Tag: Beaches

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Sardinia Summer 2017

We just came back from 12 days in Sardinia with baby Aurora and my parents.

Here are the pictures:
https://goo.gl/photos/yTBhXhAzRZpmiUwz8

My parents wanted to visit us in Italy this summer. They also normally take a week or so beach vacation each year in NJ at LBI. So we suggested that if they were going to fly out here anyway, to take their beach vacation somewhere in the mediterranean instead.

They flew in on June 4th. We spent a day in Rome and a day in Anzio (beach town south of Rome) visiting Daniele’s Zio Amato.

Then on the 7th we took the train an hour north to Civitavecchia. That’s the main sea port for Rome and where a cruise visiting Rome would dock and let off its passengers.

We would take an overnight ferry right to the town of our resort in Sardinia (Arbatax). We booked a cabin with 4 beds for the 5 of us (including the baby) with Tirrenia. I was expecting a floating version of Trenitalia’s overnight cabins, but it was more like a nice hotel. As soon as we walked in there were chandeliers. We took escalators up to the level with the check-in desk where we got a card-key for our room.

We boarded around 6pm, so we explored a little bit. We didn’t even get to see most of the boat, for example the map showed a piano bar. We did get to spend a bit of time in the kid room.

Video: https://goo.gl/photos/z34SgoiSXGybi5Y88

Our little cabin was bigger than I expected. There were bunk beds on each side, with a desk in the middle. The desk was high and wide enough to fit our two large and one small suitcases underneath. And we had a private bathroom with a shower.

We actually would have liked if the boat ride was longer. We arrived at the port of Arbatax at 4:30 in the morning! We broke up our one-mile walk to the resort be stopping for a long breakfast.

We thought that lots of people would arrive to the resort via the ferry, but apparently not! Arbatax is pretty far from either airport to the north or south and I read several reviews complaining about the ride, so I’m very happy we took the ferry. Instead of losing the first and last days of our trip to travel, we got an extra half day before check-in as well as after check-out (the boat back to Rome left at midnight) on each end of our stay.

The resort was Arbatax Park Resort.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g608903-d1803492-Reviews-Arbatax_Park_Resort_Dune-Arbatax_Tortoli_Province_of_Ogliastra_Sardinia.html

It’s the largest resort in Sardinia. It’s a huge nature park with several different resorts inside, but all under the same owner.

We already had our eye on “Telis” (the largest sub-resort) when Daniele found an discount site offering a deal for “Dune” at the same price as Telis. Dune is the beach-front part of the parent resort and where we ended up.

We got 2 little huts next to each other (one for me, Daniele, and Aurora; one for my parents). The location was perfect, like a 1-minute walk to the Dune Reception / Dining Hall and another minute to the beach.

We were also close to the “Tropical Pool” over in the “Telis” part of the resort (all the pools are in Telis, which is behind Dune). The Tropical Pool was so pretty and perfect for Aurora. It’s a pool with no sides. It just slopes down, like a beach but no waves or sand.

(Pictured about to be dressed for a nap. She swam in swimmy diapers and a bathing suite.)

We got the half-board option which included buffet breakfast and buffet dinner. Dinner had unlimited wine. We all liked the food. We were on our own for lunch — though who can eat lunch after a big buffet breakfast? Also there was plenty of stuff to buy at the bars. There were also restaurants, but we only ever went to the pizzeria, which I thought was very good. Even though the resort sold things, they were totally cool with us eating our own food and drinking our own booze in the common areas.

With taxes and everything, these 2 beach-front huts and tons of good food cost $48 per night per person (Aurora was free). Which when we go to the Jersey Shore, can be what we spend on restaurants. We were all very happy with the resort, but for the money it’s amazing.

Part of the discount package Daniele found included a day for each of us at the Spa. Italians use the word “Spa” and there are spa treatments offered there, but I would describe it more like modern roman baths. It’s a series of different pools/rooms that you go through. The rooms or pools can be hot or warm, some with hydromassage, a waterfall you stand under, a turkish style steam room, a dry sauna. Then you have tea and cookies at the end. Daniele and I went first while my parents watched Aurora. Then they went the next day.

