Porto Ercole and the Feniglia (Terry)

Marina Cala Galera

We are in the most upmarket marina we have ever been in – Marina di Cala Galera.  We always thought of Tuscany as rolling hills, vineyards and olive groves but it has coastline, too, and the marinas are as expensive as renting a villa (enough to make a Perth Dietitian cringe at the thought)

Not a lot of wind about in the bay

We arrived in this bay last week sometime, perhaps Wednesday, perhaps Thursday, and stayed out in the bay on the anchor for a few days.  First we were down the Ansedonia end, anchored off a beach that separates the sea from two separate salines.  The beach is part of a strip of land called La Tombola di Feniglia, or most commonly “The Feniglia”.  No cars here, just a bike track for 7kms to the other end, the Porto Ercole (yes, Hercules was here, too!) end.  

La Feniglia showing the first of two lagoons inside

The beach is crowded from morn-to-mosquito-time, when the sods come out in their gazillions.  We can confirm this as we dinghied down to get a geocache and were almost bodily removed from the earth.  A can of Mortein mightn’t have done for them all but it would have evened the odds and made me feel better.

In the forest of the Feniglia - small deer here, too.

The Beach of La Feniglia

The beach was the site of the death of Caravaggio, the Admiral’s most admired painter, and a cause of pilgrimage wherever one of his paintings is on display – of course, there are many in Rome to visit and also there is his most famous in Malta, the death of John the Baptist, a theme he painted several times.

Caravaggio monument

We dinghied in to Porto Ercole twice, then decided to move up the bay a little closer.  More jumping in to clear water, swimming, reading, drinking Italian beer and generally slacking off and a visit to the Macelleria and Grocer for supplies.  Armed with fresh produce, we had steak with local garlic and onions one night, then chicken legs in egg, breadcrumbs and herbs another.

Finally, we decided to move into the marina here, Cala Galera.  Our first inquiry was met with “€130 per night”.  Well, we might be foreign but we ain’t that dumb so we passed, with good grace of course.  A return phone call offered €110 per night, again not enticing enough to leave the real estate of the bay.  Finally, unexpectedly, a call came from the lady who owned the slip we are in offering €70 per night.  Now this is way over what we would ordinarily consider, having just paid €56 a night in Rome in the high season but we reasoned that we are only in Tuscany in summer once in our lives so shut up and pay the lady.  She lives over by the thermal mud baths near here and has an estate with a lake on it, so we assume she is reasonably well-off.  She does drive a kidnap-avoidance vehicle, though, which is smart (a Hyundai).  The rest of the clientele in this marina are in Range Rovers, Jaguars, BMWs, Porsche Boxsters, Porsche Cayennes, and even one Ferrari Testarossa.  

Not a Ferrari Testarossa - an old Fiat with ancient Roma plates on it

Their boats are not shabby either, with thundering great V8 diesels filling the air on Saturday and Sunday when they come up from Rome for the weekend.  A fair proportion are sailboats of considerable fitout, and the owners are no mere fancy-pants owners.  They sure can handle their boats with skill, some even skidding through the anchorage outside first before heading West to the Tuscan islands for a weekend stay without a hint of a collision.

Porto Ercole

We have been in to Porto Ercole every day since being here, having been shown a shortcut up behind the naval works (they used to make boats here), around a mountain track and down onto the main road.  Neat.  Last night, we tried to eat at a famous pizza place but it was crowded out so we moved a couple of doors up to a restaurant we'd had lunch at a couple of days ago.  Lots of beers, Aperol Spritz and simple seafood pasta dishes and we were full for the walk home back around the base of the mountain.

Lampada Restaurant

Today, we found the pizza place uncrowded at lunch and had simple pizza slices for €0.50c a slice.  The drinks were twice the price of the pizza!

The owner, Antonio, is reportedly planning to take his pizza to the USA.  It is certainly special, with a mixture of OO flour, Soy flour and some unspokens also– his pizza is light to eat and there is no heaviness at all.  

Strangely enough, I happened to be wearing my Route 66 Oatman Arizona tee and he stared and then said “I have the exact same tee.  I went camping there with my father in law!”  Small world – Oatman is only about 15 miles from Carol’s mother’s house.  Small world #2 – the lady who owns the slip we are in has a gardener who has looked after her place for about 10 years.  Originally from Sweden, he migrated to ….. Fremantle, Western Australia – she asked if we knew where that was?  Yes, that’s where Common Sense is home-ported.  She was amazed.  It’s where his children are, one an engineer and the other a Headmistress of a school.

A trip up to the closest fort to find a geocache was unproductive.  Not sure where it is but it appears to be on private land and that for us is a no-go, even if we are in Italy.  Up the hill for quite a way, down the hill, into town, up the far end of town, back again, back to the far end to the old quarter and then finally back to the Co-op and around the mountain to the marina.  

On our last day, we indulged in that favourite adventure of cruisers "Let's see where the bus goes to?"  Buy a couple of tickets, find out when the last one back is and off you go to wherever it finishes up.  Great cheap fun.  We took the bus to Orbetello, the small city on a strip of land in the middle of the two lagoons.  It has been a settlement since Etruscan times, 8th Cent BC.  Unfortunately, the museo only opens on the weekends and public holidays so we couldn't check out the artifacts collected around there.  Took the opportunity to get another Geocache and had a nice lunch in a Pizzeria that has been trading since 1958.  Easy to see why they are still in business given our two meals and drinks for the grand sum of 10 Euros.

The 2nd lagoon, Laguna Ponente

Some of you may know that I did considerable damage to my big toe in Rome several weeks ago and have been warding off infection and the like ever since.  Well, the hike didn’t help matters at all so I think I’ll have to stay off it for a while now.  It was also very taxing on Carol so a nice sea voyage is in the planning.