Do as the Romans... and head south

The next day in Rome, we had a breakfast of the fruit we had bought at the little store down the street and set off for our day in Rome. A “dragged” me to her favourite shop to buy me a delayed birthday present. A silk scarf with beautiful turquoise and coral designs. She then led dad and me to this little market across the river and left us, with a plan to meet up for vino later in the day. 

Dad and I walked the market, laughed with the vendors at our inability to adequately communicate and finally bought some delicious food. We agreed on three sandwiches, some veggies and a bottle of white wine, all of which we brought to the side of the river and picnicked by the Tivere. I found us a comfy, sturdy wall to sit on and we ate in the brilliant sunshine, looking out over the river, under a chestnut tree. 

Once finished, we were both relatively tipsy and headed off to wander aimlessly. It must run in the family, this love of walking around with no set destination in mind. We ended up at the top of a hill, above Trastavere, near the Spanish Academy, overlooking the city. Once my photography needs were satiated, we made our way back down and set off on a mission to find me a bathing suit for the upcoming trip to the island of thermal baths: Ischia.

The mission proved successful. I found a little store run by a lovely Italian woman who I joked around with about needing adequate coverage for the winter curves. Dad, not one to be shown up by A who had bought me a birthday present, was generous enough to buy me the bather as a delayed birthday present. It seems to be an ongoing fight between the two of who can be beholden to who(m?). I’ll just sit back and enjoy the fruits of the fight. It’s like being a kid in a divorce who keeps getting presents, minus the divorce. A keeps threatening dad that she’ll keep me and adopt me and dad keeps reminding her that I’m his, not hers. I keep explaining that it doesn’t matter, as long as they both keep me well fed. It’s adorable.

After the swimsuit mission, we went to meet A at the wine bar and sat and had a bicchiere each of delicious vino, recommended by the surly owner (who wasn’t actually surly, but quite sweet after we joked around with him a little). We headed back to the apartment so that I could get my computer and connect to the world wide web for the first time in *gasp* three days. Also to figure out where the hell we were going, how we were getting there and where we were staying.

Two hours of internet searching led us to rent a car from the airport in Rome, drive down the coast, bypass the city of thieves/Napoli and catch the last ferry from Pozzuoli to Ischia and arrive, several hours late, at Villa Ravino, where we have rented an apartment and may never leave.

The drive yesterday was incredible. A friend of mine has always raved about Italy and has been here several times. I never really understood the attraction until yesterday’s detour/drive. I finally get it. We were driving down the coastal roads, on these little windy roads, past little villages with the Med, a brilliant blue on our right, and these gorgeous green hills that turned into craggy mountains on our left. I felt such an amazing
sense of soul coming from the land. It must seem super cheesy to say, but I just get such an amazing vibe from the actual earth here. It just seems happy, laid back and abounding. As if it has all the time in the world to produce a cornucopia of delicious food. I love the language... it feels like sumptuous food in your mouth when you speak it. Every word just tastes amazing and feels like an old melody that you’ve known since childhood. Then there’s the food. Enough said.

Anyway, after realizing that the scenic route was taking us 3 times longer than the autostrada, we changed course. Thanks to the amazing technology of the Iphone map ap, we hit the big roads and zoomed down, past Napoli, to Pozzuoli, where we arrived just before the last ferry left for Ischia. We had time to buy our tickets and some picnic makings for the ferry ride and got in line to load our little fiat into the belly of the monster boat.

An hour and a half ferry ride, past little islands that seemed inhabited only by villa-like fireflies, we arrived to Ischia. The drive from the ferry to the villa wasn’t too bad, but we arrived in the dark and after the land-lady had gone to sleep. She graciously woke up and showed us to our quarters. The situation seemed bleak last night. The apartment is decorated in the style that my great Aunt Katie’s cottage was decorated. We decided to sleep on it and make our decision of whether or not to stay the next day.