Late Summer II

The second instalment.  If you’ve been following this blog at all, you might realise that I’ve got bit of a thing about islands. I’m sure a psychotherapist would have plenty to say about that. I particular like the smaller Italian islands, these little droplets of slightly out of time Italian culture, where everything goes slowly, where life revolves around the port, the coming and going of the aliscafi and the traghetti, Tirrenia, Ustica Lines and the others. The sun, the buzz and whine of the precarious ape, the clutter and confusion that soon gives way to tranquility, the classic Italian vacations, the vivid green sea in rocky bays.

So the lure of another small, new to me archipelago, the Tremiti Islands, lying a hour or so out in the Adriatic, was too much to resist. And the jewel, to me, of our all to brief visit, was the island of San Nicola, dominated by its massive, semi-derelict castle and XIth century Benedictine monastery. Just time to grab a quick impression, but one that remains, to be added to the memories of Marettimo, Stromboli, San Pietro and all the others.