Ischia 25th May Mercoledi

25th May Mercoledi

Overslept and almost missed breakfast. Disaster averted we sat chomping our way through fresh fruit, prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella. ciabatta etc.
Refreshed we decided to go to Forio, about two and a half hours walk if you take the shortcut through the woods.
We got to the outskirts of the town in about an hour, not bad going, it's getting hot and I "entertain" Andrew along the way singing Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out In the Midday Sun.
Andrew decided on a shortcut, designed I think to shut me up. We end up doing almost another hour's hard slog rock climbing in the midday sun before reaching a very nice cafe to sit down and drink water, wine and cappuccino. I don't think that many of their customers approach via the rocks, then scrambling up and over their balcony in an undignified heap croaking "aqua minerale gassata per favore!" However they accepted our custom gracefully. Noticed on recovery that the cafe is called Il Fortino - funny that.
We walked up into the town stopping at the lovely old white church Chiesa del Soccorso Our Lady of the Snow, which sits high out over the sea, it felt so familiar to me.
In town we found a little cafe Il Pizzeria that I used to frequent with my friend Maria and we sat down for a lunch of Capri insalata and bruschetta with the obligatory mezzo litre di vino rosso (almost everywhere on Ischia if you ask for a glass of wine you get a half litre jug - fine by me of course) We sauntered all around Forio which is the largest town on Ischia, stopping for refreshment every so often. Bought some lovely Fanny Blu blue silk sandals for me at Mediterranea, they are very cute.
We ate at La Bussola tonight, right by the harbour. An amazing meal of seafood, insalata Capri, gnocchi, penne al pomodoro, steak and a wonderful strawberry and alcohol goo for pudding. Casa D'ambra Per' 'e Palummo a local wine, molte bellissimo.
You can visit the Casa D'ambra Wine tasting and Museo it has been around since1888. We didn't get there, but drank a lot of their wine. Taxi back as we didn't fancy the rock climbing again, and so to bed.