As the clock strikes 9pm we've reached that time of the week to pause and take a snap-shot of where we are, what's been going and what's about to happen. So with gas heater turned on, (1 bar for the record), scarf wrapped around neck and blankets putting the icing on the warmth cake, I shall commence with this week's Ischia on Sunday Blog.

As I've already discreetly alluded to, we're not enjoying the warmest spell of the year right now and the weather has largely dominated proceedings over the last 7 days leaving those of us who travel around on two scootered wheels somewhat restricted. We've had lots of rain, storms with spectacular bolts of lightning and even  hail-stones at one time or another but the great news is that we seem to be over the worst of it and the next week should provide us with lots of sunshine, even if still feeling cold in the evenings. 

For an island that lives and breathes tourism during the spring, summer and autumn, the winter provides a welcome break for its inhabitants and it's during this time that many Ischians decide to broaden their horizons, either by travelling or looking for inspiration closer to home. In terms of cultural activities it's a really interesting time to be in Ischia and to understand how the people fill their time during the off-season. Rather than simply idling away the time with the comforts of home, the people here tend to be more socially active, looking for interesting ways to entertain themselves and to feed their souls. 

This tendency towards seeking new ideas and ventures has seen a surge amongst the island's young and middle-aged people to look at some of the ways in which things were done in the past and to learn how to apply some of those skills in their modern-day lives either for practical or cultural reasons. One such example of this is the "Borsa Verde" (Green Bag) project which allows people to barter for and exchange food and other goods. The idea is that you can offer any surplus food that's been grown in your garden or unwanted items that you have in the home to other people on the island that may be looking for those very things. You may for example exchange some vegetables that you've cultivated in your back yard for a piece of jewellery that you've seen on the list of available items. You negotiate or barter with your opposite number to come to an agreement that's acceptable to both parties and then the exchange is made. The project which was started last year is hugely popular as it allows people to make interesting new friends and learn all kinds of new skills such as how to make traditional recipes or create some hand-made item of clothing.

Apart from the Borsa Verde project there are dozens of other cultural initiatives that aim to ensure that the past traditions of the island are handed down to modern generations. Skills such as basket-weaving, pottery and the teaching of viniculture are all widely practiced on the island at this time of year which is so important in the annual cycle of life here. One of the most fascinating and fun initiatives has been set up to share the wonderful tradition of folk music and dancing that exists in Ischia with weekly classes aimed at inspiring a new generation with the effervescent roots of this important part of Italian life. La Tammorra is a style of folk-music that can be heard from Naples right across the southern regions of Italy with hundreds of local variations and styles in evidence. The dancing that accompanies the music is stylish and captivating, rendering any new observer hooked and eager to learn how it's done.

All of these cultural projects and initiatives are a great credit to all involved and highlight the special nature of the island and its people. We live in modern times and while Ischia does have the modern facilities that visitors require these days, it hasn't forgotten its roots and this just adds to the charm which oozes out of every one of the island's corners.

Looking ahead to next week we've got Valentine's Day coming on Saturday and there is simply no excuse for forgetting to treat you're loved one with every bar and shop filling their shelves with chocolates and all the little lovey-dovey nick nacks that ensure the day passes safely and without incident ;-) Following on from that there's Carnevale ("Mardi Gras" or "Shrove Tuesday" in other parts of the world) on Tuesday 17th February and I'll be explaining a little bit about how that all unfolds on next week's blog.

Anyway that's all from me for this week, I'll be on weather reporting duty throughout the week and of course here to help with any queries or questions you may have relating to your visit to Ischia and I look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible.

A presto.

Dion Protani

Sunday 15th February 2015 - [email protected]

Today's Saint's/Name Day: San Girolamo Emiliani, Giacomina, Jacqueline, Onorato.

Today in history: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen two days after the death of her father King George VI (1952)

Born on this day: American actor and star of the film "Avanti" which was shot in Ischia, Jack Lemmon (1925), actress Lana Turner (1920) & actor James Dean (1931)

Sun-rise (alba): 07:05   Sun-set (tramonto): 17:29

Good evening everyone, it's a case of the late show for this week's blog, commencing some 4 minutes before midnight as one week comes to a close and passes the baton to a fresh 7 days of fun on the good ship Ischia. After a week of dramatic weather the pause button has been temporarily pressed to leave us with a beautiful, peaceful, star-filled evening while nature decides which of its intriguing box of tricks to send our way next.

