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Published: June 25th 2018
Our contract for the winter in Gaeta was to finish the end of May, but we found out that there was a festival in town the first weekend of June, SO… those that know us probably already guessed that we decided to stay. We figured what difference would a few more days in Gaeta make to our overall sailing season. We also had a few places we wanted to explore in Gaeta that we didn’t have a chance to do in the Fall so this would work out well.
The festival was a celebration to Saint Erasmus and Saint Marciano, their patron saints. The evening before the solemn religious procession, we walked down into the medieval section of Gaeta to see what was happening. The Duomo (Cathedral) door was open and we found that the chapel dedicated to Saint Erasmus was available for viewing as well. Around town there were various food vendors, rides for the kids and a concert was scheduled for 10:30PM that night (we decided to skip that). The next day was when the formal religious portion of the celebrations occurred with a procession through the town. The two statutes of the saints (with their remains), numerous
church groups and of course a band marched through the streets which we understood started with a ceremony at the Church. We didn’t realize it but after winding through the streets they then proceeded to climb on to the large sailing vessel that was in the harbor. There were a few words spoken to the crowd once they were settled on the ship, then surprisingly they started to drop the lines and the ship moved offshore. We found out from some in the crowd that it would cross the bay and head over to the town of Formia. The relics of St. Erasmus had been kept in Formia years ago, but during the Saracen invasions they were transferred to Gaeta for safe keeping. St. Erasmus now was the patron saint of both towns. The story we heard was that Gaeta has refused to give them back to Formia. Unfortunately it is times like these that it really hits home how much we miss of these events due to our lack of language skills. We would have liked to have learned more about the procession and the traditions involved. This same weekend Formia was having their own celebrations and on Sunday
The Chapel Dedicated to St. Erasmus
was open the evening of the festival night we were treated to a spectacular fireworks display that was set off in Formia. It was long and impressive – quite a show even from a distance!
In the Fall when we were in Gaeta Bob had been sick so we were not able to do much in the way of exploring the area. As seen in the photos there are some higher hills surrounding the town where the Cathedral and Castle are located. We decided now was the time to hike up to see that area. We had a wonderful sunny day to start our explorations. As the days are getting warmer we figured we would get a start in the morning and see how far we would get. We wandered through the various alleys and climbed stairs not knowing for sure the best way to get closer to the Cathedral and Castle. We did find that we had to do some backtracking as parts are cut off due to the Military facilities that are still active in the area. We didn’t manage to finish before the middle of the day, but as Bob keeps saying “just like mad dogs and Englishmen” we kept hiking through a
few hours of the hot afternoon sun. (apologies to our British friends!) It was well worth it though as the views of the town were spectacular and we enjoyed seeing more of Gaeta.
As long as we decided to stay here for a little longer we took the time to take a trip to Rome. We wanted to try to work out a way that would help us with our Schengen issues while here in Europe. We made an appointment for 8:30 AM at the US Consulate so we had to do an overnight in Rome. We had taken in many of the major historical sites when we were in Rome before so this time we took a different tack. First we wanted to check out getting to the Embassy so on our way there we searched out a few fountains. Yes, it may sound a little crazy, but it gave us a theme to figure our route as well as see some excellent sculptures. Two of the fountains we saw, the Fountain of the Tritons and the Fountain of the Bees were both done by Bernini. We found out later that this was the first time the sculpture
fountain typically found in private gardens was brought to a public setting. It was to celebrate the bringing of water to Rome from an aqueduct that Pope Urban had restored. Not far away we found another of Bernini’s fountains, this one called “Fountain of the Bees”. Our understanding is that the inscription on the shell states “Urban VIII Pont. Max, having built a fountain for the public ornamentation of the City, also built this little fountain to be of service to private citizens in the year 1644”. This one was designed as a water trough for their horses and in this would provide a “service”.
Our wanderings that afternoon took us past the US Embassy so we at least know the entrance we were to use for the Consulate office. It also got us close to the Borghese Gallery which we had visited in the Fall. We didn’t want to enter the gallery again, but took some time to wander through the beautiful park surrounding it. We didn’t plan any major sightseeing this time so it was a very laid back day in Rome. The next morning we made it to our appointment at the Consulate, got things sorted
The Authorities Trying to Keep Private Boats Away
during the festivities to keep clear of the activities out in an hours’ time, went back to check out of our room and caught the train back to Gaeta. A quick but very successful trip – another good reason to have stayed in Gaeta a few days longer.
