Italy's Amalfi Coast Day 2

Day 2:  Arrival in Naples and a Day in Ischia

After an uneventful (finally) flight, we landed a day late in Naples and were driven immediately to the ferry terminal (about a 40 min drive) for our hydrofoil trip to the island of Ischia.

 Temperatures were in the 90s with a blazing sun and the A/C on the nearly packed ferry was not performing well.  By the time we reached Ischia, we were all sweltering and thrilled to be out in the fresh air. Our luggage was whisked away by one driver and we began a tour of the island with our guide, Victoria, in a traditional Ischial mode of transportation, the Ape (pronounced Ah-pay) car.  It is very similar to the tuk-tuks in Thailand. 

Ischia is the largest island in the Phelgren Archipelago in the Bay of Naples lying about 20 miles off the coast.  It is a volcanic island, thus extremely mountainous, but very densely populated.  The island is only 6 mi. by 4mi. but has a population of 60,000 people.  The rich volcanic soil and nearly 365 days of sunshine make it a perfect location for wine production which , along with tourism, is the main economic source for the island. Our drive from the northern end of the island to our hotel in the south took us  past beaches and beautiful views of the Bay of Naples.

We stopped for lunch at a family-owned winery up in the hills.  We had a wonderful lunch with all the ingredients fresh from the garden and more wine than we’d ever drunk at lunch. The setting was classic, a quiet table under an arbor of grape vines. 

Lunch consisted of antipasto with cheese (that I tried!), eggplant parmesan that was amazing, bruschesta, arancini, potato croquettes, and salad.

After lunch we toured the gardens and vineyards.

Rabbit is a delicacy here, and they are raised for eating.  Rather than above ground hutches that can get fatally hot for rabbits, they are raised in deep pits that stay cool all summer.  We are not planning any rabbit eating, though, on this trip.

We continued touring the island and made another stop at the Casa Museo.  This is the home of a local artist who has decorated his entire house in stone murals and stone covered fixtures, the most interesting of which was his bathroom.

There were also tunnels that ran from the house into the mountainside that were originally used by local people to hide from the ever present pirates that plundered the Amalfi Coast hundreds of years ago.  The house was fascinating but bizarre.

Our last stop was at the highest drivable point on the island to take in the view. From here we were able to see Sant’ Angelo, the village where our hotel is for tonight.

After a bit more driving, we reached our hotel, with only a few minutes to spare before we were met at reception by our captain for a sunset cruise.

Due to high winds on the western side of the island we opted to skip watching the sunset and instead, motor to the north end of the island to view the Castello Aragonese d’Ischia, the most famous landmark in Ischia (which we were supposed to have toured last night).

On the way there, our captain, much to Suzie’s chagrin, showed off his maritime skills by edging our boat into a tiny cave (without scraping the sides).

It was a very pleasant evening on the water, we split our first pizza here in Italy on the dock near our hotel, then off to bed, 4 exhausted old people!