Porto Santo Stefano, Italy

Sunday 11th July

Sunday is truly a day of rest in Italy. So, given that nothing would be open, we decided to have a day by the pool to recharge our energy reserves and to try to forget our present accommodation predicament. Also, there was no way that Mark was going to get in the car again today. He needed more time to recover from yesterday’s journey.

Massimo came by in the morning and connected a new gas cylinder so that we at least could cook, shower and clean. The day was glorious, something to be grateful for, and for that we all got a bit sun burnt.

Our day by the pool was very pleasant and it somewhat compensated for the disappointment with our lodgings. The other pool guests were all stylish and, clearly, very wealthy Italians. Apparently, most people use this as a weekend and holiday base from their homes in Rome etc. A few of them gave us skeptical, questioning glances as we clearly stood out from olive-skinned, general population.

We would have gone for a walk down along the harbour in the afternoon if only we could work out how to catch the bus home. It was way too hot to consider navigating climbing the mountain on the return trip. Given that no one speaks English though, it has been impossible to get answers to some simple, yet fundamental, questions that we have. The owner did not leave us a single piece of useful information, or even a map of the local area. This is most unusual for a ‘holiday let’; they usually all come with loads of info, maps and brochures etc.

We had dinner up at the club-house restaurant located near the pool and tennis court. We had reserved a table here as they had a larger TV and were going to be showing the final of the World Cup. Mark and I had grilled seafood which was quite good and more than rivaled the prices down at the harbour restaurants. We eventually wandered home to watch the finish of the match.

We’ve noticed that there are no other non Italian tourists down this way. Porto Santo Stefano is reported as a ‘once fishing village now luxury holiday destination for wealthy Italians. That may be true except that, in July 2010, there was one little Aussie family there too for just a few days.