It was travel day, so we packed and sorted and got going. We were mostly on autostrada with numerous tunnels. So even though it was pretty good road there was a fair bit of NSFW chatter going on in the passenger seat.....divers, pedestrians, police, toll operators, road maintenance guys.......you know, any Italian really!
Some pretty countryside between us and the sea, and some amazing villages perched on hill tops. Jaimie Lee suggested we needed to take a turn towards Icily Oily. For a bit we were quite confused till we saw the sign saying Isole Eolie, of which Vulcano is the nearest. We got to Milazzo, and found a place to park whilst we found a place to park.......we needed a long term car park as we did not want to ferry the car over.
Got all that sorted and had lunch, picnic, by the harbour whilst we waited for our hydrofoil. Had a group of Germans put their chairs on our toes and build a wall of blockheads in front of us whilst we waited. They got grumpy when an Italian fellow sat on a chair they had marked out for their own personal and exclusive use. They are so charming.
An Italian queue was formed to get on, more NSFW chatter. The ride over was quick and travel sickness free. We checked into our hotel, only to find there was no water, so we went to the beach and had a swim in the crystal clear water. It looks odd because the sand is black, but the water is so very, very clear.
We watched a wedding photographer use Icily Oily as backdrops....
...and watched the boats come and go against the backdrop of Lipari and Salina.
Feeling very refreshed we went back to our rooms and the water was back on so we could shower before going out to dinner. We sat and watched the car ferry, and the kids playing and the people strolling by the harbour whilst we had a drink.
Then on to Maurizio's where we had a degustation dinner. Very nice and very interesting combos. Marjan found the squid looked a little too much like squid to finish, but other than that we got ourselves into a very sated 'another after dinner mint' state. The ricotta grated over the pasta was minor highlight. Never encountered hard ricotta before, though we had been told about it by Cristina and Angelo.
We hope to get up early and head up the volcano in the morning. We'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment