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Published: October 9th 2017
We Have Wonderful Views of the Mountains
from the marina in Gaeta where we currently areWe are off to a great start in our winter home port of Gaeta! We arrived on Monday, October 2
nd with the friendly help of the staff here. When you come into port you call them on the radio, a person in a dinghy comes out to meet you to direct you to your slip and when we reached it there were 3 people (yes, I said 3!) to help us with our lines. A real bonus was that we got a side tie – for those of you that don’t understand that, it means that we can now easily hop on and off the boat without climbing over our bowsprit. This makes it easier to get our bikes off as well as when we need to carry any other packages on and off the boat. We had made a request for it a long time ago when we first booked this marina, but we really didn’t think it would happen, but it did. A great introduction to this marina that they followed up and provided us with what we had requested!
We went to the office shortly after getting settled into place finding everyone was very welcoming as well
as efficient. They are very organized and very quickly we were able to get our contract signed and questions answered – again, we were very impressed with the operation. We had already known that there was an American woman by the name of Jayne that works with the marina as a liaison with the cruisers. She is married to an Italian and has been in Italy for 30 years therefore very fluent in Italian. They called her so that she could came by to welcome us to the marina – it was nice to get a chance to meet her as we’ve been in e-mail communication with her before coming here. She is the person to work with if we need any technical services done - it will be great to have an English speaker to be sure there isn’t any language problems with explaining work to be done. Another one of the many reasons we decided to come to Gaeta.
We have been having some problems with our refrigeration system so mentioned it to Jayne who brought over a technician the next day. He checked things out and found that there was a leak in the line which
he fixed and re-charged the system with gas. We were impressed with his ability to diagnose the problem quickly as well as his contacting the manufacturer of the system that we have to be sure of details that he needed to know. He also communicated quickly through Jayne of the progress. We are very impressed with the system they have in place of having all the repairs being done go through Jayne for communication with the customer.
One evening we got together with Jayne at her place for drinks and “nibbles” – it gave us a chance to get to know her better – a very pleasant evening indeed. We also were welcomed to the marina this week by another cruising couple, Val and John that we had been in email contact with before arriving here. They are members of the same sailing organization, the Cruising Association, which we belong to. It is nice to have an immediate connection with a few people when coming to a new port –a real bonus when that happens.
We found out that Wednesday is the day for the market in Gaeta so we wandered up to it. It is quite extensive
Wednesday is Market Day in Gaeta
with lots of fresh produce for sale and had many of the same offerings we have seen at other markets, but then there were lots of items that we haven’t seen when in France. Gaeta is known for its olives so of course those were available, lots of citrus fruit, persimmons seem to be definitely in season right now and lot of fresh herbs and spices. Buffalo milk mozzarella is a specialty here along with pies stuffed with seafood, olive paste, and lots of homemade pasta and Italian cookies. We are going to definitely enjoy being here with foods like these. The one thing we are having a hard time with though is finding what we consider good bread. We were spoiled by French bread and we keep trying to find bread that we like here. So far we aren’t having any luck, but we figure that now with the increase of fresh homemade pasta, it probably is just as good that we can’t find bread to eat! We also will now have to “work” at deciding what Italian wines and cheeses we like as won’t have the French ones anymore (except those few bottles of wine still in our cupboard!)
One night this week a
A Couple of Sights of the "Old Gaeta"
we will have to go back to take a closer look group of cruisers decided to go to the “American bar” as one of the people recommended it for excellent burgers and fries. We weren’t sure if we wanted burgers as we have been looking forward to some excellent Italian food, but as it was going to be a social event with the chance to meet some other people here in the marina we went. The British among us stated that they were really hungry for some good “chips” (otherwise known as French fries) and the burger started to sound good to us as well. They did not disappoint with the burgers or fries and even had onion rings on the menu. We found out that as many American soldiers come here they cater to that crowd. Guess if we get tired of Italian food in the future we now have a place to take care of any burger fix that we may need.