We're really in the middle of the coldest, wettest period of the year and there's still a bit more to come according to the forecasts. Today saw a break from the dampness that we've had for the last couple of weeks which was instead replaced by some potent, gale-force winds. Glancing across down to Chiaia Beach today provided a fascinating show of nature with large swathes of crisp, azure blue being shaken by thick, foamy white lines racing towards the shore. Interspersed with this engaging vista were the sight of brightly-coloured canopies being controlled by the fun-loving, edge-living and danger defying kite-surfers who day-dream about these very conditions that come around oh so rarely. For land-lubbers such as myself the thought of hurling yourself through mid-air at the mercy of the changing direction of the fearsome Libeccio wind is not particularly appealing but a quick zoom of the camera lens showed nothing but maddened joy on the faces of the combatants as they skilfully displayed their art to the open-mouthed crowd on the beach.

A little later in the day the sky took an even more sinister turn, the blue skies of earlier replaced by a thick, dark corona of evil looking cloud that appeared on the horizon, seemingly full of malintent. Once in place, a devilishly dark tube started to dervishly whirl its way from the bottom edge of the cloud, bound to make contact with the sea somewhere in the vicinity of San Montano Beach in Lacco Ameno. The formation of this short-lived tornado was fascinating to watch and to witness as the changing coastal scenery provided a memorable day's entertainment. 

Before long the winter coldness will start to give way to the re-birth of spring when visitors to Ischia will be able to enjoy seeing the island come to life with its beautiful array of colour provided by a large variety of plants and flowers. There are some great walking routes where you can enjoy some stunning views such as the one on display in today's photo. In early spring you can walk from the village of Panza to the Monte di Panza and the Sentiero Baia Pelara, two hiking trails which combine to lead from a pretty, rocky cove to the top of the small mountain which gets carpeted with red poppies and yellow daisies from where you can look down on to the effervescent village of Sant'Angelo in the distance.

There are lots of great ways to enjoy your visit to Ischia so if you've got a visit planned and you're stuck for ideas, just drop us a line and we'll give you all the help you need to make your trip as memorable and special as possible.

Ok, the gale's blowing again outside now and after a whirlwind of a week I think it's time to repair to the relaxing stillness of the bedroom. Have a great week wherever you may be and keep an eye on our daily weather report if you're visiting Ischia in the near future.

Until next week, ciao :-)

Dion Protani

Sunday 1st February 2015 - [email protected]

Today's Saint's/Name Day: Santa Verdiana, Brigida

Today in history: The ill-fated Columbia space shuttle stuns the watching world as it disintegrates after entering the earth's atmosphere, ending the lives of each of its seven astronauts. (2003)

Born on this day: Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1931), American film director John Ford (1895)

Sun-rise (alba): 07:12   Sun-set (tramonto): 17:21

Distant dog barking - check, bell-tower of Parrocchia San Francesco Saverio illuminated - check, cup of tea steaming and neatly nestled on coaster - check, Sunday night - check. Ok, it's time for this week's blog.

So what kind of week have we had? Well if for some reason you were restricted to just one word you might choose something like "wet", for wet it has been. We had rain every day last week, making life a bit difficult for those of us restricted to two-wheeled transport to really get out and about but the silver-lining to that thick, grey cloud is that we've been able to do lots of work on the website that we don't normally get the time for. Anybody searching for accommodation will be pleased to know we've made some big improvements to the self-catering section with lots more information & images available and it's all now slightly smoother to navigate and find what you want. 

Those improvements were planned for quite some time but with the amount of enquiries we're currently receiving about places to stay in Ischia, it's become our number one priority. With all the Christmas shenanigans out of the way it's a good time for many people to start planning their summer holidays and by doing so early you tend to get the pick of the best accommodation that suit your planned travel dates. 

Despite Ischia being a relatively small island, there is a vast amount of choice when it comes to hotels, apartments, villas, bed & breakfasts, agriturismos, campsites, hostels and anything you can think of, so with all that in mind we invite people to write to us and ask us any question they may have about the island, where they can stay, how to get here and what to do once here. We're seeing a big increase in the number of enquiries we get and the general level of interest in the island which is really pleasing and makes us very excited about the year ahead so long may that continue!

