Late afternoon. High 80s. Hot, humid and sunny. Perhaps not the best time to get out on my bike, but quarter-til-five on a hot day is better than quarter-til-one. In the late day sun, the rice growing along the east side of the bike path was brilliant green topped by a deep sky that hints [...]

Ahh, my wonderful sister (yes, she really is), always mindful of the details, asked me to update my map to show where the island of Ischia is. You can now find it on my map page:  http://www.kunstdame.com/map/ Ischia is a little island two thirds of the way down the west coast of Italy, just off [...]

La Chiesa della Madonna del Soccorso – The Church of the Madonna of Help is located at the edge of a prominent cliff in Forio, at the west edge of the island of Ischia. I had seen it in the daytime from the window of the bus crowded with tourists, but was in no position [...]

Sant’Angelo is a little village on the south side of the island of Ischia. The island bus will drop you off at an upper parking lot and from there you must walk down the hill to the village, or take one of the golf cart taxis. The rabbit-warren-style “roads” are the width of one of [...]

Castello Aragonese – The Aragonese Castle of Ischia The castle dominates the skyline and view on the east side of the island of Ischia. Omnipresent as the background, it sits on its own islet, connected to the main island by a 15th century stone bridge. Its history is too complex to try to repeat in this [...]

One would think that in a coastal town on an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea it’d be possible to find a good meal of seafood. I was on a mission to satisfy a craving for a plate of mixed, grilled, fresh fish. I found it, and it was perfection. It was 2:00 p.m. and I [...]

The command came by e-mail from my Italian instructor back home: “Non dimenticarti di mangiare il famoso ‘coniglio all’ischitana’ accompagnato di un buon vino dell’isola. Ischia e’ famosa anche per il suo vino. Divertiti!” Translation: “Don’t forget to eat the famous Ischian-style Rabbit, accompanied by a good wine from the island. Ischia is famous also for its [...]

9 Agosto – Journal Entry Sunday night. Back home in Milano. Silence & solitude. Ready to be here and it feels like it’s been ages! I guess that’s the sign of a good vacation. But I tired of the tourist crowds. I tired of the heat and sweat, although I made everything possible out of [...]

9 Agosto 2009 – Sunday. On the Northbound Train “The Full Italian Experience” Fellini would do a good job with this. Train ride home to Milano. (Yes, please!) Left Napoli just before 1:00. Arrived in Rome at about 2:00. Japanese passengers 1 seat away just got robbed, on board, of their wallets. (Gypsies got on [...]

The island of Ischia (“ees-kee-uh”) is a 45-minute boat ride off the coast from Napoli. A couple hundred passengers were seated auditorium-style in the boat as it bounced across the water westward. Clearly, several passengers had left their sea-legs behind and were having a hard time of the not-really-so-rough waters. We arrived at 3:15 with [...]

4 Agosto 2009 L’Isola d’Ischia, Italia Today:Milano-Napoli-Ischia, (with stops in Bologna, Firenze and Roma.) We arrived in Napoli by train from Milano at 2:05. We quickly got out of the crowded station into the fray of people, cabs and hawkers. We selected a cab, asked the price ahead of time and he hustled us toward [...]