The following day we went on a tour with the park ranger through the nature park part of the resort and the farm there, too. (A lot of the food comes from their own farm.) Daniele and I brought Aurora back 2 days later just to the farm and we had all the animals to ourselves.

There was tons of free stuff like that to do. There were shows every night, but we only watched one: a greek mythology story about a mermaid and a fire god. It was performed in the water at the beach right in front of our rooms / dinner. That’s how lazy we are.

You could also take a boat to Orrì, a bigger sandier beach for $5, so we did that one day. My mom even went in the water!

Daniele really wanted to explore outside the resort, so one day we left the baby with my parents and rented a motorbike. We went North to Santa Maria Navarrese beach, which was gorgeous. And the town of Baunei up on the mountain (fun ride on our little 50cc motorbike). I was surprised by how similar Sardinia looked to Utah once you went just a mile inland; it’s all red rocky mountains. We also went to Altopiano di Golgo.

And that’s how I spent my summer vacation :)

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Zio Amato in Anzio

This is an older post that never made it online. I’m putting it up now with a back-dated post-time. Since this blog is, primarily, my own travel diary.

Yesterday Daniele and I went to visit his father’s brother Amato and his wife Cinzia for lunch. I had not met them before. They live a bit south of Rome by the beach.

Since I have never been to the area and it was a beautiful day we arrived early to walk around on our own. Anzio is an adorable beach/fishing town and we had a great time walking its seaside paths. There was also some type of celebration going on (or maybe just your typical Sunday in Anzio?). I bought a small bag of pistachios from a farmer’s stand that we munched on while walking around.

The port was busy with boats that seemed to have just come into town and were sorting and selling all of their fish.

Ancient Roman Emperor Nero had a seaside home here. It is located right between the sea and the park-like paths that skirt around the beach.

Daniele’s aunt and uncle were so nice. They welcomed us in their house with some prosecco before taking me on a tour of their large apartment. Amato has a patio in the front and a small garden in the back. He grows a few palms and fruit trees including a cherry, lemon, and pomegranate. The pomegranate tree only made one fruit last year and he used it to make liqueur (following the same process as limoncello). Amato collects antiques and all of his furnishings are beautiful antique pieces.

Amato and Cinzia made special vegetarian dishes just for me. And then after lunch, in true Italian fashion, or at least in Daniele’s family, we enjoyed some rounds of cards.

The pictures from this day are buried about halfway down my catch-all album for the 3-month trip to Rome I took January to April 2012:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6010435566436983425

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LBI

Last week my family took our annual vacation to Long Beach Island, New Jersey. My dad’s oldest brother, Bill has a house there and we have gone every summer my entire life. We choose this week because it was right after I came back from Italy, but it worked out well because we love LBI off season. Not all the restaurants and stores are open, especially in the middle of the week, but it is so much more quiet and peaceful. Not to mention you are allowed to being dogs on the beach and go on the bird sanctuary at the end of the island. We spent nine days down there, reading, knitting, taking the sun, and eating way too much of my Uncle Larry’s heavy cooking.

(Entrance to the beach)


(Sunset on the bay)


(The bird sanctuary on LBI)

The rest of my pictures from Long Beach Island:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110918LBI#

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Marche

Daniele’s parents have a beach house in the Marche region. Marche is directly east of Rome on the other coast, about a 2.5 hours drive give or take. In fact the road we live on, Salaria (one of the ancient Roman roads named for it’s use in transporting salt) takes you right there. We have been meaning to make a trip and this week his shifts happened to have an extra day off right on the weekend. This meant that his brother, who works normal hours, could join us too. We also were able to coordinate with their cousin Giuliano and his wife Mariagrazia to join us for a day. They live a bit closer, actually very close to Assisi.


(The boys keeping dry under the beach umbrella)

The house itself is in Marina di Altidona part of a sort of condo complex. It is two floors with a small garden two minutes from the beach, super cute (I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture). The neighbors are all really nice and Daniele and Emanuele know all of them from when they would spend entire summers there.

