La Isola di Ventotene

...I'm trying to find the motivation to study after an amazing weekend trip.

After a school field trip to the 2000-year-old ruins of Pompeii on Friday, my friends and I broke away from the crowd and took a 2-hour ferry ride to an island called Ventotene, 2 hours north of Capri in the Mediterranean. The island is tiny (not even named on many maps of Italy), and home to only 500 people during most of the year, but on any given weekend in summer, we were told, upwards of 10,000 people may be enjoying the sun and sand on the island's rocky shores. Unlike many of the places we Americans visit, little-known Ventotene is not an island for American tourists, but rather for vacationing Italians. I enjoyed for once being in a genuine setting with no McDonald's or internet cafes catering to tourists, but the downside was that barely anyone on the island spoke English. Needless to say, we 5 Americans used a lot of pointing and hand gestures to get around.

At one restaurant, a delightful Italian couple seated beside us helped us order (but Liam still ended up getting a plate of squid that he did not intend to order). Lucky for this recent vegetarian, I am normally left with only one or two menu options, and nothing with eyes ever comes out of the kitchen to greet me. The next night at different restaurant where no one spoke English, the waiter asked if anyone spoke Spanish, and I became the translator for the evening, which was quite fun.

We rented an inexpensive but beautiful villa situated on the highest part of the island, so that we could see the ocean on either side of the house. The weather was perfect on Saturday, so Liam, Carey, Nicole, and I rented a tiny boat to ride around the island. I was proud to be named the official captain, which my crew later regretted. I almost crashed into 3 other boats trying to get out of the port, and the man who owned the boat had to heroically jump onto our boat and teach me to steer correctly.

After that, the day was full of adventures. Both Carey and Nicole got seasick, so Liam and I dropped them off on a large rock on the coast, and we kept cruising. At one point, Liam had to dive about 10 feet down to manually dislodge our anchor from underneath a rock so that we could get back to the island. I would have done it, but the water was so cold! :-) What a day! The night was full of dancing by the ocean, as all the townsfolk (young and very old alike) and the vacationers gathered at a huge party, which was probably comparable only to a square dance in Georgia.

Sunday it rained, and the 5 of us were very lethargic until we caught the ferry home. As the last ferry of the weekend pulled away from the island, countless townspeople stood on the dock and waved good-bye. I wondered what they would do all week until the vacationers returned on Friday.

Now back to work...

Love,

Matteo