Our journey to Italy was on a very looooong Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. Our 3pm flight from Dulles sent us through Frankfurt with a 4 hour delay (mileage plus tickets made a 4 hour stop over acceptable), then on to Naples. Each flight was absolutely packed with very little room to stand or walk around. Lots of families with small children traveling the long weekend, even to Germany!!!
Our Four and half hour layover in Germany was not so bad as we had access to a very good Lufthansa lounge.
Mary arranged for a private taxi to meet us at arrivals in Naples. The driver loaded us up his luxury van, drove us at a chaotic pace to the ferry terminal. From there, we dashed to the terminal while the driver, in his fine Italian suit, ran to get us tickets, as the next ferry was leaving in 8 minutes. We loaded on the ferry, had a peroni and watched Ischia appear through the clouds and haze. Upon disembarking, the advance planning had another taxi driver waiting for us and squired us off to our hotel. This plan was extraordinary, as it removed a lot of the stress late in the trip.
Our hotel, The Hotel Villa Durrueli, was overbooked and required us to stay in a different room than was reserved. We will be moved to our room with the better view tomorrow just in time for the rain! No unpacking so we tried out the roof terrace!
This was a beautiful spot, with chairs and tables lining the terrace! The view was over Ischia, the neighboring island of Procida, Naples and Capri in the distance, but the focal viewpoint was the castle known as Aragonese Castle. The castle is built on volcanic rock and was constructed in 474 BC. We hope to visit the castle tomorrow.
We checked out the hotel pool and found a poolside bar where we spent some time chatting with a British couple from Essex, who are here for a wedding tomorrow at the castle!
We then headed into town for a lovely dinner at a restaurant the bartender at the hotel recommended. We tried a few local dishes including a local fish, white wine and a local dessert called Baba’, which is sponge cake SOAKED in rum!.
We finished dinner with a complimentary liqueur called Rucola, which is made from ‘rocket’ the European term for arugula. It was raining as we walked back to our hotel, heading to bed after a long couple of days.
Sunday’s plans are up in the air due to the forecast of rain! And the rain is supposed to last into Tuesday!!!
The town of Ischia Ponte
