Ischia – Day 2

Wow, what a fantastic and calm night. This anchorage is perfect with no swell. Yes its true there’s no wind so that may have been a contributing factor.

Well we have decided to stay on another day and our first port of call is Castello Aragonese. The entry fee is €10 per person, but I have to say it’s defintely worth it. We spent 3 hours walking through the rooms, gardens, churches and cafe and bars. Its amazing, the smell of the flowers, the views of the surounding area and the shear construction of this awesome place took me aback. I think the best way I can describe it is in some of the many pictures that i took.

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One of the Cafe’s – Bars
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Some very needed refreshments halfway through our self guided tour. Mines the Campari and soda as I’m turning Italian. At this rate I may not come back.
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One of the most amazing views of our anchorage – Arctura is there somewhere??
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This room is below the church near the top of the Castello. It was designed for dead Nuns. They were sat in the stone chairs until their bodies turned to fluid and drained into the holes in the stone chairs. When the bones dried, they were taken to the ossuary. The living nuns were force to take daily prayers in this room, to humble them to the worthlessness of the physical human form.
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There she is. Arctura seen through the many tress and plants found in the gardens on our walk through the Castello

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Capri as seen from the Castello.

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These photo only show a fraction of what is found whilst exploring the Castello and the history of this fantastic island and the Castello would take many volumes of paper, so I’ll leave that for you to discover on the web. Needless to say I’m in awe.

After our tour we stopped at a beautiful resturant just the over side of the walkway from the Castello “ Ristorante Bar da Coco”. I highly recommend this for great fresh seafood and fairly priced. The resturant is a family run place for families. Most customers were Italians enjoying a Sunday lunch with family and friends and not a single iPhone or iPad in sight, WONDERFUL.

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Ed, with a litre of the house white. Great value at €8. Ed and I had Spaghetti Vongole, which was nearly as good as our very good friend Masimos, whilst Elaine had a delicious Octopus salad. All for under €60 including bread and two litres of water.

 

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Ristorante Bar da Coco with the Castello in the background

Well after all this we had to take the 2.5km walk to the main port. What a disappointment after what we have seen, but I’m sure there’s more to explore and be seem, but alas our time here is coming to and end.

Back on Arctura we put the tender away and I went for a refreshing dip around Arctura to freshen up and await the culernary delights of Elaine’s cooking tonight.

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Me having a dip in the glorious warm waters of Ischia

 

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