On a different level but also applicable under the word "exciting" is the fact that legendary French actor Gerard Depardieu is the latest big name to join the Ischia celebrity gang as he's here to film some kind of documentary about art. I'm restricted to "some kind of" because specific details about the project haven't been provided and it's even been reported in some despatches as being "Top Secret" but I'm sure we'll get more details filtering through once the security forces drop the threat level against any leaks.

For this week's blog photo I've chosen the one and only Castello Aragonese in Ischia Ponte looking resplendent in its winter guise and with dozens of local fishermen's boats stacked in front of it on the other side of the bridge. The castle is the first thing that most people notice when they arrive on the island and the last thing they ever forget, its medieval contours majestically playing the lead role on the stage that has Capri, Procida, Mount Vesuvius and the Italian mainland creating a star-studded backdrop.

Anyway, with January hurtling towards its conclusion and 2015 gathering pace I bid you all a very happy week and will be back with more this time next week, barking dogs, bell-towers and cups of tea all in tow.

A presto.

Dion Protani

Sunday 25th January 2015 - [email protected]

Today's Saint's/Name Day: Conversion of San Paolo, Savino, Sabino

Today in history: Antarctica first identified as a continent by an American naval expedition (1840)

Born on this day: Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759), English author Virginia Woolf (1882), American singer/songwriter Alicia Keys (1981)

Sun-rise (alba): 07:19   Sun-set (tramonto): 17:12

Buona sera and buona domenica a tutti! It's tea-time on Sunday here in Forio on the west coast of Ischia on what's been a damp, chilly and rainy day. Just as I start to write the weekly blog, chimes start to ring out from Parrocchia San Francesco Saverio, the cute little church that sits alongside the main road between Forio and Panza. With darkness having shrouded the island several hours ago, the church serves as a beacon with its highlighted bell-tower the dominant figure on the landscape while in the background hundreds of shimmering street-lamps look like the eyes of giant bats hanging in a cave, eerily watching us from their hill-top perches.

Away from the vampirical vista on the opposing mountain slope life goes on as normal, we're in the post-climatic midst of the quietest time of the year with all of those festivities around the turn of the year firmly behind us and the next big landmark of Easter still some way off. Tourists are thin on the ground too (metaphorically rather than aesthetically speaking), aside from various groups from Germanic countries such as Austria, Switzerland and erm, Germany who come here for walking holidays looking resplendent with their hiking kit and omnipresent sticks. 

So you would think it's a time for us to put our feet up and relax (just for the record, my feet are actually up and I am actually relaxed), but we at Ischia Review don't think like that. There's so much to be done to make sure that anyone reading this website can make the very most out if their visit to the island and our work continues unabated. We've noticed a lot of you are really using this time of year to find the best accommodation so we're making some solid improvements to our holiday villas, apartments and self-catering pages, adding more info than was previously available and just generally making it all a bit easier to navigate and understand. 

You may also have noticed our latest article which was added to the site this week. Written by Silvana, the article called "Famous People Who Have Visited Ischia", unsurprisingly tells the story of celebrities and other historical figures who have at one time or another visited these shores. There are some fascinating little tales in there as well as some outstanding names such as Pablo Neruda, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, W.H. Auden alongside dozens of Hollywood greats who have graced the island with their presence. 

Apart from adding new content to the site it's also very much a case of responding to enquiries in the form of e-mails and phone calls and this last week has seen a big upsurge in both. We know what it's like when you're planning a holiday, there are lots of things you're not sure about and it's not always easy to know where to get the information from. For that reason we ask you to contact us and feel free to ask anything you'd like to know whether it's advice about the best way to reach the island, recommendations on where to stay or even what type of weather you can expect at different times of the year. We're here and we're always happy to hear from you and to be able to help you out in any way we can so don't be backward in coming forward!

Ok that's all from the weekly blog, the daily weather and photo update has proven to be a success so we'll stick with that for the foreseeable future meaning we'll have a little more to tell you tomorrow. With the murky, grey conditions we've had today I thought something nice and bright would be the order of the day so this week's blog photo is one of those lovely ceramic maps of Ischia that you see all over the island on people's houses, shops and restaurants. The hand-made ceramics are a big part of Ischia's culture and they add just that extra cherry of beauty on top of what is already an exceedingly good cake :-)

Toodle-pip.

