ISLANDS OF HEAVEN

ISCHIA ISLAND

A 40 minute ferry ride from the less than picturesque city of Naples (Napoli) and we arrived in the lovely beach side town of Ischia. 

A quick 5 minute walk and we were at our hotel, that we lucked out with a last minute online booking the day before. Villa Maria welcomed us right in and helped with suggestions for some dinner recommendations.

Ischia is an island of 46 sq km in total, but a 'town' area of 1 boardwalk strip of restaurants along the harbour where sailboats and small yachts are parked with sun soaked bikini clad girls and clearly wealthy families wear their popped collared polo shirts, over the shoulder sweaters neatly tied at the neck and perfectly pleated knee length shorts with matching boat shoes strutted their stuff.

We had some delicious water front meals here in restaurants with the proud owners flaunting the fresh catch of the day in stunning displays of fish heads in the ice display, as well as a few early morning beach workouts and a day of sun soaking on the paid for lounge chairs.

We also spent the good part of an afternoon at the Nembogo (spelling?) which is a beautifully designed mineral spa oasis along the sea edge with a total of 39 different pools, hot springs and mineral spas. Unfortunately we chose a day where the weather was not on our side, and after a facial, massage and a quick walk around and 2 hot spring visits, we were headed back in to town, for another yummy dinner.

Two relaxing and beautiful nights in Ischia and we were off to our next island of luxury...... CAPRI~

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CAPRI ISLAND

Well if we felt 'poor' in Ischia among the popped collared polo shirt wearing yachters, we felt like trailer trash in Capri. Having said that, nobody made us feel an inch out of place, and in fact we loved it here. Asides from the $10EU espresso / americano and the $50 Eu salad, small pasta and 2 glasses of house wine, we could have stayed here for the rest of our trip.

The town is set from sea level to mountain top, with stunning views of the turquoise water, and limestone cliff edges. The hotels and homes look like pictures of Greece, and the shops boast names such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tods, D&G to name a few.

We took a private boat tour around the island in hopes that our driver Marchella could sneak us into the famous Blue Grotta, but the sea was not on our side, with water too rough to fit a boat in today.

The 2 hour private boat tour took us along the sea edge as we basked in the sun on the bow of the sweet little boat, being told to completely relax and enjoy.

Marchella took us as deep into multiple hidden caves amongst the cliff edge, each with glowing green reflective sheens from the gorgeous water. We were so close to the caves edge we could reach out and touch the walls..... So incredible. He also showed us the massive cliff side mansion where Georgio Armani spends his summers over looking the glorious green blue waters as He masters up his next collection.

We didn't plan our island vacation very well in accordance to our flight to Sicily and our flight left early enough in the morning that we would miss the ferry back to the mainland airport, and so we actually had to lose a night of luxury in our Capri 4 star, for a night closer to the airport in Naples.

This was a sad moment when we realized we would have to leave this incredible mountain top grace land, but it had to be done.

We hopped in a cab once we ferried over to the mainland, and cringed as our driver took us through what we immediately referred to as the GHETTO of Italy. 

Thank God we were inside the cab, because outside was NOT welcoming.

Somehow we pulled up to our hotel and to our surprise we were in a diamond in the rough of Naples, in a 4 star $60 Eu hotel booked once again last minute online.

We spent a quick night here and were at the airport by 7 am the next morning for Sicily, where we would spend the next 7+ days with our wonderful friends Julia and Cicco.