleasant sail for several hours. Before we are half way there we can see the Island Of Elba.  Famous for…that’s right:  Napoleon’s exile, his prison was a most beautiful island and he had lovely accommodation.  Elba only managed to keep Napoleon for a year but chances are if he was sent here now, he might not want to leave.

We sailed in to Citta di Portoferraio, with the yachts and super yachts tied to the old town’s harbour wall and looking at Darsena Medicea  or Cosimo Medici’s dock. The town is built on old fortifications & ramparts to protect from pirates and raiders.

We have just landed when we hear an Aussie accent ask about the boat, a couple from the CYCA, came to ask about how we liked Mercier and what was good or bad. . It was great to hear an Aussie accent.

He purchased a Beneteau Sense 43 in Sydney – the one that was at the boat show.  He has had a few of the same small problems that Mercier has had.  What was different was that our friend, Simon, at Sunbird Yacht sales has had many of Mercier’s issues remedied and still has a list to be worked on.  These lovely people were fixing theirs themselves. So I am sending a big thank you to Simon, Eric and the great team in Palma. You are appreciated.

Judging by the frutta di mare seafood soup we had for dinner last night, the food is excellent and the café was in a little laneway away from the hustle of the waterfront.  Melbourne has nothing on Portoferraio, these are cobblestones lanes and very rustic houses, with planters of laurel and hydrangeas to take your eye away from the peeling paint.  After dinner, we walked back through the old buildings to a full moon over the harbour; it was as if the man in the moon was smiling down on us.

This morning we jumped on a bus to visit Marciana Alta for lunch. We relished sitting in cool breezes at the highest point on Elba and also one of the oldest.  This is an old Pisan fortress. There was an initial disconnect as we reached Bar La Porta for lunch, BB king was playing and the blues played under these brilliant blue skies the entire time we were there. Made for a very mellow lunch after we got over our surprise.

After lunch we got back on the bus to take the long way to Portoferraio.  The views were sensational and at times on the bus literally breathtaking. That was because we were so close to the edge of the cliffs and we could see the clarity of the water almost 300 meters straight down. I would have taken photos but it was a matter of white knuckles on the rail for most of the trip.