Dion Protani

Sunday 18th January 2015 – [email protected]

Today’s Saint’s day/Name day: Santa Liberata, Prisca, Priscilla, Leonardo and Beatrice

Today in history: A ship carrying more than 700 convicted English criminals arrives in Australia's Botany Bay to set up a penal colony (1788)

Born on this day: American actor Kevin Costner (1955), English writer A.A. Milne, author of "Winnie the Pooh" (1882)

Sun-rise (alba) 07:23hrs – Sun-set (tramonto): 17:03hrs

Good evening Ischia! In fact I say good evening but it's considerably past evening by now, a short while ago it could still be considered night-time but we've moved another step ahead as it's just turned morning. However, rather than sign off for the evening I've "coffeed up"© (I don't think I've ever heard this phrase before and I quite like it, hence the ©) and with fingers trembling, eyes boggling and heart palpatating, I'm ready to deliver the second weekly blog of the year.

In terms of events happening on the island things have understandably gone a bit quiet now that the triumvirate (Christmas, New Year and Befana) of festive occasions have ceased but there's still plenty of life left in the island yet. We're past the official date for taking down the decorations but as I scootered around today I did notice a surprisingly large amount of yuletide illuminations that hadn't yet been taken down, not just in houses but whole villages such as Barano are still decked out with flashing stars and Santa Claus (Clauses or Clausi?). I'm not sure what, if any, punishment is due for such a crime but I would expect the last few transgressors to have packed their things away by morning. 

So what do you do when it's all gone a bit quiet and the holidays are over? You go and look for churches is what you do. We've steadily been adding to our collection of churches in Ischia over recent months but being an obsessive type I could no longer deal with the incompleteness of the list and decided today would be the day to dot every last i and cross the t's that were missing from our collection. As of this morning we had visited and created a page with photos for 44 of the island's churches. Now this number already seemed quite high to me but when I decided to do some research to see if I'd missed any, I discovered that there are around 70 churches on the island and I'd somehow missed a full 26. I thought I probably had missed 1 or 2 but 26 was not a number I was expecting. "Where could they all be?", I wondered, having done some extensive riding around the island in search of crosses, bell-towers and steeples, I thought I'd got all but a few tiny chapels.

My research told me that I'd made some huge, glaring omissions from my list and had even visited or at least passed a lot of these churches on a regular basis. So this morning I went out armed with my target lost of 26, complete with notes and directions, on a mission (I avoided adding "from God" here, but only just) to photograph and officially visit every one of the previously missed places of worship. To do a job of this kind you can only use a scooter as some of the island's churches were built before any roads existed and therefore reside in little alleyways or at the top of twisting, winding hills. As my notes were considerably less than extensive, I ended up getting lost and confused for long periods of the day and entered into a race against time, or better to say, darkness. 

By the time I arrived in the comune of Barano to snap the remaining 6 churches on the list I had a 100% record but alas it was not to last. Taking the road down to Maronti Beach where I (wrongly, as it turned out) was heading for one of the churches, I was struck by possibly the most beautiful sunset that I've ever seen on this island of beautiful sunsets. There was a moment where a sudden cloud had enveloped the village of Testaccio but peeking through a gap was a beautiful, golden orb (the sun obviously) which illuminated everything behind the cloud and showed every nuance of its shape. The camera and the photos I took simply don't do justice to the breathtaking vista on display as it constantly changed shape, colour and form until the sun and the light eventually died.

As you can imagine, darkness isn't really the friend of photography and with the number of churches visited for the day standing at a paltry 21 I had to reluctantly admit defeat in my quest, even if I did take a couple of photos of churches in the dark but those photos will be binned and were nothing more than a defiant losing gesture. To an obsessive, doing 21 out of 26 of anything sits very uncomfortably so I shall have to go and finish the job in the morning, sleep will also be lost and not just because of the pre-blog caffeine fix!

Anyway, work continues apace on the website during this quiet period of the island's cycle and we're hoping to make the most of this time so that we can have everything in place for when you all come and pay us a visit later in the year. You are coming by the way aren't you?