We had 3-ish (7/22 – 7/24) days there. The day we arrived had the nicest weather and Daniele and I spent it on the beach. We also went around the nearby town of Torre di Palme. That night Emauele got in. He took a bus that came into Pedaso, which was a cute town, too. The next day Giuliano and Mariagrazia spent with us, but it rained on and off all day. We made the best of it and had two short beach trips and one long meal all together. The next day Daniele, Emanuele, and I walked around Montefiore dell’ Aso during the day and the busy San Benedetto del Tronto at night.


(View of hills outside Torre di Palme)

The rest of the photos from this trip are in my Marche album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110722Marche

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Scicli, Sicily and the trip home

Finishing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

Our last days of vacation were in the town of Scicli. It was like Noto in that there were tourists as well as people actually working and going about there lives in this city. Noto had considerably more tourists, but Scicli had plenty to offer. There is a canal running through the town with all these little bridges. There are lots of piazzas, I’m actually not sure which was the “main” one. The first big one seemed to be setting up for a big out-door dinner while we were walking through. The second had tons of people just sitting outside enjoying the evening there. The convent, set atop a giant rocky mountaintop, sets the backdrop for the whole city.


(Convento Suore Domenicane del Sacro Cuore di Gesù / Convent in Scicli)

Our B&B gave us a good dinner recommendation, Trattoria del Ponte. The food was great. We were right by the entrance to another room where a child’s birthday party was taking place, which made the night way more entertaining. When we finished dinner I was impressed how alive the city was. Other places we stayed at seemed dead at night (and sometimes during the day).

I think we got an incredibly authentic Sicilian experience here. We were staying at Casa di Pam, a B&B run by Pam and her brother. Just the year before they had moved to this bigger building to accommodate all their business. Though it appeared at the time we and a man also from Rome (though not originally) were the only guests (off season, after all). The other man was looking to buy something near here for retirement. I learned all of this over breakfast. The four of us: the man, Pam, Daniele, and I sat for maybe two hours talking over breakfast. Pam had lived in Rome for a little while, the San Lorenzo area, so we all had so much to talk about. I learned it is very popular for Italians to retire in Sicily where the price of living is significantly lower. I also learned that salaries in Italy are not scaled for region. So a person with the same job makes the same amount whether they live and work in the center of Rome or a tiny little town in Sicily. Which begs the question, why quality of life (and cost of living) have not caught up in these poorer areas. I think there is a large amount of unemployed residents in these areas. There is a political movement from Milan (where the cost of living is highest) to change this and scale salaries for cost of living, but it will probably fail, as so many people benefit from the system. Pam had interesting insight on the local economy. She said there is much more work now than there was years ago for the people who want it, but not everyone does.


(A red Fiat 500 on Ponte Umberto I in Scicli)

That day we started the journey home. In true Daniele fashion, we needed to get one more visit to a beach first (it should be noted Rome has a beach on the same sea). We stopped at a beach near Sampieri. It was a beautiful day for the beach, like every day we had. It was hot and dry. Luckily I can always go into the water when I feel like I’m gong to faint from the heat. We didn’t stay too long because we had so much to drive still.

We stopped at Messina, where we get the ferry to Calabria, to get some pastries for Daniele’s parents (I got one last cannoli). We also picked up some pizza to go from the place we had arrancini on our way in. Daniele got me pizza alla norma, which was the traditional style pasta I had eaten several times on this trip. It’s made with eggplant, peppers, and tomatos covered with grated ricotta salata cheese on top. The pasta is served hot, but this pizza was served cold. It was delicious!

Daniele drove straight home all through the night so we got in at I-don’t-even-know-o-clock. It was how we came down too, but much further this time, since we added the rest of Calabria and a piece of Sicily.

The rest of the pictures from Scicli and everywhere else are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Noto Agroturismo, and Modica

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

That night we circled back to Noto, but this time we didn’t stay in the center. We stayed at an old farm in the countryside that takes guests. This industry is called “agrotourism” in Italy and is very popular. The place we were staying at, B&B Anticomar, was really cool. Our room had vaulted ceilings with exposed beams and was all wood (very uncommon in Italy where stone is cheaper than lumber). All the furniture seemed to be antique and was all weird and different. In the morning we pigged out on all sorts of home-made breakfast food served by the owner’s wife. The owner came around and chatted with us, gave us some nice places to check out in the area. But we never went because I wanted to go to Modica… the city of Chocolate!


