Porto Santo Stefano, Italy

Tuesday 13th July

It sounds ungrateful but we almost groaned when we woke at 6am and saw another brilliant, blue sky. This promised hot and humid days here on the coast. We set off for the 15 min walk to the Port to pick up our day cruise out to the two islands of Giannutri and Giglio, located just off the coast of Monte Argentario.

We boarded the luxury cruiser and realised that, apart from one other couple out of the 150 or so, everyone else was Italian. The commentary for the day was only given in Italian so, we’re not sure what juicy bits of information that we missed. Much gesticulation and reassurance was needed at each stop to ensure that we had the correct re-embarkation times.

Our first stop, after 90 min, was at Giannutri Island, a rocky outcrop hosting little more than a few, private holiday apartments. The highlight of this stop though was to meet a young couple from Rome… who spoke English!!! What a relief to finally converse with someone. The young woman worked for the UN in Rome and chatted to us about how Romans live, relax and enjoy their holiday time. She explained how she and her boyfriend used the Island, the best place to swim and, she was also able to explain to us why we were issued with a parking ticket the previous day! They then gave us two dining suggestions for our time back in Rome before we parted ways and headed off for a swim.

Once back on board the boat, we were ushered to our dining table for lunch that we shared with an older Italian couple and their grandson. This was an interesting 90 min, with a delicious lunch, where we each tested our limited vocab on each other. The next stop was Giglio Island, a very poor relation to the Isle of Capri, if you ask me. We spent the time there lying on the gritty beach and watching the many Italians at rest and play. We were back home, in the smelly apartment, by 7.30pm and quite tired after our big day so we didn’t even bother with dinner.