Ischia
We have had a wonderful 4 days at the island of Ischia just off the coast of the Gulf of Naples and approx. 15 miles from Capri. It's the most expensive marina we have ever been in,(considering we had to pay a bus pass violation of $31.95 for not putting our tickets into the machine correctly) but I guess if you sit close to the Garden of Eden, you can charge whatever you darn well please. I told them they were molto caro? for the kind of showers they have, so each day they have charged a little less. Today, the manager told me we need to sail back to spend the winter here. I told him this winter-Turkey-if we like it; next winter-Punta Ala-we know we like it.
Today we took the bus to the top of the island where we could see across to Capri and Sorrento. Tomorrow, we will sail for Solerno where hopefully, we will be able to take the train or bus or rent a car into Naples. Jerry loves naples. He hurt his back yesterday carrying diesel fuel, so we need an easy sail and some rest. Guess we're not as young as we used to be. Every once in awhile something happens to remind us. We have a new bow ladder so we drove into the slip instead of backing in. This necessitated my raising the cans to the second step and Jerry reaching over the bowsprit to bring them on board. We thought it worked OK. He says he just slept wrong! Hope so! We are up to 5 weeks! no cigs and he's still sweet? And we are wealthy! On board a sailboat, wealth is measured by the amount of diesel in your tanks. At E5.00 a gallon- 120 gal. on board we are wealthy and with the US dollar only worth 75 cents to the Euro the ATM's may soon send us away. It's frightening to take out E250 from the machine which comes up over $300 from the checking account. An E8.00 pizza is actually $10.00. We can empathize with our Canadian neightbors.
We have found we can spend hours in sidewalk cafes watching the people. We love the Italians, Jerry says,"You know they're alive" La Dolce Vita!! We don't love the way they drive their cars or their motorcycles,(they have really great reflexes, and it's the only place I know of where the driver is always at fault if they hit a pedestrian) This doesn't do the poor pedestrian much good, though-but we can understand the difference in our life philosophies. One of our Dutch friends told us they think Americans are old ladies, but we don't have the constant experience of living in such close contact with so many people. Jerry has found that advisory traffic laws may be wise. If there's a space on the sidewalk, why not park in it? Otherwise, it's just wasted space.
It's time to hang this up! I don't even have time to keep my journal because we are so busy.
We miss you all! I need to figure out how to cook our vitello.
xoxoxoxo
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- June 5, 2004