Ischia, Italy – Day 2

Today I decided to sleep in a bit. I woke up around 10:00AM with no real set plans for the day for once. I figured that I’d spend some time doing a little research on where I’m off to next, and how I’m getting there (ferry, bus, train). I asked around whether I’d be better off taking a bus from Naples to Bari or a train. I was advised the train would be a better decision. So I think that’s what I’ll do.

After researching and updating my website I decided to take off to the beach for a swim. I had heard that there was some cliffs that you could jump off of about 15 minutes walk from the port of Forio so I took off on a mission to find them. I invited my two new friends from California, Rebecca and Kristen. We all headed off down to the port and then walked along the sidewalk for a bit before walking down to the waters edge until we saw the “cliffs” in the distance. The cliffs weren’t really cliffs, they were just giant sandstone type of rocks sticking out of the water. They were really cool though!

We finally arrived at the rocks and headed down the stairs to get to the beach level. We walked across quite a few huge boulders to get out to where we wanted to be. I found a big flat rock for us to lay our towels out on and it was right at the waters edge so it was a perfect spot. I threw my stuff down and jumped in to the water so that I could go get a better view of where I would land if I jumped off the big boulders or “cliffs”. There were no locals there jumping so I obviously had to have a look for myself of the landing area. I swam out to where I thought you would land and went under water to check out if there were any rocks in the way. It was clear, there were a few rocks on the right side but other than that it was really deep in this one spot and wide open so it was definitely safe enough to jump.

I swam over to the edge and climbed up on top of the big boulder and I’m really glad that Kristen and Rebecca were there because I would have no photos to prove it! That’s the one benefit of traveling with someone, the photos you can get of yourself without holding the camera in your own hand and taking photos of yourself. At first I jumped from a lower spot on the rock just to make sure it was safe enough. The next time I went up I ran and jumped from the top. It was sick! It wasn’t as high as other cliffs/bridges that I’ve jumped off in the past but it was a really good time. Who would have thought that I’d be on an island right now off of the coast of Italy jumping off cliffs into the ocean? This is crazy!

After jumping for the second time I instructed Rebecca on where to jump and land so that she could do it also. With no hesitation, she made the jump! I was pretty impressed. We hung out in the water for a bit and then swam through this crack in this huge boulder in the water, you could swim all the way through the center of the rock. It was amazing. The rock was so big, and if I knew where a good landing spot was, I would’ve jumped from it. But, unfortunately it was a little too far to swim out to find out where to land.

We swam back to the rock and laid out in the sun for a couple of hours, it was so relaxing. The sun was slowly setting and the temperature was absolutely perfect.

Today was one of the best days I’ve had in a while. Out of all of the places that I’ve visited in Italy so far, Ischia is surely one of the best places I’ve been to. Although there isn’t a whole lot to do on the island, the weather, the fairly reasonable prices, the scenery, and the somewhat courteous people make this island a great place. Also, it’s great for a real relaxing vacation in the sun. What makes Ischia even more appealing is the fact that you mostly see locals from the island. There are hardly any tourists here! The island of Capri is a totally different story!

Tonight I plan on having a beer or two on the roof deck of the hostel and heading to bed. No set plans for tomorrow, probably a little more research and then maybe I’ll take off to check out another part of this island.