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Published: November 6th 2007
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We took a boat ride along the coast on board a fishing boat with the skipper Salvatoro. Helping out on the cruise was a funny old chook, Gloria, who was in her 70’s and originally from some where in the mid-west of the USA. Also joining us was a local photographer, Cindy, a newly married Canadian couple and an Aussie couple. The cruise took us along the coast to Ravello, stopping along the way for swimming and sight seeing. In one of the grottos we swam in the water was so clear, when you splashed it in front of you it shimmered like turquoise crystals.
We stopped for lunch along the coast and the restaurant cooked up fish that Salvatoro had caught, washed down with local vino. This was such a relaxing cruise in a small but very comfortable boat. Both Salvatoro and Gloria were entertaining and the banter between the two of them was hilarious. Cindy was also originally from the US, and had married a local artist. We checked out some of his work later and bought a small picture he had painted of the main beach.
The water is so clean and clear it really is
amazing given the population that is centred on the Amalfi Coast line.
Back in Positano we ventured up the hill to the top of town and found the “International Bar”. We had a few drinks there, watching the local teenagers fly up and down the street on their motor scooters. This was obviously the local hoons strip and there was lots of banter and tooting of horns.
We had dinner at the Mediteranno restaurant and met Lorenzo the Moto GP racing fan who made us laugh each time he approached our table and asked “so, Roberto and Lorenza wot isa happening here, you enjoying the food?”
We bought some raffle tickets here being sold by the chess club, prizes being some local artwork with funds going toward the payment of Judit’s holiday. Being a chess champion obviously has it’s benefits! Everyone here seems to know her. We had not realised until now that chess players were such superstars in some circles.
5th October 2007 Another lazy day, Lorenza and I took it easy down at the beach. Al and Melissa took a boat ride to the Isle of Capri. At the beachside café we bumped
into to the Aussie couple who were on the cruise with us the day before and also the Swiss chess journalist and his wife. Shared some drinks with them and found out more about the world of international chess, including some scandal about it’s governing body and the fact that the Russians had such a strong hold on the administration of the game that it was deadly to delve too deeply into their business dealings.
We found our way back to the Mediterrano restaurant for an evening drink. We were greeted there by Julio and some of his buddies from the chess club. As we chatted Julio emphasized each of his sentences by whacking me on the shoulder, very Italian! The chess club folks had gathered there to draw the tickets for the raffle. Lorenza and I ended up being the official ticket drawers and the whole business was treated very seriously with the draw being supervised by an official from the local church. Funny stuff!
We had a few more drinks and some more of the people we met at the cocktail party arrived for dinner. We had a talk again with the Swiss couple and said
farewell, returning to our hotel to finish off the food and wine we had left over.
Melissa went through her luggage and prepared a big box of stuff to mail back home. She obviously did not want to repeat the hassles of lugging too much weight on our return trip to Rome, via Naples. A good move!
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