Our Mediterranean Sailing Adventure

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This weekend we went on the most amazing trip! Our school provided an opportunity to go on a Sailing trip with a man named Giovanni, who is a friend of one of the staff members. He took six of us from the Accademia Italiana sailing for a weekend to islands off the coast of Rome – Ponza and Palmarola.

The trip got off to a rocky start for me and Drew because we somehow mixed up the dates and thought we were supposed to get there Saturday night when it was really Friday night! So we got a call on Friday night from one of the girls from our school, asking us why we weren’t in Anzio (the town the sailboat would leave from the next morning!). After realizing our mistake, we rushed to pack (Drew was thankfully already packed and had his bag at my place), and ran to the train station, catching the last train to Rome from Florence...and only because it was running late! Someone was looking out for us.

Sailing in the Mediterranean is something that not a lot of people can say they have done, so I’m glad to be one of the few who can!

We arrived in Rome at midnight with no place to stay and ended up, after asking the Trenitalia staff, talking to a very sketchy-looking Italian man who got us a rental apartment for the night for a pretty decent rate (especially last minute!). The man only spoke Italian, so once he realized I also spoke Italian, he proceeded to have a 20 minute long conversation with me, entirely in Italian, all about the tourism in Rome and all the beautiful sights to see...I think he overestimated my Italian knowledge. Somehow I managed to converse with him until we arrived at our “hotel”. We went to sleep at 1 am and then woke up at 4am so we could make it to the train station to catch the first train to Anzio at 5 in the morning (Giovanni wanted to leave early and we really didn’t want to hold up the trip because of our mistake!).

On the train to Anzio, we met another interesting character, Marco, who lives in Nettuno ( a town near Anzio) and works in a restaurant in Rome – he commutes everyday and works in his restaurant from 4 to 1am, at which point he goes to the train station and sits in front of it until it opens at 4:30, when he takes the first train home! He talked to us for a bit about how much he loves Americans, and how we had to be careful for pickpockets. We’ve met so many interesting people on this trip!

At 6:15 am we arrived in Anzio and felt such relief because we made it! We didn’t miss any of our sailing trip except dinner the first night...not a big deal in comparison with the rest of the trip. Giovanni met us at the train station, and then we went to the boat and took off for the island of Palmarola! Palmarola is a gorgeous uninhabited island that was a five hour journey from Anzio.

Along the way we took a break to swim -- in the middle of the ocean with NO land in sight!! I actually jumped in the water and swam! It was really scary at first but cool to do. The water was so clear and blue! It was gorgeous. Drew was brave and went first, but soon all of us were swimming in the water, with Giovanni assuring us there were no sharks.

When we reached Palmarola we pulled into this gorgeous cove called the Cathedral and anchored the boat. The water was so clear! We swam in it for a while and then Giovanni and his much younger girlfriend, Maria/ Mary (she was our age) took us out in the dinghy to explore the grottoes that were around the coast of the island. It was fun, except the motor kept crapping out and poor Drew, being the only other guy, ended up helping Giovanni paddle us back to the sailboat.

After our little boat ride, we got back on the sailboat to tan and just relax. Being on the boat was really tiring because of the sun, so mostly we just napped while we tanned on the deck of the boat. For lunch Giovanni made us the most amazing pasta with zucchini and garlic...it was delicious! After lunch, we swam some more, and then took off for another little cove on Palmarola. Here, we swam more and then Giovanni took us to more grottoes. They were neat because they were all dark inside, but the water glowed blue...it was amazing! At one grotto we got out of the dinghy and swam through it – it was scary because it was pitch black with barely any room for your head to be above the water! We came out on the other side of the cave, and it was really neat!! I’m glad that I did it, even though it was a little frightening at first. After being at this little cove for a while, we took off for the island of Ponza, about an hour away, where we would spend the night. Giovanni let me drive the boat there! And we actually got to sail, because there was some good wind.

At Ponza, we took the dinghy onto the shore where there was a little town, and me, Drew and the other girls from our school went into the town for gelato and then grabbed a mojito at a local bar while we watched a band play a concert near the harbor– we were probably the only Americans there, so it was a really neat feeling compared to Florence, where there are tourists everywhere!

That night, after going to the town, we went onto the boat and ate a delicious dinner of pasta with red sauce and tuna, and had the most hilarious conversation about American eating habits and, in particular, peanut butter. It all started with one of the girls asking Maria how Italian people stayed so skinny when all they ate was carbs. Apparently, the idea here is that carbs are ok to eat because when you exercise and walk around a lot, they are the first thing to burn off, as opposed to the fat that Americans eat which doesn’t burn off. So then someone brought up peanut butter, asking if Italians liked it... Giovanni was disgusted with peanut butter which seems to be the general Italian sentiment (they’d be crazy to buy it anyway – it costs 5 euros for an incredibly tiny jar). He also disliked nutella which is very popular here – but Maria liked it. When I mentioned that some Americans make peanut butter AND nutella sandwiches, Giovanni gasped and nearly had a heart attack! He was appalled..it was hilarious! Then for the rest of the night he kept jokingly yelling at us not to eat any of the food because it was all fat...even the alcohol! It was interesting to hear the very different opinions here.

After dinner we had to move the boat to a different place to anchor for the night. By this time it was dark, and Giovanni called us up to look at the stars, which were gorgeous – we could see the milky way, and then later, the moon, which was a crescent moon and bright orange, sitting right on the horizon line. It was gorgeous! Then we went to sleep, and slept very well, with the waves rocking the boat and rocking us to sleep.

The next day we hung out in this cove in Ponza for a while, and I was really proud of myself because I swam all the way from the boat to the beach, which was a pretty good distance. The water here was so clear and you could see straight to the bottom , it was just like a pool. After swimming to the beach and back, I was tired so I tanned on the boat for a while. Then Drew and I borrowed Giovanni’s flippers and snorkels, and we went snorkeling in the crystal clear water! It was so neat because you could see so far, and we swam with the schools of fish that were there – I even almost touched one! Drew had a lot of fun diving down to the bottom and finding shells, but I was a little too nervous for that – still, I was glad that I did the snorkeling, because it was really fun.

After spending most of the morning and early afternoon in this cove, we left for Anzio so we could catch the train back home. Problem was, Giovanni didn’t time it quite right, so we were really nervous we were going to miss our train! He had to rush and push the boat as fast as it could go. Once we got to the dock, we had to jump off the front of the boat into people’s arms that were catching us because he had no time to back the boat in! Then we all piled into Maria’s car (7 people in a 5 seater) and then rushed to the train station to catch the last train home! We made it there with 10 minutes before the train arrived!

We got back to Florence Sunday night around midnight. We were exhausted but it was totally worth it to have such an amazing experience! Sailing in the Mediterranean is something that not a lot of people can say they have done, so I’m glad to be one of the few who can!