Forza Italia! (part II)

On day 2, the hiking intensity ramped up even more significantly. We strayed from the beaten track and were traversing cliffs fraught with peril at an elevation of about 2,500ft. I know, I am not a wise husband (or father-to-be). But this island begged to be explored! Our hike on this day would last close to 7 hours.

Got to fuel up right if you're going to be hiking for 7 hours! Croissants
and Cappuccinos should do the trick.

Our breakfast spot on the right

Where's Wally? Oh! There she is. Taking a wee.
She'll kill me for posting this.

Half-way in we went for a swim

Fraught with peril I said. Stupidly, I sprained my ankle
after 3 hours. It hurt but wasn't bad enough to stop (not that
I could!). Then I went for a swim but being immobilized
meant I relied more on my hands which then suffered
severe lacerations on the coral. I'm a walking disaster. 

#selfie - isn't this what all the cool kids are doing?

After so long hiking... this beer...

...and this pizza....

...and... whatever these things were... cafe di crema?? OH! SO GOOD!

#accidentalselfie

The Santa Barbara

Some of the treasures we found that day were truly epic. This place has to
be seen to be believed!

As we hiked home the Italian Air Force conducted
drills over and around the island. I was in heaven.

Day 3, our last, plays on our conscience a bit. After some fresh OJ for breakfast we took what we thought was going to be a boat ride around the island. We had been thwarted in previous attempts to nautically explore this place as the choppy seas had most boats marooned in the harbour. The seas looked calmer this day though and we were excited to see the parts that it was simply impossible to hike to.

OJ to start the day

First stop on the boat - A beautiful cave

Captain's View

Remember that castle I showed you in the previous post? The one that
juts out into the sea all on its own. That was our second, and last, stop (more
on that later). We had it all to ourselves. I even found 2 chairs hidden in
one of the rooms.

I tried to capture the epicness but I couldn't do it justice

Well it turns out that the captain dropped us off at this spot and said "I will return to collect you at 4.15" which I heard as I am dropping you here FOR 15. It was all in Italian so that didn't help. We left our lunch on board thinking he would be back to travel on. But he turned the boat around, returned our lunch to us, then went back to the town. We were stuck here for 5 hours! So we made the most of it. Explored the castle, relaxed, went for one last swim, then hiked the 1.5 hours back in flip flops. We didn't tell anyone (our fellow boat passengers who just lounged on the little cove beach below) which was our first guilty burden. But worst of all is that we were meant to pay on the return leg but we were so dissatisfied with the offering (we could've walked to the castle - it was essential a ferry for the fat and old) that we decided we weren't going to pay full price.... which turned into not paying at all. Worst of all, we had to go to the harbour to catch our ferry back to mainland Sicily and we saw our captain! I was going to go up and explain the situation but Erin suggested I shouldn't (EVE!) and with the language barrier it would have been a tall order. So we ducked our heads and scampered onto the ferry, hearts pounding...and heavy. We must be the first people to steal from that place. We have ruined the innocence of the island. To top it all off, I had to break into the B&B to get our stuff to catch our ferry by climbing through an open window. This is all too long a story but you get the picture.... we are bad people.


There will have to be a part III. Sorry for the length. We are going to celebrate Oran's 30th birthday now. That means a certain Mrs. Rowbottom's must be coming up soon too.... We'd love to celebrate that as well :(