11. Tyrrhenian sea and Isola Ischia

 11. The island of Ischia

On the passage to Ischia we pass at least three further islands. The water is like a blue millpond - no wind. We pass Isola Ventotene which was a prison island and the prison buildings look quite austere. 

Many people have said we must visit Ischia (particularly Ruth Dover).

So here we are in a marina were I gulped at the price but it was worth it. 

We booked a daily bus ticket as hiring a car or scooter needed too much courage. 

Life preservation came first. 

We visited the most beautiful gardens - The Giardini La Mortella created by Sir William Walton the composer and his wife Susana. They created a space of tranquility with Tropical plants, rippling streams, fountains and ponds full of water lilies. 

There is a small concert hall and we walked in as we heard piano music and sat down to listen to the pianist practicing for a concert that evening. Our own performance with no one else there. 

I have done a video of the gardens to music but unfortunately it is too big for the blog but if anyone would like to see it I can send it to them by wetransfer.com or even Facebook I think. It is about 500 mb. Here are some of the photos

We needed to continue our tour of the island on bus. The next driver could only be described as an Italian version of Sterling Moss or Lewis Hamilton and the track was a very windy road going up a mountain side with a large drop down a cliff. To start with the driver just missed a scooter by 2 cms. The man was left hurling Italian abuse (I presume by his facial expression). The next encounter was a sudden braking on a very tight narrow corner to meet a similar bus - 10 cms this time. Any straight section of road was for full acceleration. I was sitting facing the back of the bus but was able to watch Lesley's expressions to know when to look around and when not to.  

We had a brilliant meal in Porto Ischia amongst the bustling restaurants in the port. 

Porto Ischia was buzzing at night with the restaurants and shops open and the Italians promenading as they do.

That evening when returning to our marina on the local bus I stood up from my seat to punch the tickets in the machine and then sat down again but the seat had flipped up and I landed on the floor to raptures from the young passengers and Lesley just could not stop laughing.  

However lesson is definitely to use the local buses - you meet all the characters and local people and see their life on the island. The second point is to decide whether it is safer to go by bus, scooter or hire car. Which ever way say 3 Hail Mary's before you start. 

Ischia is a wonderful island but perhaps Porto Ischia is possibly a little too commercialised. 

We now had visited the islands of Ponza and Ischia and now decided to drop anchor in Procida nearby to Ischia in a beautiful large bay overlooked by a Castle and town. 

                                                           Procida 

I suddenly remembered it was Sunday and looking over my shoulder I could see the sudden armada of small motorboats storming towards the bay except this time I have never seen so many small boats packed in a bay. We stopped counting at 500! By 7pm they had all left leaving 8 yachts to a peaceful night on anchor. This photo was after they had all left.