Ok I'm going to sign off for the evening/morning but before I do I should briefly explain why the blog is so late today. Being a football (soccer to you North Americans) fan I couldn't miss the big match this evening, the southern Italian heroes of Napoli playing against the big, bad, thieves from Torino otherwise known as Juventus. Napoli understandably retain the majority of football support on this island but Juventus run them a close second and are loved and loathed in equal measure by the rest of the nation. My affinity went to the local team but alas they were humbled, casting a shadow darker than the cloud in that photo over the island. Ah well, tomorrow's another day and the sun should be out too. Buona notte :-)

Dion Protani

Sunday 11th January 2015 – [email protected]

Today’s Saint’s day/Name day: San Modesto martire, Probo, Tatiana

Today in history: The Zulus declare war on the British colonial rule in South Africa (1879)

Born on this day: American singer-songwriter Mary Jane Blige (1971)

Sun-rise (alba) 07:26hrs – Sun-set (tramonto): 16:57hrs

Good Evening Ischia,

Continuing the slightly disorderly theme of the blog over the last couple of weeks, this week's effort again comes on a Thursday but obviously this isn't any old Thursday, it just happens to be the first day of the year and for that matter, the first day of the second half of the decade. Being as I'm generally quite out of touch with the rest of the world on almost everything, this has led me to question what this decade is actually known as now. Are we still in the "2010's" or do most people call it the "20 teens" for example? Answers on a post card please (an e-mail will be absolutely fine as well).

So I hope you've had a chance to get over your hangovers by now although if you had a really spectacular night out last night then you're officially granted an extra 12 hours to recover. I personally got through the evening without drinking what I would call excessively (others might disagree) and as such had a nice clear head this morning.The temperatures yesterday were below freezing for the first time since I've been here and there was snow in many parts of southern Italy, including Naples but not in Ischia. The minus 3° Celcius unfortunately seems to have murdered three recently purchased hibiscus plants whose bright green leaves have now turned decidedly droopy. Is there any chance they will recover? (We'd love to hear from any horticulturists who might know so please do tell if you can). So the difference today was palpable, not only was it a full ten degrees above freezing but the strong winds from the past few days disappeared leaving things nice and pleasant during the afternoon before the sun went down, leaving a chill in the air again, forcing me to be huddled up next to the radiator as I write.

The big night last night was another family affair with a huge amount of food and a sensible amount of drink on offer. As on Christmas Day, the centre-piece of the food was fish and this time the fish did have a name (see previous blog), a baked orata (bream in English) followed on from spaghetti with vongole (clams), gamberoni (king prawns) and salmon. This came after dozens of different types of vegetable and was followed in the end by I think three different desserts and fruit! So weighing an extra 10kgs each we the saw in the new year outside with the customary fireworks. Given the fact that so many other houses and hotels also have their own firework displays, what you end up with is a really spectacular show as the clock strikes midnight. Apart from our own, there were rockets and bangers going off in different directions as far as the eye could see, a real joy to behold. Midnight was toasted with Brachetto which is a kind of Prosecco but much sweeter and red in colour, dangerously drinkable too! 

You would find it hard to be believe but we actually repeated the huge feasting again today, very enjoyable but completely ruining my New Year fitness regime (any excuse) which will now have to commence tomorrow instead, unless I can find another excuse then of course...

So it's the first day of 2015 and time to look forward to what the new year will bring but perhaps it would be wrong to overlook what has been an amazing 2014 so quickly. In terms of Ischia Review it was our second year of operation but so much different from the first in terms of numbers of visitors, enquiries and the services we were able to provide. Compared to 2013 when we were really just finding our feet and working out how it would all go, 2014 was when we were able to put all those experiences into creating something that has really started to work well. We were lucky enough to meet so many great people and make lots of new friends with people who popped over to the island for a week or two but who we will always stay in touch with and hope to see again. 

All in all we've been very happy with how 2014 unfolded but we wont rest on our laurels as there's so much more to do and so many ways in which we can improve the services we provide. The relationships we've formed over these first two years have solidified and we work with some really great partners who all share our passion about making Ischia a destination where people can come and be swept away by the natural beauty of the island and by the amount of fun they can have by getting involved with the various activities that are on offer. By the end of 2014, i.e. yesterday, the website had doubled in the number of pages from the start of the year and there is still so much to add. We're hoping that this year the site will evolve a little to really do what the name suggests, to review Ischia. For the most part we've been providing our own input but with the recently launched forum we're hoping to see what you all think of the island's hotels, restaurants and other attractions such as thermal parks. All with the aim of making everything as good as it can be with constructive feedback.

Many of you will already have seen this week's blog photo as it was used for the blog on 28th September. I've used it again today as it was my favourite photo of the year, the array of colours on display that morning down at Maronti Beach was incredible and the funky colour scheme of the Bar Ristorante Il Nuovo Tropical in front of the dramatic turquoise of the sea behind it really was and is a thing of beauty. A close second was the grocery store in Ischia Ponte on Sunday 12th October but if you have your own opinion on which of our photos you liked then please do let us know.

