We left Palermo on October 13 for our two-day sail to Tunisia.

Why did we go to Tunisia? The main reason is because it isn’t in Schengen. The other reason is that it is on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea/northern coast of Africa and therefore a warm place to spend the winter. Finally, we’d read that Monastir Marina was a very popular marina for cruisers. We had joined a Monastir Group Page on WhatsApp and had already been in communication with a couple of the cruisers. We learned that they get together for a BBQ every Sunday and also enjoy happy hours, coffee, and watching football (soccer) games together. We were pretty excited to get to the marina!

We had to motor the entire way to Tunisia. There was little to no wind. Here are some pictures of our trip to Tunisia, including arriving in the middle of the night, where we anchored outside of the marina until daylight (in fact, not until midday; we slept in and took our sweet time). I should note that we didn’t see land for most of the trip, but the pictures I took include the land because they are more interesting than just looking at water. 🙂

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We had hoped to leave for Palermo earlier than we did. We had to wait for a repaired battery charger to be delivered to Seahike.

To be perfectly honest, though, we probably needed the break. We had come down with something (we later learned it was Covid) during our trip to Venice and Cinque Terre. My theory is that we picked it up on the train from Venice to Cinque Terre. At any rate, we were both tired and wouldn’t have wanted to make an overnight sail. Sometimes the stars align in really weird ways!

We left about 30 seconds after the package was delivered to Seahike on October 10. We were able to sail a bit, but we motored most of the way. We arrived in Palermo on October 11. Here are some pictures of our arrival in Palermo. I also want to call out Sitimar Marina. It was wonderful and the staff members were SO helpful!!!

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My legs felt well worked out after climbing hundreds of steps the prior day, but I was still excited for today’s two hikes.

The first hike was from our “home town” of Riomaggiore to Manarola. This would be arguably the most difficult hike because it was basically up, up, up, up, down, down, down, down. No flat sections to speak of. I will admit that my thighs felt the up, up, up, up, but they agreed to keep going.

Here’s the info about the trail from a Cinque Terre trail website:

Hiking trail Riomaggiore – Manarola – (Via Beccara)
Difficulty: difficult
Length: 1.8 km
Duration: 1h (Note that this lists one hour, but the map lists 36 minutes. One hour was correct.)
Hiking fee: no
This trail between Manarola and Riomaggiore is an alternative to Via dell’Amore (which is currently closed) and can be done in either direction. (I went from Riomaggiore to Manarola.)
The Cinque Terre Card is not required for this trail. Very good physical condition is required!
The villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola are very close to one another but have a very steep mountain separating them. Half an hour of challenging climb due to the number of steep stairs up over the ridge, through a metal gate as you pass across the high point then drop through terraced small-plot grape fields into a beautiful town for refreshments. The trail offers panoramic sea views.

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Our visit to Cinque Terre was all about hiking for me. Most of you understand by now that Michael can’t exert himself much due to his heart issues. But he is a great sport about meeting me somewhere after I’ve hiked there.

Today’s first hike began in Corniglia. I bought a Cinque Terre Tren card and took the train from Riomaggiore to Corniglia. The Tren card made the most sense because I would be hiking the two trails that have a fee associated with them (the other two I would be hiking are free) and would be taking the train enough to make the Tren card the way to go. Michael also bought the Tren card, but for him it was because he would be taking the train numerous times.

The first portion of the hike consisted of climbing the 383 steps to Corniglia, the only one of the five towns not located at sea level. Once there, I walked around a bit to enjoy the town. It is very pretty.

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Three trains (high speed, regional, and inter-city) and five hours later we were in Monterosso! We stopped at the first restaurant we saw for a late lunch/very early dinner. We each had a local beer and a panini.

It wasn’t too much longer before we decided to head to our hotel, which was in Riomaggiore, at the opposite end of Cinque Terre. We decided to take the ferry so we could see Cinque Terre from the water.

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It was time to take our trip “up north” to Venice and Cinque Terre. I’d been to both before (in 2001) but Michael hadn’t been to either. I didn’t have specific memories of either place, but I had a warm fuzzy feeling that made me excited to see them again.

We’d headed to Agropoli a couple of days prior to catching the train to Venice. They have a marina that is less expensive than those along the Amalfi Coast. We needed to be in a marina for a couple of reasons: 1) we don’t leave Seahike at anchor when we go out of town for safety reasons, and 2) we were having a repaired battery charger and four new solar panels delivered to Seahike and needed a real-live address to do so.

We didn’t spend much time in Agropoli, but it seemed to be a nice city. The train station was a bit of a hike, so we were glad we didn’t have a lot of heavy luggage to carry.