(Its like the map is dipped in chocolate!)

Modica is a city famous for chocolate. As in regular chocolate, chocolate gelato, chocolate granita, and who knows what. And like any small city famous for something, they are proud of it. At the Sicilian gelateria I frequent in Rome, they have “Ciocolato di Modica” as a standard flavor. I was really excited for this place. In the end it wasn’t the chocolate pig-out I imagined, but the city was way prettier than I expected.

Like many ancient Italian cities, there is the upper/old town and the lower/new town where the old town overflowed past its walls and down the hill. Where we live in Monterotundo, the two are rather separate; we drive to go to the old town. Here in Modica you can walk between them and there are buildings along the incline of the hill that once protected the old center. All the architecture is beautiful. The new town had mostly baroque facades.

We covered the lower, then the upper city, stopping up top for lunch. We found this cool place where I had a tasty black rice dish. Back in the lower city I had a chocolate gelato filled brioche. Imagine a fancy Italian ice cream sandwich. Daniele was having a terrible time because there were on and off showers and Italians hate being out in the rain. Personally I found it refreshing compared to the heat we had been suffering. I couldn’t bring back any chocolate because there were still some days left of our trip and the car gets too hot.I found this considerably more upsetting than getting caught in a little rain.


(City of Modica)


(Chiesa San Salvatore of Modica)

The rest of the pictures from Modica are in my Calabria and Sicilia album: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Riserva Naturale di Vendivari, Portopalo, Marzemeni, and Pozzallo, Sicily

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

We left in the afternoon for Riserva Naturale di Vendivari, which is basically a nature reserve. There were paths through some swampy and wooded areas leading to a beach. The beach was really interesting; some squishy plant product covered the sand. There was also ruins of Tonnara. I’m dumb and thought the town was named Tonnara, since it had big signs saying “Tonnara” pointing to it, but turns out lots of cities in Italy, especially Sicily have a “Tonnara” just like they have a port or main square. It is where they fished for and processed the tuna. Obviously, right?

Anyway, Tonnara was really cool, it was basically just ruins that were open to walk through. There were very few other people there. We did pass a middle aged American couple. Before I could say hi and make friends they started talking about us, we were speaking Italian to each other at the time. Nothing bad, just making observations about us clearly in ear-shot in a “I assume you can’t understand me” kind of way. I figured it would be more snotty than friendly to let myself be known as a fellow countryman at that point, besides, I love when people think I’m Italian! (Though it’s only ever the fellow foreigners who do)

(Squishy beach at Vendicari Natural Reserve)


(The ruins of Tonnara in Vendicari Natural Reserve)

Next we went to the town of Marzemeni, founded by Arabs and an important fishing town up until the last century. This was a really small town. It was cute with a color fishing boats in the port. Now a small tangent, Italians do things certain ways and at certain times. I think it’s just that their culture is more homogenous. Hey, they are all Italian after all (except all the immigrants and tourists, of course, but we won’t count them since no one else seems to). This extends to taking vacation in August. In August everyone takes their annual vacation, the radical ones might go in July. Those who stay domestic, typically go south to somewhere with a nice beach like Sicily. Now my boyfriend has a shift-job so he takes his vacation at different times, also he knows me well enough to know it would be pointless to bring me to Sicily in the August heat. So this is June when we were in here. June is off season. It was most obvious in this town. On every street, there was at least one house being renovated, presumably in preparation for the peak season (we actually saw this a lot all over Sicily). Walking through the main square, the locals looked up at us funny in a “who are you?” kind of way. But Daniele loved it. He is convinced the smallest, most hidden, sometimes dirtiest, places have the best food. We actually came back here at dinner time and walked trough the whole town a second time looking for a place to eat. We couldn’t look the first time because restaurants don’t open until 8 PM typically, so we can’t see the menu. There are plenty of places in Sicly that every single thing they make is fish, which I don’t eat, so we need to see a menu before committing. We did eventually agree on a place called Aquaram, right on the port, where seemingly everyone in the town was eating that night. I had a delicious pizza and Daniele really liked his swordfish. Yeah, picking restaurants for our two meals out each day actually ate a lot of out vacation time.