Ok so onwards and upwards into 2015, the days are getting incrementally longer and although the coldest part of the winter is still to come, there's so much to look forward to on this wonderful patch of paradise in the Tyrrhennian Sea. 

So from myself and also from Silvana who contributes so much to the website, we wish you all a heartfelt Happy New Year and hope to see as many of you as possible during 2015!

Buon Anno, Happy New Year, Frohes Neues Jahr, S Novym Godom and Feliz año Nuevo :-)

Dion and Silvana

Thursday 1st January 2015 – [email protected]

Today’s Saint’s day/Name day: Maria madre di Dio

Today in history: The Julian calendar is used for the first time (45BC)

Born on this day: American novelist J D Salinger (Catcher in the Rye) (1919), first Director of the American FBI, J Edgar Hoover (1895)

Sun-rise (alba) 07:27hrs – Sun-set (tramonto): 16:46hrs

Merry Christmas Ischia!

This week's blog comes unusually on a Thursday rather than a Sunday but as it's such a special day in the calendar we wanted to use it to say a big Merry Christmas to everybody who reads the weekly scribblings or visits the website looking for information about our beautiful island.

There's no other subject that can be discussed than what happens in Ischia at Christmas  (I always say "in Ischia" rather than "on Ischia", I know that strictly speaking it should be "on" but it just doesn't feel right. Sorry but I just had to get that off my chest!) and obviously with everything so fresh in the mind this is the best time to talk about it. Having had the pleasure of spending today and last night with my adopted Italian family I can give you a brief run through of how it all unfolds here.

The first thing to say is that there's slightly more importance attached to Christmas Eve in Italy compared to the U.K. (and I suspect the US & Canada too). The 24th December is known as "La Vigilia" here and shares many of the basic principles of Christmas Day in so much as families gather for the occasion and eat, a lot! On Christmas Eve it's traditional to eat fish and this can be any kind of fish, in fact last night it seemed to be every kind of fish. There were king prawns (gamberoni), anchovies (alici), salmon (salmone) and a huge baked fish that formed the centre-piece that nobody knew the name of so we settled on "fish". This was preceded by a pasta dish with octopus, (polipo) squid (calamari) and all kinds of delicious antipasti made from vegetables and rice. 

After the meal on Christmas Eve people play board games such as Tombola or Monopoly and if children are present there's the wonderful tradition at midnight of placing a model of the baby Jesus into his manger in the nativity scene. This happens not only at home but also in town and village centres such as Forio where the ceremony is accompanied by cakes and Prosecco. It's very hard not to love Italy sometimes!

So after the feast on Christmas Eve the idea is to have a very light breakfast and to do some exercise before embarking on an even bigger culinary adventure on Christmas Day. Now there's no strict tradition to adhere to in terms of what to eat and each region has slightly different "rules" about this. In Ischia though you're free to choose what to cook without fear of upsetting any ancient customs and today we were treated to a bit of just about everything. This included canneloni, roast veal, roast chicken, roast potatoes, green beans, brioche, mozzarella, eggs, salami, aubergines, timballo (a type of rice dish with vegetables) and all sorts of other things that I can't remember. What I can remember is that all of this was followed by various types of biscuits, fruit, cheesecake and a gateaux. This all happened about 7 hours ago and you'll understand when I tell you that the thought of eating any more food is still nowhere near the agenda!

With all that in mind I'll keep things nice and brief so that I can go and recover from all that overeating and flop down to watch a Christmas movie or two. Just a quick word about a little feature that we've added to the site. On the homepage you'll now see a section called "Ischia Today" which we'll use to tell you about the weather, travel news and events on a daily basis, something we hope that you'll find useful if you're planning a trip over and want to keep in touch with what's going on.

Anyway, once again a big "Buon Natale" from the Ischia Review team. Have a great Christmas wherever you are :-)

Dion and Silvana

Thursday 25th December 2014 – [email protected]

Today’s Saint’s day/Name day: Natale, Christel

Today in history:  USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev goes on live television to formally announce his resignation from the post (1991)

Born on this day: English scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642)

Sun-rise (alba) 07:25hrs – Sun-set (tramonto): 16:41hrs