27 June 2019

Athens to Italy in Twelve Short Days

Dear friend of 56 years, Paula, visited for five days.  Ironically, she started with us in Athens exactly where she left the boat in October even though we've been to Turkey and back.
Our mission is to get to Rome for a flight to Toronto on July 9th, leaving Athens on June 3.  Crazy fast given there are so many wonderful places to visit along the way but we have a berth in Fiumara Grande, the Rome port and a direct flight home for a three week visit.

Day 1:  5th century BC Doric temple of Aphaia, another of Zues' many daughters and made into a goddess of fertility and the agricultural cycle by Artemis,  on Nisos Aegina.  We were anchored in a strange beach town but the temple was worth the hot climb.

Day 2, 3, 4 - Poros, an island separated from the Peloponnisos by a narrow channel and a big bay making it a popular, sheltered anchorage for yachts. 

Octopi out hanging in front of a restaurant to entice diners???


We took the ferry to Nisos Idhra from Poros, preferring to avoid the chaos of the "one of the most beautiful harbours in Greece".  We were very glad to see the island and to avoid the small harbour where boats lined up in floating pattern to get a berth.  No thanks.  We walked along the coast through a couple of fishing villages.  Otherwise devoid of vegetation.

No cars - only a garbage truck - are allowed on Idras so the donkeys are prized and still working as beasts of burden.  They share the trails with hikers.


A very beautiful place that has had many people appreciate it including Leonard Cohen.  He always had very good taste.  Idhra is now a fashionable resort thanks to the likes of Leonard.

A painting.

The lovely harbour is pure bedlam for boats.  Once you get a spot, you must be tempted to stay for days!  


Idhra was well worth the ferry visit.  Lovely streets and although full of tourists around the overpriced but tasteful harbour, the quaint lanes going up the steep hills were empty and flower-filled. 

We had already done the Corinth Canal last autumn and so elected to take the longer but new-to-us route through the Saronic Gulf, around the southern tip and up the west coast of the Peloponnisos to Zakinthos, an Ionian island and then cross to Italy.

Night 5:  Monemvasia.  Anchored only in the bay next door to this Byzantine town, rebuilt by Venetians.    Apparently, the view from the church on top of the wilds of the Peloponnisos is worth the climb.  But the view from the sea was pretty good too.


The town is geometrically delineated by walls...

...on a Gibraltar-esque rock joined to the Peloponnisos by a causeway.

As we left in the early morning...very cool.

Churches and monasteries clinging to cliffs on the tips of peninsulas and in the middle of nowhere.

Night 6:  Porto Kayio.  The Peloponnisos has three fingerlike peninsulas on it's southern side.  The middle one, Mani, was intriguing.  We would love to have gone ashore.  It seemed very wild and remote with tower houses which the family shut themselves into to secure themselves from another threatening clan.  Apparently, the Maniotes were a fierce race of people even among themselves.  On the shores of our anchorage were some of the stone tower homes, now being purchased and restored and still in the middle of nowhere.


Night 7: Methoni - a Turkish tower and Venetian fort dominate the point and sleepy town.  


An underwater archeological site in the bay where we anchored has revealed amphorae caskets for children.  Interesting but a little grisly.

Leaving the bay on a clear early morning.

Dramatic rock formations at the entrance to the large Ormos Navarinou where a decisive sea battle in the Greek War of Independence.  The British, French and Russian Allies were victorious against the Turko-Egyptian even though enormously outgunned and outnumbered.
Night 8: Pilos, Taken from the castle that overlooks the entrance to the bay.


Within the castle walls where a whole town had been, now stands a church, turned mosque, now church in a dramatic setting.


Night 9: Zakinthos, the most southern of the Ionian Islands. Milly anchored on the town wall in the happening capital.

Nights 10 & 11: On our way across the Ionian to Italy, our only view of the famous blue cave.

