On Monday, Mike, his parents, their neighbors and I went on the gommone (a large inflatable boat) and took a trip along the coast up to the beaches of Grotticelli, and the secluded spiaggietti (small beaches). I say secluded because the beach can only be reached by boat, or if you hike down the steep path from the mountain above (Belvedere) where you can see a great view of the sea and the beaches.
We dropped the anchor in the middle of the sea in front of the spiaggietti. We all went in the water except for Mike’s mom. I personally haven’t been exposed to much open water swimming, so I tend to be apprehensive of the thought. What if I get tired, what if I drink too much water? But I’m open to new experiences so I mustered up enough courage to slide into the deep waters and swim. Mike, of course dove right in.
But the real challenge lay on getting back onto the gommone – gracefully, that is. It was no easy feat, but with this, I fared better than Mike.
The neighbors, whom I will refer to here as i Dottori (The Doctors, since they are both anesthesiologists) are wonderful people from Catania (a city in Sicily). They own the house next door and spend their August holidays in Santa Maria. They are the ones who own the super fast gommone, and they are a fun and groovy couple to hang around.
Later that afternoon, Mike, Ferd and I went for a 5km run, first heading east up the mountain, then northwest through farm roads around Santa Maria. We made it to Groticelli/Capo Vaticano, one of the beaches we went to earlier on the boat, but this time we were high up on the mountain. From there, we took a connecting scenic road with sea views to descend from the mountain, back to the house. The hills were very steep, that’s why now my legs are sore.
While we were jogging, a car started honking at us and it turns out that it’s Nica, one of Mike and Ferd’s cousins who hasn’t come by to visit yet. I guess running into her (literally) saved her a trip to the beach house.
The image below shows the route that we took. On the upper left corner is I Spiagietti and the stretch of the 3 connecting arches just south is what makes up the Groticelli beach.
The boat ride on Monday morning and the 5KM run that afternoon was the perfect way to start the week off. Maybe it won’t be a lazy type of vacation after all. Maybe we’d even lose some weight if only Mike’s parents aren’t so good at feeding us! But hey, I’m not complaining — yet, at least.