(Colorful boats in the old fisherman village of Marzemeni )


(Church in the old square of Marzemeni)

In between we checked into our hotel in Portopalo, another town just down the road still on the coast, but we didn’t get to explore the town much until the next day. This was our one hotel without included breakfast, so we went to a bar where I got to try the traditional Sicilian breakfast of granita (Italian ice) and a brioche. Sicilian granita is famous for being especially fine and smooth. I don’t remember what flavor I got, but Daniele got the traditional almond flavor– it was so good I didn’t give it back after trying it!

After breakfast we went to the beach. The beach was not that special and kinda “ehh” but there was an island across from where we were. The couple next to us from Northern Italy found the guy you pay to bring you over there in his boat (and back), and we over heard and tagged along. The Island was gorgeous! Cristal clear blue water, it was like a swimming pool. Only the few of us from the boat on the island. Some ruins that I never really got to check out because time for the boat back came all too quickly.

The boat off the island picked us up in time for lunch (they do everything at set times, I told you). We found this kind of cafeteria place higher up in the town with average food. After we saw the rest of the town, including the Tonnara of Portopalo just off the port.


(Edge of the city of Portopalo)

In the afternoon we stopped by the city of Pozzallo. We stayed at the beach for a while first. It was nice to see another city, but the island-beach from the morning at Portopalo was *so* much nicer. This beach had a dirt-sand that left me and my towel all brown and icky and a little damp. There were lots of kids here too, playing soccer and flirting with each other. On the other hand, the city itself was really nice. It had way more going on that the last few towns we had visited. I took advantage of being in civilization to nab some fried goodies that ended up being dinner and my second Sicilian cannoli.

The rest of the pictures from these towns are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Noto, Sicily

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

That afternoon we headed to our next city, Noto. Noto Antica lies 5 miles north on Mount Alvera. In the Roman era the city opposed the governor of Sicily, in 866 was conquered by the Arabs, and later became a rich Norman city. In the renaissance, under the kings of Sicily, the city gave birth to many important architects and musicians. However I never saw this original city as it was completely destroyed in the 1693 earthquake.

The new city was built closer to the sea on the left bank of the River Asinaro. It was planned on a grid by Giovanni Battista Landolina. Being rebuild as it was, the new city is itself a masterpiece of Sicilian Baroque architecture, thanks in great part to Rasario Gaglardi, Francesco Sortino, and others.

(Some of the Baroque architecture of Noto)

It is not that strange for cities for be rebuild like this in Italy. In fact the city of Old Calcata, where I spent Halloween last year, was condemned by the government and everyone from the town moved to newly-build New Calcata. Weird, huh?

Anyway, Noto. We stayed at the family owned B&B Federica. They were really sweet. Told us about the festival going on that evening, for the new mayor (actually they were waiting for us to be all settled in to go there themselves). And told us a great place to eat dinner, Trattoria Ducezio. At dinner I solidified a realization that Italians (as a generalization) really like going back to the same restaurants over trying new places.

It wasn’t dark yet (for once) when we were first walking around the city. So we checked out this new mayor celebration, which was basically a big crowd of people in the main street, some with flags. As well as the churches on the give-away-tourist-map, which Daniele (being from Rome) scoffed at saying that even the unimportant churches in Rome are more interesting. He often compares smaller cities to Rome and hates how they put less effort into their tourism industry, but try to take more money out of it. He has a good point, Rome has some amazing tourist sites, and most of them are free. However in these tiny towns you pay even to enter the church. That’s god’s house, who are you to charge an entrance fee?