We loved what we saw of the Peloponnisos - a fiercely beautiful and wild coastline, far less impacted by tourism than other Greek islands, at least on the south and west side, greener than the Cyclades and packed full of mythological stories and history.  We're sorry we couldn't stay longer to check out the interior.  Another time at a later date perhaps.
Our first passage of more than a day in months.  We had to motor sail the entire way. Our fuel bill in the Med is huge! 


18 June 2019

Family Time in Umbria


Extended land travel when you live on a boat is not as easy as locking a condo door.  We have to find a weather safe, secure and reasonably priced marina for Milly.  And then prepare her for an absence of TLC for however long our trip.  Prep increases with length of travel.  No matter how long the trip lines securing her and fenders buffering her topsides need to be just right for tide, currents, swell and winds from any direction.  It's helpful to be at the dock for a few days prior to departure to study her movement through at least a 24 hour period with, hopefully, a variety of wind directions.  So apart from when we're in a marina anyway for Mediterranean winters, we have not opted for overnight land travel.  There's so much to see that does not require it, that there is really no need.

However, a family reunion was arranged in Umbria, Italy.  And who can resist a special holiday with ones we love in a beautiful location!  We were already tied up in an unreasonably priced but secure and safe marina in Athens to see Tom's regatta which made the timing easy.  Off we went to Rome - by air.  And then to a villa on an Umbrian hilltop surrounded by lush, green hills - which got greener as the week went by due to an almost continuous drizzle.

The rear of the villa with five bedrooms and plenty of sitting places was perfect.  On a dirt lane, overlooking green rolling hills patchworked with fields and woods.

Old farmhouse converted to villa from the front.  
And then there was the infinity pool and pool house, a new addition to the property last year.  And the stereotypical cyprus.

Cocktails poolside the first evening when it was warm and sunny - the only poolside cocktails we had.

The "annex" with the 6th bedroom etc.  Very lovely!
Tom and Mikaela among the daisies, broom and iris on the side lawn.  Mikaela with daisy chain in hand.

It was so wonderful to spend relaxed time with my darling daughter.

Oops, more bubbly.

Our last evening when the sun appeared.  

Three cars allowed everyone to do what they wished during the day, whether touring, walking, hiking the nearby mountain or relaxing at the villa.  Evenings were spent being absolutely spoiled by a chef who made lovely four course meals with copious wine, having done all the shopping and cleaning up the detritus left behind.

The nearest hilltop town square, Chiusi.  Not so nice modern development at the bottom of the hill but sweet, small old town on the hill top....

....with the usual green view.
A Italian deli equivalent full of everything wild boar plus other delicacies in Orvieto, a lovely hilltop town.  Gid and Em charmed the gentleman at the counter to feed us plenty of tastes.  And then they purchased.
A special utensil that was pushed into the centre of this guy's homemade goat cheese to give us a taste.  

Mimi looking happy despite the boar looking over her shoulder!

Spying the Orvieto cathedral through the damp, narrow street.  

And then entering the square where it towers.  The front is painted with frescoes like we'd never seen before on the outside of a cathedral as well as intricate and incredibly detailed carvings between the doors.  Much more pleasing than the zebra-striped remainder of the building.  

The well at Orvieto on the edge of the hilltop completed in 1537 to supply water in the event of a siege. It is 53 m deep with a base diameter of 13 m.  We walked 248 steps down (and up).  Donkeys taking the water up and then returning down via two ramp double helix so they were unobstructed in both directions. Seventy windows provided light all the way down.  Remarkable! 

We didn't explore a wet Perugia very thoroughly but had a great local lunch.

Raymond and Liz window shopping.

A glorious day at Assisi with Gid, Em and Liz.

From the castle overlooking Assisi and the valley below.






Confessions are always good before marriage


And then a hike up the local mountain, Mt. Cetona, 1146m with Tom and Mikaela.  They speed walked.  Peter and I didn't.



On the way down.  Glorious view.  The top was cloud covered. 
It was a wonderful week, catching up with family, congratulating Em and Gid on their engagement, and meeting Tom's girlfriend who he bravely brought along.  A complete success.   I think everyone is hoping for another reunion sometime soon.  Where will it be?