Bob and I have been dealing with head colds before arriving in Gaeta so after our trip here we were both quite tired and stayed pretty low early most of the week as we had signed up to go on a hike into the mountains with
a group of cruisers on Thursday. Fortunately both of us were feeling better so joined the group. The trip was organized by the owners of the marina, a brother and sister owned business. Lucas, one of the owners drove a van of us with another car following up into the mountains. After a wonderful 1 ½ hour drive past beautiful scenery we were at the start of our hike. We had a beautiful sunny clear day for our outing. We started off on an old road bed through the woods, turning off onto another path and ended up at a stream complete with a few waterfalls and swimming holes. We had been told that it has been a very dry summer this year, therefore the larger waterfall was not as full as normal, but it was still enjoyable. They showed us that there is a “book” made of stone near the falls that commemorates the fact that in 2008 Pope John Paul II came to this location to meditate. It definitely is a beautiful area and can understand how this would be an excellent place for that. After staying there for some time enjoying the scenery we hiked back on
different paths ending up back at our vehicles. We then drove to a place called “Casa Lawrence” which has the home where the author, DH Lawrence lived while writing the book “The Lost Girl”. It is now known as well for being an excellent restaurant. We were told that the owner is a son of a shepherd (and yes, really of sheep) who went off and got a University degree in Economics and Business, but after working in the business world realized that his heart was still back with farming and his sheep. As a result he opened this restaurant and uses fresh produce in his cooking. He also makes his own cheese which he sells as numerous farmers’ markets. He opened up the DH Lawrence house for us to tour first, then had a wonderful lunch outside with the mountains in the background. What a great venue it was! The home is kept as it was when DH Lawrence lived there giving us a little insight into a country home here in the early 1900’s. It was a wonderful day out as it gave us a chance to see some of the surrounding area, time to get to know
other cruisers that are here this winter (some from Ireland, England and Germany), interact with one of the owners as well as Jayne, have an enjoyable hike and a spectacular lunch! We understand that the marina will be planning other day trips for the cruisers that are here over the winter months. We will be sorry to miss them as some of the plans we have heard sound wonderful. This marina is definitely working at being a great place to stay as a live-aboard cruiser.
Bob woke up Friday morning with a worse cough and not feeling that great, but we needed to get to the Coast Guard office in order to have them check us in on a government document called a Constituto. We had been informed that we needed this when we first arrived in Italy and that we would need to check in and out at each port we go to in Italy. We have tried at numerous places but many do not want to stamp us in, but we keep trying. We walked over to the office which is located in the older section of Gaeta which we hadn’t made it to yet. It looks
Pope John Paul II Came Here to Meditate
and a stone book commemorates the event like there is quite a bit to explore over there, but we were on a mission as we found out that the Coast Guard office is only open from 9-11AM. This time we were successful in getting officially checked in here with our document stamped. On our walk back, Bob mentioned that he thought he should see a Dr. as just this short walk was taking everything out of him and he was coughing a lot and had a raspy sound to his breathing. When he says that I know he isn’t feeling well so we stopped back at the marina office to ask about a Dr. They got on the phone and called a couple of them to see who was available. On the 2
nd call they got in touch with a Dr. that was available right away. We figured we’d need to get to his office, but instead we were told he would come to us on the boat – how is that for service! After being checked over, Bob was told he has bronchitis’s, given a prescription and told to keep “low key”. We did ask and the Dr. said he shouldn’t be contagious unless in very
On Our Walk We Came to a Stream
with numerous waterfalls - a very peaceful place close contact. I’m coughing some too, but definitely not as bad as Bob as his is quite deep. Hopefully the medication and rest will help soon so we are both up to par to have a chance to explore the area. Oh yes, that “house call” only cost us the equivalent of $38 and the prescriptions were another $38. It was great to be able to get medical care so quickly.
The next day friends of ours that we had first met while in the Baltic were going to be traveling around Italy and planned on stopping to see us. We invited them to stay overnight with us, but with this new development with Bob, we contacted them to let them know the situation on the boat. They decided to still come for a visit, but not stay overnight on the boat as a 40 foot sailboat doesn’t give a lot of distance! After some time visiting on the boat we decided to take them out to dinner before they left. The thought was to go for pizza, but we still haven’t gotten into the swing of the opening and closing hours here yet. All of the pizza places
D H Lawrence Wrote "The Lost Girl"
while living in this house in the mountains here weren’t opening for a couple more hours so the American burger place was the answer as they are open all day long. Thankfully they liked the burgers as well. We were sorry to not be able to provide them with a place to sleep that night, but we had a wonderful visit with Leslie and Gary – it is always great when paths cross again with friends!
Sunday, was a sunny day, but both of us took it easy and slept on and off all day, did some reading and just laid low. Sure hope both of us get rid of our coughs as it definitely is tiring and is cramping our style for exploring the area! We are still enjoying nice weather here, but it is starting to get a little cooler so the jeans are being worn a little more although we are still trying to hang on to wearing shorts and t-shirts as long as we can! Guess we do have to realize that it is October and the season is changing even here in Italy!!
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