Land, ho!

I know you're probably all wondering what's happened to me since I haven't posted for a little over two weeks now. I realized that I forgot to tell all of you, my loyal readers, that I was going sailing around the Greek Islands for a while; just got back today. That's right; after the Tuscany/Piemonte wine-buying spree, I went back to work for a four-day work week and just got so exhausted from it that I had to take another two weeks of leave. Actually, the five of us who went had been planning it for quite some time. One of my friends out here is pretty much a professional-level skipper, and the rest of us are at least competent at pulling on ropes and such, so it worked out well. I'll be posting the details of each day on the site here (based on events as recorded in our Official Ship's Log) (and I'll be backdating them to when they actually happened, just for posterity, so don't get confused when new posts start showing up between 5 Sep and now).

But for the quick highlights: 5 of us rented a 49 foot sailboat from The Moorings, a company with yacht rentals all over nice warm sunny places. We flew from Rome to Athens to Mykonos (one of the party capitals of Europe, apparently) where we stayed a night then ferried over to Siros, where we picked up the boat. Went from Siros to Serifos (big wind and waves) to Ios (REALLY big wind and waves) where we stayed an extra day and me and two other guys almost were lost at sea in our dinghy, to the south side of Paros where we stayed an extra day, to the north side of Paros, back to Siros to return the boat. Then we ferried back and stayed in Mykonos overnight last night, and flew home today. ~130 nautical miles of sailing altogether, and I'm ready to buy my own boat.

Like I said, details to be posted below, but give me a few days since I'm really tired now and since tomorrow will be taken up by the NATO Oktoberfest. (This event is hosted by the Germans who work at the NATO base here in Naples, and it would be very un-diplomatic of me to pass up this chance to demonstrate our solidarity with our allies.)

Day 1

FROM: Syros (Finikas)
TO: Serifos (Livadi)

Acquired our fine pirate sloop this afternoon and set sail for distant shores. Winds were a hefty 30-40 knots, and seas were a sickening 5-7 ft. So sickening, in fact, that Mark and Chris were pretty much useless for the first two hours. Eventually, though, everyone got used to it and we battled our way across the channel to anchor in a harbor off the island of Serifos. Didn't bother going ashore, as we had plenty of food in the boat.

MEDICAL ISSUES: Burt sliced off his thumb while preparing dinner. Being the good pirates that we are, and never ones to waste anything, we fried it and ate it for dinner.

The Odyssey begins

So after an arduous four-day work week following the Tuscany/Piemonte Grand Tour with "Laura," I needed a break, so I'm back on leave. Several of us are renting a sailboat starting tomorrow and cruising around the Greek isles (specifically the Cyclades) for a week or so. We flew from Rome to Athens to Mykonos yesterday and stayed in Mykonos overnight. Apparently that particular island is one of the party capitals of Europe, and even though it's past the end of tourist season, it was still a pretty lively evening downtown. Pricey, drink-wise, but lively. We stayed in a lovely little one-star hotel (closer to a B&B, really), the Hotel Nazos. The owner (Mr. Nazos) picked us up at the airport and also brought us down to the ferry landing today. Very friendly family, very clean rooms, and most importantly, a very affordable price.

This afternoon, we took the ferry from Mykonos to Syros, where we're staying in a hotel tonight. Tomorrow we'll pick up the boat, the Conchita, around 1 p.m. or so. The pier is right up the street from the hotel, so we walked over and checked out our home for the next week. It's a lovely 49-foot vessel and looks quite suitable for our little band of pirates.

Cast of characters for our little trip (names changed to protect the innocent):
-"Nave": our skipper; he happens to be one of our good friends here, as well as a very experienced sailor and Commodore of the New York Yacht Club.
-"Nark": really wants to be a pirate because it allows him to grow facial hair and to say "Yarrrgh" a lot. Who can fault that logic?
-"Nurt": has the best party hair of anyone in the office, and was the one who remembered to actually order food for this trip
-"Nulie": "Nurt"'s wife, the only wench--um, I mean woman--on the trip. Brave soul.
-"Me": looks like Brad Pitt, dances like Patrick Swayze, fights like Chuck Norris, puts his pants on one leg at a time just like you, but after he puts on those pants, he makes gold records.