One area in Gaeta that we wanted to hike up to was the Mount Orlando Park as everyone we talked to said it was well worth it. Fortunately the weather was with us and we had a great day for a hike. There are numerous trails through the trees with wonderful signboards telling of the foliage and wildlife, a few staircases thrown in for good measure (and good leg muscles). When near the top we were met with a commercial area at the top with souvenir vendors and a café. There is a roadway up here but we were happy to have had a nice hike instead. Mount Orlando had been incorporated into the stronghold of Gaeta dating back to the 16
th C. With this in mind you get glimpses of various structures that have been built over the years to help in its defenses. Some of the batteries and some storage facilities still remain.
The Sanctuary of the
Every Procession Needs a Band
and numerous Church groups marched by as well Holy Trinity is located here and we had a chance to peek inside, but as it was a Sunday they were getting ready for a service soon. A draw for many visitors here is the Turk’s Cave and the Chapel of the Crucifix. You must walk/climb down through a large crack in the rocks and at the bottom of the walk you find a small chapel. There was a service in session therefore we did not get a chance to see inside it. We understand that many pilgrims come to worship here.
The legend behind this area is that when Jesus died on the cross, three deep cracks into the rocks here became what is now known as ‘Split Mountain of Gaeta’. In 1434 a large rock broke away from the two sides of what is called “split mountain” which became stuck further down and wedged itself. It was thought to be a miracle and as such a Church was built at this location. This is the location where the Chapel of the Crucifix was built. I included a photo of a page from our guidebook about Gaeta to try to give a better idea of the placement of
this chapel as it is hard to describe.
On the path down there is a plaque that indicates where a “handprint” is embedded in the rock. The legend is that a Turk sailor did not believe the story and as a result when he put his hand on the wall, the rock became liquid and his hand print was captured for eternity.
No matter what your belief is about these legends, this is a beautiful area and interesting to see. After seeing the split rock area we continued hiking and found many wonderful pathways providing us with great visas of the area. We also had heard of the Mausoleum for Lucio Munazio Planco which was built in 20 BC and is located on Mount Orlando. It is perfectly round and built of large blocks set upon each other with no use of mortar. Quite an impressive accomplishment. It turned out to be a wonderful day with some great exercise and spectacular views of this lovely area.
In looking at the weather we finally picked Wednesday, June 13
th for leaving Gaeta to start our cruising season. In the time we had left we had a chance to do
some socializing with cruisers we met here as well as our “new” American friend Jayne; time to do the more mundane daily life activities of laundry, mailing post cards, visiting the market for the last time and get some shopping done for staples needed onboard.
Here at Base Nautica the staff are wonderful and offer plenty of help when anyone arrives or leaves. We called on the VHF and a couple of minutes later Alex stopped over and helped us out of the slip being sure everything was OK as we departed. After thanking everyone for such a lovely time we motored out of the marina and were on our way!
We didn’t have much wind, but put up the main and the staysail and started toward our destination for the day, Isola Ischia. We started to have a problem with the autopilot not working so were forced into hand-steering. You may not think this would be a real problem, but our first leg we estimated would be about 7.5 hours and standing behind the wheel gets pretty tiring. We weren’t looking forward to it, but figured we could handle it with taking turns. Bob figured he would
look at it when we got to the anchorage as he had been climbing in and out of the lazarette doing work and he may have knocked a wire loose. I was at the wheel and Bob went down to look at the engine and found that some diesel was leaking. With two problems it was an easy decision to turn around and head back to a familiar port, Base Nautica Flavio in Gaeta. Things weren’t starting out well, but at least with turning around we had much better wind for sailing – always have to look for the positive in a situation! We know that they have very professional people working there and it was only 2 hours away. Called the marina on the VHF to explain what had happened and when we arrived back, our friendly and very competent Alex was there in the dinghy to meet us. He climbed on board and took Tsamaya stern to into the slip we had come out of a few hours earlier. They turned off the engine and actually propelled Tsamaya by pushing with a dinghy. As soon as we tied up he filled out a form for the maintenance work,
took photos of the engine and told us they’d let us know when they could look at the engine. Bob told them he would work on the auto-pilot if we could get someone to look at the engine. We will see what tomorrow brings with both projects
Well, guess we will start our sailing season sometime in the future – stay tuned!
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