(Noto celebration for their new mayor)

The next day we covered the rest of the city. We checked out of the B&B right after breakfast, but here is the thing, there are practically no publicly available bathrooms in Italy. Ever. Your best bet is a McDonald’s, and there weren’t any in this little town. My mother and aunt invented the “pee-pee-cino” where you buy a coffee to use the cafe’s restroom, but no guarantee the place even has one, and if it does, it’s probably what the Italians call a “Turkish” toilette. That’s where there is no “toilette” per say, more like what looks like a shower stall just with a bigger hole in the middle and raised sides for your feet. If you are lucky enough to find a toilette, don’t expect a toilette seat or toilette paper. Yes, even in nice places; that has nothing to do with it. It’s just how it is. Now, I’m really good at holding it in for hours and have pretty strong legs for the Turkish (thank you years of biking in San Francisco), so whatever. But I didn’t need a place to pee. I needed a ladies room. See, a bird shit on my shoulder. Twice that day.

Noto was really hot that day, but we covered it all. We saw all the churches and town buildings. We went inside the Madonna del Carmine church. We went through the old convent rooms and to the top of San Francesco d’Assisi Church, where we could see the whole town.

(View of Noto from San Francesco d’Assisi, featuring Corso Vittorio Emanuele and hills in countryside)

Every April Via Corrado Nicolaci is filled with designs of flowers. This street has a steep incline, the palace of Nicolaci noble family on the left and a little church at the top. We were there after the flowers were gone, but the designs were still marked in white and there were pictures around.


(Via Corrado Nicolaci, without the flowers)

We even eventually found sinks for me to wash off the bird poo. After striking out at a cafe and a public bathroom marked on the map, I resolved to wait for lunch. Only to find after we ordered that they didn’t have a public restroom either. But after confirming it was for me, and presumably deciding that I looked respectable enough (she must not have looked closely), the owner decided to let me use their little bathroom in the back. I was luckier the second time I got bombed, we quickly found another public restroom, this one was not locked and even had paper towels. I guess those birds really like baroque architecture.

The rest of the pictures from Noto are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Siracusa, Sicilia

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

In the evening we headed to Siracusa where were were spending our third night in Sicily (forth on this trip, there was one night in Calabria). Siracusa was founded 2,700 years ago by the Ancient Greek Corinthians. It was an important Mediterranean power in the ancient world and the birth place of Archimedes.

We were staying in Siracusa, but just outside Ortigia Island or Old Siracusa, where the historical center is and where we spent most of our time. Once we got settled in we took a night walk around the old island. We ate at a restaurant Daniele found online, Sicilia in Tavola, which was delicious!

(Lantern-lit park in Siracusa)

The next day, in the day-light, we really saw all the sights. We started by the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, right there when you first cross the bridge to Ortigia Island. Then we worked our way to the busy Main Square with the main Cathedral. We had walked by all these things the night before, but they looked so different in the daytime. Finally we walked around most of the coast. The waterfront had really interesting architecture in some places, like built-in pools. Also there were views back to the “mainland” (or bigger island of Sicily). Siracusa still has an active port, “Marina di Archimede”.

(Temple of Apollo)

(View of mainland Siracusa from Island of Ortigia)

The rest of the pictures from Siracusa are in my Calabria and Sicilia album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#

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Gardini di Naxon and Aci Castello, Sicilia

Continuing my trip in Calabria and Sicilia…

Hotels in Italy have limited check in hours, so in the evening we had to leave lovely Taormina and head to our next city: Giardini di Naxon, the next town over. This was 6/11 now. Once we found our hotel, we found dinner at Pianta Pizza, a delicious pizzeria on the main street through town. We spent the next morning at the beach here. It was very different from Taormina, even though it was only five minutes away. Taormina was breathtaking and full of international tourists. Giardini di Naxon was full of locals.

(Beach of Gardini di Naxon)

In the afternoon we stopped by the city of Aci Castello. We just walked around and checked out the castle built in 1076 by the Normans. There was also a wedding going on here. The town is right on a cliff’s edge offering views back to the rest of the gorgeous coast of Sicily.

(Castel of the city of Aci Castello)

All the pictures from Calabria and Sicilia:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111221349198606775660/20110609CalabriaSicilia#