Island Life

We started our day with breakfast using supplies we had purchased from the supermarket. We find the kids are not keen to head out early for breakfast and a quick croissant or sugar filled cereal does the trick.

The supermarket has been convenient for when we are happy to spread out in the apartment and not always eat out. I was super pleased to successfully order items from the deli counter yesterday. Funnily enough it was with my fellow adventurer Max providing moral support again. We ordered pickled octopus and melanzane. Don’t stress! Not for breakfast. That was for a home dinner. I also got bags of fresh buffalo mozzarella still in their liquid. So cool! The biggest, meatiest tomatoes, bruschetta bread, mortadella and some sort of sliced cheese. We enjoyed that for dinner followed by the fruit our host left us abs you guessed it, a walk to the village centre for granita.

Today we thought we might explore a neighbouring island but decided to further check out Ischia instead. We caught a little taxi van down to Sant’ Angelo. The village had such beautiful waters and a little thin strip of beach with umbrellas on either side. The buildings of Ischia are all bright white with bold coloured doors or the buildings are pastel painted with white doors. There are religious mosaics and paintings of Mary

everywhere. Bougainvillea was everywhere and also an abundance of cacti. We decided to have lunch in a restaurant overlooking the water. I’ve been aiming for us to have our meals in well regarded restaurants when possible. This restaurant didn’t rate well. Mike pointed out that since this island is 99% Italian visitors, they rate their food highly and are quick to judge the cooking of others and other regions. The view made up for it and when the food came out, we actually quite enjoyed it after all.

The original idea was to swim down at this beach and hire another pedal boat with slide for the kids. However the water was very shallow. You literally had a metre or two of swimming area and then it was roped off. Either it got what they regarded as too deep or maybe so boats could pass safely.

So after a few photos and some shopping we got back in a taxi with a man who looked over 100 who guided us back across the island to our local beach where we hired a pedal boat for the afternoon. The man who hired it to us wanted to make sure we could all definitely swim. I reassured him we could.

This gave us the freedom to go out deeper beyond the crowds to jump off or slide off the boat to swim. The boys enjoyed swimming over to some rocks to jump off and explore.

What I really like about Italy is that every woman wears a bikini. Every single one. There is nobody with a one piece bathing suit. It doesn’t matter what your age, body shape or size is, they wear their bathers freely and happily. Same goes for the men and what they choose to wear. I love it.

By the evening we were all sun kissed and exhausted. We ventured out for one last dinner at the first place we ate at, the open air restaurant. Turns out that’s a trattoria too. I thought I’d eat the main dish of the island which is rabbit but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It looked fiddly and I knew that if I got it, my table mates would have plenty to say about it. I chose the gnocchi.

That evening at dinner we all reflected on this trip and what we had done. We spoke of our favourite parts, the worst parts, the best beds, the worst showers. Mike and Isla both said their favourite place had been Ischia. I got butterflies. The place that made us the most nervous and concerned had turned out to be pretty special. It had pushed us out of our comfort zone but had a lot to offer. I guess I wanted it to be a relaxing part of the trip but also felt the need to see as much of it as possible. Yet we didn’t know exactly what we were meant to see and the language barrier just made it so much harder. It would be like someone from overseas travelling down south for the first time. They would want to visit Busselton Jetty, Meelup Beach, Margaret River Chocolate Factory, wineries, breweries, caves, lighthouses and maybe some sort of extreme sport. Plus the beaches. Where as locals we might go down and spend the entire week at our closest beach without going anywhere else.

So would I suggest people go to Ischia? Yes. Especially if you want a taste of the real Italy and you’ve done the Amalfi Coast and Capri before. I think it

would be even more incredible to stay in one of the classic resorts and hotels without kids haha. They have amazing hot springs and health resorts you can go to for the day with dozens of pools at different temperatures in a few locations on the island. They also have amazing beach clubs dotted around that often have celebrities and royalty visiting! Definitely not for the Rossi fam this time. We looked into it thermal springs to visit but Max and Isla were not permitted in most of the pools so it wasn’t worth our while on this trip.

Thank you Ischia. You were what we were after! Even though you were a little bit harder to navigate and figure out. I’m proud we ventured off the beaten path and I know one day look back and be glad we went there. Just like Isla and Mike. Next stop is Bologna!