Corsica & Rome

Our last week in Corsica was spent with Kevin’s brother Steve his wife Madeline and their two children Sophie and Harry, they were staying in an apartment near to the bay of Porta Vecchia  so we anchored in the bay for the duration of their visit. As stated in my previous entry the bottom is quite foul but the holding is very good, which was a godsend as we experienced some very strong winds our first night in the bay, requiring Kevin to check no other yachts anchor was dragging our way. At the same time other yachtsmen were checking/repositioning their anchors or moving to a different part of the bay altogether.

On our first day with Steve and Madeline the weather was not too good and the winds were still quite strong and so we spent our time either at their apartment or sitting by the pool. The following day however we set off early for a bay about 14 miles away called Porto Nova. The bay had clear blue waters but it was very cold something we had not been used to, that didn’t stop the kids however and they were soon in the water whilst the adults did a bit of chilling out and sunbathing.

Madeline relaxing in the sun

Prior to coming out to see us Madeline had done some research on which bays she would like to sail to, one of which was Santa Giulia, a bay which we had considered going into before but is buoyed off making it difficult to get anywhere near the beach to anchor, so we went in the car. The write up in the pilot book gives it a great description but in reality the bay is semi-circular with a very small strip of sand around, the water is crystal blue which means you can see the amount of debris floating in the water. The beach was packed and it was difficult to find anywhere to park ourselves. In the end we found a small patch of sand and plonked ourselves down, and so not one we would visit again.

Santa Giulia Beach

The weather although hot was unpredictable, the winds never blowing in the direction forecast, and not at the wind speed predicted either and so more often than not we would plan our schedule for the following day according to the forecast and then find we would be sailing with the wind on our nose which meant we had to put in several tacks to get to our destination.

Another bay we visited by boat was Anse de Cola, about nine miles north of Porta Vecchia, on the way we were treated to an aerial display by two fire fighting planes, as they flew above us and then down onto the sea to pick up water before dispersing it again back into the sea, the kids were beside themselves at the spectacle and took loads of pictures.

Anse de Cola is a much nicer beach than Santa Giulia, again crystal clear waters, but not busy at all. Whilst there Steve, Madeline and the kids took the dingy to explore the bay, and on return Madeline was wet through, Sophie had been driving the dingy into the waves, which broke over the front of the dingy soaking Madeline to the skin.

Of all the bays we visited with Steve and Madeline I think our favourite all round was Golfe de Rondinara. Again crystal clear waters and a lovely sandy beach, once anchored Kevin set the plank up as a diving board and Harry was the first off followed by Kevin, Steve and Sophie.

Harry

Sophie

Steve

Even Madeline was willing to have a go but chickened out at the last minute, I on the other hand didn’t even make an attempt preferring to gracefully descend into the water using the bathing ladder.

At one point in the day Kevin started to feed the fish with some bread and shortly afterwards Sophie who was in the water was surrounded by a large number of fish.

Throughout their time with us they were also treated to displays from “Macho Man” as described by Rod Heikall in his book Italian Cruising Waters. These are usually but not always Italian men with more money than sense who drive speed boats and who frequent places where others are quietly enjoying themselves, arriving and departing at high speeds creating  a huge wash that then sends those boats at anchor rocking and rolling over the place, requiring the occupants to garb any articles not secured down so as to reduce any breakages. These macho men also have a habit of zooming past you at high speeds as close into you as they can get whilst you are trying to sail, creating the same problem, only this time the helmsman has try and ride the wash whilst the first mate tries frantically to ensure nothing gets damaged. On a couple of occasions when this has happened to us we have ended up with broken glasses in the cupboard so now we stuff them with tea towels to stop things moving around.

All too soon their time with us was over, the night before Steve and Madeline departed for home and we made our way to mainland Italy, we went up into the old town of Porto Vecchia, it was lovely, it certainly changed our initial impression of the place and is well worth paying a visit. That night we had a meal in a restaurant recommended to Steve, where we had the house special, I think we all agreed afterwards although very nice it was one of the dearest lasagnes we had ever had. Back down at Steve and Madeline’s apartment we said our goodbyes and headed back across the bay to Miss Lilly and the next leg of our journey.

The following day we were up bright and early and made our preparations to cross to mainland Italy and our first destination Di Roma Marina 139 miles away. Again we had planned our crossing according to the weather forecast and once again it was different than had been predicted and so instead of sailing all the way as over as planned we did have to motor sail for about 50% of the journey.

As we approached the mainland there was something serene about the coast line, and the waters were a beautiful aqua colour and flat calm. On entering the marina we were met by the marina staff in their dingy who escorted us to our birth and assisted with mooring up, they couldn’t have been more helpful, and the cost per night was 34 Euros including water and electricity which we thought for mainland Italy was good value for money.

The next day we set off to visit Rome a place I had always wanted to visit, and where Kevin had been several times mainly for work and so it was the first time for both of us to do the sightseeing bit. So at 0900hrs we boarded the bus to the metro and caught the train into Rome, have to say the roads aren’t up to much, certainly very little has been spent on them unlike Spain. On route we stopped off to get a map and guide book and over a coffee planned our day.

First stop was the Colosseum, as you come out of the metro station there it stands looking very majestic. Once we had found the entrance we joined the queue to get our tickets and video guide, which took about 30 minutes. There are several ticket touts outside the Colloseum trying to get you to buy tickets to get access without queuing but the cost was quite steep and so we declined.

Inside the Colosseum it was huge and we were glad we had paid a little extra for the video guide as it helped put everything into context regarding its history and its use, along with how it used to look.

On our planned list of must see sights were the Roman Forum, Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, Fontana Di Trevi, Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel. The Trevi Fountain which is my daughters favourite place in Rome was crowed and took some of the shine of the place, however it was still worth visiting and as it was very hot it was great to run your fingers through the cool water and to the traditional thing and throw a coin into the fountain thus ensuring our return.

Vatican city was just how I imagined, St Peters Square is vast and so was the queue to get into the Sistine Chapel, after a fairly lengthy debate we decided it was far too hot to stand in the queue that was moving towards the entrance very slowly and would take a couple of hours, and so we made our way back to one of the metro stations to head back into the centre of Rome. All in all though this was the only sight on our must see list that we didn’t get to see.

By now my feet were killing me and so we made our way to a little coffee bar/gelateria and had a well earned ice cream before heading off to have a look at some sights that were not on our list. Along the way I spied a nice pair of shoes in a shop window and went in to have a look, having tried them on and got a nod off approval off Kevin I decided to buy them for 22 euros more than half the original price, bargain. I also noticed a lovely dress which I also purchased however this was not in the sale so not quite such a bargain.

We would have liked to finish our day with a meal at one of the restaurants but as we were unsure how long the trains would run back into Ostia where the marina was we decided to head back and have a meal at one of the restaurants around the marina, on hindsight this was a bad choice.

We had originally planned to spend a couple of days in Rome, but after a full on day the day before plus we had managed to see most of what we wanted to see we decided to continue our journey south and over to the Pontine Islands. With hindsight I think if I was to go to Rome again and hopefully we will it would be easier to stay in the city, that way we could have taken a little bit more time with our sight seeing and had that meal in one of the restaurants. 

Distance Travelled 2012: 2471Nm

Distance Travelled 2013: 2029Nm

Total Distance: 4500Nm

Our Present Position: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=39.510133,15.94165&hl=en&sll=39.484965,15.982018&sspn=0.073,0.154324&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=13&t=m&z=13