Obligatory Tourist Photo

Best suggestion for a caption wins a free copy of the shirtless version of this picture.

Wine me, dine me...

Had a lovely six days traveling around Tuscany and Piedmont. I picked "Laura" up from the airport since she had been in the States, and on the way to drop her off at her place in northern Italy, we happened to stop off at a few scenic places.

Wed- Picked up "Laura" at the airport in Rome around 11. We drove to a little Tuscan hill town called Montepulciano and had lunch there, at a place recommended by the Food and Wine Lover's Companion to Tuscany by Carla Capalbo. We bought some wine (they're famous for Vino Nobile di Montepulciano). Then, we continued up the road to Siena, where we stayed for the evening. We saw the piazza where they hold il Palio, the famous horserace in Siena every August, and ate at yet another restaraunt recommended by the FWLCT. So far, two for two as far as that particular book was concerned.

Thu- I got up and went for a run. It was a pretty good hill workout because, well, Siena is nothing but hills. I think maybe there is a total of about 20 square feet of flat ground in the city. We headed out to the Chianti region, where we toured one of the wineries belonging to Marchesi di Barolo, one of the larger (and better) Tuscan wine producers. The tour was great; it included an old castle and a lot of wine barrels, and for the first time I saw the giant grape mashing machine that they throw all the grapes into in order to, well, mash them. We had a lovely little wine tasting, after which we of course bought some more wine (Chianti reserva and some other good stuff)--enough that Stefania, our tour guide, threw in a free designer cork screw and Marchesi di Barolo apron. Then we headed out to San Gimignano, where we stayed the second night. San G is the perfect picturesque Tuscan hill town--it was built with defense in mind, so it used to have something like 40 or 50 giant stone towers; now it only has about 14, but it's still an impressive site. The town is all within a giant medieval stone wall, and most of the buildings are made out of stone, and they all have a fantastic view over the Tuscan countryside. We ate at the restaraunt attached to the hotel, and it was fantastic.

Fri- We got up and went sightseeing around San G., climbed to the top of the tower in the center of town, and bought still some more wine (Vernaccia di San Gimignano, a lovely, refreshing white). Then we drove up north to "Laura"'s house. We stopped by the leaning tower of Pisa because it happened to be on the way home and I hadn't seen it yet.

Sat- Not having tasted any substantial amount of wine in the past 24 hours, we were suffering from withdrawal. So we went to the Enoteca Regionale di Barolo, which is basically a giant combination wine store and wine museum in the city of Barolo, which is famous for Barolo wine. (Barolo, if you didn't know--which I didn't until after living in Italy for about 5 months--is one of the finest reds that Italy produces.) We did a tasting there and bought some more wine. Then we had the most expensive lunch I've ever seen for two people--850 Euro. Actually, it was supposed to be 85 Euro, but the restaraunt owner accidentally added in the extra digit when he rang up my credit card, and then didn't know how to cancel it. So he had to go to the bank and take out cash to refund me the difference. So basically I got a big cash advance without having to pay the cash advance fee. After lunch, we went over to the town of Barbaresco, which is famous for a wine called, oddly enough, Barbaresco. More importantly, one of "Laura"'s teachers is the winemaster at a winery there, so he gave us a private tour and then a tasting. A couple glasses into the tasting, we were joined by four more people--the parent's and some friends of a friend of the winemaster, who happened to be in the area and wanted to check it out. It turns out that the two friends are professional violinists in some orchestra in London, and it led to some pretty interesting conversation. Towards the end of the tasting, one of them went out to the car where he happened to have a violin, and he proceded to play for us for the next ten or fifteen minutes or so. One of those nice random things that just seem to keep happening in Italy. Oh yeah...and we bought some more wine.

Sun- I got up and went running. Then we bummed around town. It was very pleasant.

Mon- I drove "Laura" to the town square so she could meet up with her class and get going on her trip to Portugal for school. Then I drove the 8-1/2 hours home.

Total distance driven: ~1900 km.
Total bottles of wine purchased by yours truly (not counting the ones we drank with meals): 54