The Gelato Shop is Trying to Sleep

So here we are in Ischia. We’ve been taken across the island and I’m desperately trying to see the positives while also helping Max who is now feeling a little motion sick from the boat and now taxi ride. I’m pushing down my own feelings of nausea. My legs are slipping all over the pleather car seats with sweat. The car windows won’t open. I think we’re in over our heads. I’m not sure we’re all cut out for it. I don’t feel unsafe but I’m definitely uncomfortable. I’m wondering if Mike is the same.

We pull up and the driver motions to us that this is our stop. We get out the car and it always takes us a few moments to do a head/bag count and load our bags on our backs. As we do this I hear my name being called. It’s Luigi our Airbnb host. He shakes hands with each of us and apologises that we had to take the back roads in. For some reason the roads were closed and we didn’t take the coastal drive in. Or at least that’s what we gather. He guides us through the biggest door we’ve ever seen but the actual inner door opening is small and Mike and I duck our heads. It’s pretty cool. Through these grand doors is a large open courtyard with other doors to other peoples homes. From here he takes us up a flight of outdoor stairs that wrap around a curved building. I notice it’s the same white render we chose to have for the house that never evolved back home. For a fleeting moment I reflect that if we built that house, we wouldn’t be here. In fact we still would be waiting for that house to finish! My render choice would have been amazing by the way.

Anyway the apartment looks like it’s been recently renovated. There’s another one down stairs that Luigi is still working on. With nobody using. This instantly reassures Mike and I that we won’t be spending the next four days quietly yelling at the kids telling them to consider the neighbours below us and stop screeching like monkeys and stomping like elephants. They made fun of us in Monterosso and one of them said “guys be quiet, the gelato shop is trying to sleep”. In Rome we were also above a garage “guys, shoosh! The cars don’t wake up as early here!”. So the kids carried the joke on.

The apartment is beautiful and we are excited to have two bathrooms, three aircons and a patio to sit on. Not to mention a spiral staircase to a sun deck. It feels a little like Greece. Except there is pots of basil and rosemary dotting the property. They also stocked our fridge with beer, water, local wine (red and white), all kinds of soft drink, mixers for spritz, butter, milk and juice. Breakfast was supplied in croissants and pastries, a coffee machine, cakes as well as biscuits, toast crackers and chips. Wowzers! Ischia is looking up. Later in the week Luigi would drop little gifts of a beach umbrella and some fruit which was like a yellow plum from his father in laws property. He proudly texted that it was a free of chemicals. Oh and it had a PlayStation. The boys were stoked.

We’d had a big day travelling and the kids were keen to take their shoes off and relax on their devices. It was also really hot. Mike and I ventured out to find a supermarket. The place was deserted and all shops were closed. Stay calm, stay calm. We found a supermarket and stocked up on some drinks, some breakfast items and beer for Mike. We walked slowly back to the apartment and noticed that we appeared to be staying on the main street. There was this moss covered fountain right in the centre. It was wildly pretty and the sound of the fountain was relaxing. The shade made it like an oasis. It was surrounded by restaurants that were empty except for a few grumpy looking old men with no where to be. We did however spy a gelato shop with

genuine gelato and a boy working at a granita stand. That will please us all.

We return to the apartment and Luigi has kindy advised us two restaurants to eat at. We tell the kids they have have another hour or so of down time and then we’re going to head out further and see where the beach is and get some sort of dinner. It’s easy to hide when you don’t really know where to go. Our apartment is nice and the kids really enjoy just relaxing in the holiday accomodation. They don’t care if we go out. But we didn’t come on holiday to hang around indoors. I tell myself this as much as the kids. Be brave Bek, be brave.

So we head out towards the beach. Suddenly the entire village is alive. People everywhere. Buskers playing music and every bar, store and restaurant is now open with people enjoying appertivo - drinks and nibbles. This is the true Italy. They genuinely stop and go home every afternoon in the hottest part of the day. It’s still hot so we don’t walk far but come across one

of the restaurants Luigi suggested. They say they’re fully booked. We indicate we’d like to make a reservation for the following day. They ask my name and write down Rosy. I guess I dont look like their typical Rossi. We continue on along the beach and everywhere is booked. It’s 8.30pm now and the kids are hungry. We walk up and down our new village and decide to just get a takeaway pizza.

As we walk up to the takeaway pizza shop we notice people down an alley. It’s the same restaurant as the pizza place but they have a sit down area. Or so it looks. We walk into this open air area and it’s full of families and groups of people eating pizzas but also all kinds of other dishes. It is heaving and their is live music and lively conversation. All sun kissed and relaxed from a day on the island. We ask for a table and the lady says no. We know better than to accept this and stand a few moments silently. Then she puts her hand up asking us to wait. She’s found a table. We sit down and everything is written in Italian. The waiter does not speak English but has a welcoming smile. Oh geeze. We know how to at least order drinks. The male waiter comes back to see us and gives us a basket of bread and extra time to translate the menu on chalkboards around us. Mike taps into his very basic Italian word bank and I start taking screenshots on my phone and wait for google translate to tell me what things mean.

I order pasta limone which is pasta with lemons from the region (the lemons that grow here are enormous).The three kids get a pizza each. We are so close to Naples that we bet the pizzas will be great! Mike orders bruschetta

with beans and arancini balls for the table. He also orders gnocchi with meatballs.

Our meals come out and they are pretty impressive. Except for Mike’s dish. His order got lost in translation and he gets served cacio e pepe gnocchi with mussels. He’s too uncomfortable to send it back. So he eats it. And enjoys it! It’s really fresh and the mussels don’t taste fishy at all. His beans on bruschetta take him back to his child hood with his Nonna serving him pasta with the same type of beans.

The kids are happy and chatting away while playing some game they’ve made up at the table as they finish their meals. The sun that is setting over the ocean a hundred metres away makes the sky pink and the summer breeze is light and lovely. The large open air courtyard that we are in has an incredible vibe. Every time a table of people leave, more people come in. We can’t understand anyone and I can guarantee we are the only people in this

restaurant who are not Italian. Mike and I look at each other and I say “can you believe this?” We’re here with our three kids on this random island in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea eating dinner. He said he is feeling the same. It’s pretty incredible. Just our little family of 5 amongst all of these larger families doing what they probably do every summer. I get tears in my eyes and Isla looks at me strange. We are so unbelievably lucky to be experiencing this.

This little Island in a time warp is like out of the movies. I’m waiting for Julia Roberts to appear at any moment on a Vespa filming a romantic comedy. It’s just so pretty in this village that came to life once everyone had finished their siestas or returned from an afternoon at the beach. We’re ok, Ischia will be great I’m sure. We’ve got a nice apartment, we’re fed and there’s a granita shop we’ll head to after dinner (and continue to frequent several times a day while we are here). Im still overwhelmed by the island and doing it justice over the next few days but for now we’re good.