We arrived with about 10 minutes to spare, only to learn that the train was 10 minutes late. We went to the correct track to board the train then proceeded to get lost in our phones. All of a sudden, Michael looked up from his phone and asked where everyone was. It was then that we realized that the train was arriving on a different track than where we were standing. And the train was already there! We went into panic mode and I tried to ask someone how to get to the track on the other side. He didn’t speak English. Michael said, “he doesn’t understand you,” and we took off. We saw the stairs that led to the underground passage. When we reached the bottom, several people exiting the train pointed to where we needed to go. We sprinted up the stairs to the train and boarded. We’d only been on the train about 30 seconds when the doors closed. Whew!

So, that was exciting.

We’d started the trip on a regional train, then changed to a high-speed train in Salerno. The rest of the seven-hour trip was thankfully uneventful.

When we arrived in Venice, we were greeted with this sight. I immediately felt like I’d come home to an old friend. It was so exciting!

We bought a ticket for the waterbus (definitely the way to travel – inexpensive and quick!) and started to enjoy the scenery along the Grand Canal.

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I haven’t talked much about Salerno, even though we have been using it as our home port (and loving doing so, by the way!!). As a city, it is a story in contrasts. Parts are modern and clean, others are dirty and old. (Not that this is specific to Salerno, but it is a bit different from some of the other “Disneyesque” cities along the Amalfi Coast.) Many of the walls are covered in uber colorful graffiti. Very few people speak English (not a complaint, just a fact). There are two marinas and ferry stops within a kilometer of each other. The city’s residents – some with pet dogs – make excellent use of the beach located next to one of the marinas (and where we are at anchor). Some residents are daily walkers – in the water. I think they use the water as a source of resistance and/or to protect their joints while walking back and forth. They are quick to respond with a smile and “Bonjourno” when you say it to them. The residents also enjoy socializing on the numerous benches located along the long promenade that is densely decorated with beautiful flowering trees.

In short, the city is both welcoming and very interesting.

My favorite day in Salerno was the day I visited the Arechi castle. I’d decided to walk, not because I didn’t know how to get a taxi (which I didn’t), but because I thought it would be a nice walk. It was. Google Maps took me through narrow streets, on wrong turns, in back alleys, etc. When it told me to turn onto a non-existent street, I just retraced my steps until I found a street going in the right direction, went down it, and checked the phone again. Once I was through the city, I followed a “regular” road to the castle.

But let’s learn a bit about this city before we talk about the castle. Here are quite a few facts and dates:

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We thought we would spend an hour or two visiting the ruins in Pompeii. We spent four. The woman at the tourist center recommended that we just visit the sites underlined in black on the map. So that’s what we did. Seventeen sites. Four hours.

The first thing we saw when we entered the ruins was the anfiteatro (amphitheater). It is the oldest among those known from Roman times. It was built in 70 B.C., on the initiative of magistrates Caius Quinctius Valgus and Marcus Porcius who also had the Odeon built. It could hold up to 20,000 people.

In 59 A.D., the cheering of the audience led to a bloody brawl between the people from Pompeii and those from Nocera. As a result of these riots, the Senate of Rome decided to close the arena in Pompeii for ten years, however, this measure was withdrawn in 62 A.D., after the disastrous earthquake struck the city.

The exterior of the amphitheater has staircases with two flights to provide access to the upper steps and a downward corridor that provides access to the lower steps.

Our next stop was the Casa di Giulia Felice. It is a large complex of buildings built at the end of the 1st century B.C., following the incorporation of previous buildings into a single building complex set as an “urban villa,” with a predominance of green areas.

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We stayed on the boat on the 23rd because it poured rain much of the day. It made for some fun pictures, though.

We were ready and raring to go to Positano the next day. This time, we took the dinghy to the marina and left it by a small quay. The gentlemen who worked there had graciously allowed us to do this before so we gave them a couple of bars of Swiss chocolate as a show of thanks. They seemed to appreciate it. Everyone likes chocolate, yes?

We went further down the Amalfi coast than we had before, so we saw some new coastline. Here are some pictures, although I cannot guarantee that all are of the new coastline, to be perfectly honest. I always take a lot of pictures. But first, here are two pictures of the promenade we take to get to the ferry:

And now, the coastline . . .

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We are on the Amalfi coast, so we decided it was prudent to visit the actual town of Amalfi. Atrani is a hop, skip, and a jump from Amalfi, so we visited both of them.

We decided to leave the dinghy on Seahike, so we did the thing where I took Michael ashore in the dinghy, took the dinghy back to Seahike, then swam ashore. I then washed my hair and rinsed the saltwater off under the freshwater showers. (In case you are wondering, I chose shorts that would dry quickly and my swimsuit top.) I put a shirt over my swimsuit top when we got to the ferry, which meant that my shirt got wet. Oh well, it would dry eventually.

The ferry from Salerno to Amalfi takes about 45 minutes, so one has time to admire the coastline. We did.

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