ISCHIA ON SUNDAY - THE WEEKLY ISCHIA BLOG: SUNDAY 11TH MAY 2014
ISCHIA ON SUNDAY - THE WEEKLY ISCHIA BLOG: SUNDAY 11TH MAY 2014
Welcome to our weekly Ischia blog, Ischia on Sunday. Here you can see the entry for Sunday 11th May 2014
Good Morning Ischia!
We've got another beautiful start to the day here in Forio. In fact it's so sunny this morning that when I opened the shutters in the lounge I had to duck for cover as a huge shaft of light bolted its way into the room, catching me slightly unawares as I slowly gathered consciousness. Outside the scene is a picture of tranquility, only disturbed by the occasional sound of a distant farm vehicle or the slight movement of a cat in the garden as it dutifully tends to its morning cleaning duties.
Down in the towns things aren't quite as calm as they normally would be on a Sunday, today we have the inaugural Isola Verde 100km Bike Race which will be dominating the island's scene for the next few hours as the competitors race in a circuit that mostly follows the main road that links Ischia's major towns and villages. Following on from the successful stage 2 of last year's Giro d'Italia, the organisers decided this annual event would provide a fitting spectacle to reward the many cycling enthusiasts that both live in Ischia and travel here to enjoy the island for a cycling holiday. Preparations for the race have been intense over the last few weeks with lots of road resurfacing and it's also important to note that the main SS270 road will be closed to traffic until 130pm this afternoon.
As mentioned above, we've got some great weather for the race (unless you're a competitor that is!) with some nice warm spring temperatures reaching up to a maximum of 22°C (71°F) and dropping no lower than 16°C (61°F) this evening. In fact it's been like that all week and it really feels as though we're at the beginning of summer already. With those warmer temperatures also comes a slight change in the scenery as all of those nice green spring gardens start to fill with different colours as their flowers come into bloom. The biggest splash of floral colour I've seen comes for the Hippaestrum or Amaryllis which is a type of lily with huge flower heads and comes in bright red, white or apple blossom. However by far the most welcome of the new additions are the jasmine bushes that are now in bloom all over the island, walking through Forio town centre last night it was impossible to miss the sweet aromas that the freshly blooming jasmine provides which just add to the overall feelings of sensory pleasure.
Today's photo comes from Forio harbour and was taken from the "Il Torrione Museum", one of the town's medieval defence towers from which raiding pirates were once repelled. Last Sunday we took a fascinating guided walk that started at Chiesa del Soccorso and led on to three more of Forio's churches as well as a number of other defence towers while the town's history was explained to us. The walk took me to some places I'd never seen before and really opened my eyes to Forio's past which I was previously unaware of. The guided tours are run by a group of local enthusiasts and are also in English so for anybody who is interested to know more please drop me a line and I'll tell you how you can join one of the tours yourselves.
Ok that's all from me today, we've got a really busy week ahead with lots of catching-up to do on the website, over the last couple of weeks we've been adding lots more apartments and villas to our self-catering section and for those of you that are looking at accommodation in Ischia I would definitely recommend checking out some of these new pages. In fact apart from the new ones we've added there are plenty more to come so if you do look and don't quite find what you're looking for simply drop us a line as it's likely that we'll have something that will suit your needs.
Apart from that it goes without saying that if you've got absolutely any questions about Ischia that you'd like to answer then feel free to write us an e-mail or give us a call and we'll be very happy to help.
I'll be back with more next Sunday, have a great week wherever you are.
A presto!
Dion Protani
Sunday 11th May 2014 - [email protected]
Today's Saint's day/Name day: San Fabio Martire, Stella, Achille, Fiorenzo
Today in history: The waltz is introduced into English ballrooms and is criticised as being "disgusting and immoral", those Victorians eh!
Born on this day: Spanish painter Salvador Dalì (1904)
Sun-rise (alba): 05:49hrs - Sun-set (tramonto): 20:10hrs
We've got another beautiful start to the day here in Forio. In fact it's so sunny this morning that when I opened the shutters in the lounge I had to duck for cover as a huge shaft of light bolted its way into the room, catching me slightly unawares as I slowly gathered consciousness. Outside the scene is a picture of tranquility, only disturbed by the occasional sound of a distant farm vehicle or the slight movement of a cat in the garden as it dutifully tends to its morning cleaning duties.
Down in the towns things aren't quite as calm as they normally would be on a Sunday, today we have the inaugural Isola Verde 100km Bike Race which will be dominating the island's scene for the next few hours as the competitors race in a circuit that mostly follows the main road that links Ischia's major towns and villages. Following on from the successful stage 2 of last year's Giro d'Italia, the organisers decided this annual event would provide a fitting spectacle to reward the many cycling enthusiasts that both live in Ischia and travel here to enjoy the island for a cycling holiday. Preparations for the race have been intense over the last few weeks with lots of road resurfacing and it's also important to note that the main SS270 road will be closed to traffic until 130pm this afternoon.
As mentioned above, we've got some great weather for the race (unless you're a competitor that is!) with some nice warm spring temperatures reaching up to a maximum of 22°C (71°F) and dropping no lower than 16°C (61°F) this evening. In fact it's been like that all week and it really feels as though we're at the beginning of summer already. With those warmer temperatures also comes a slight change in the scenery as all of those nice green spring gardens start to fill with different colours as their flowers come into bloom. The biggest splash of floral colour I've seen comes for the Hippaestrum or Amaryllis which is a type of lily with huge flower heads and comes in bright red, white or apple blossom. However by far the most welcome of the new additions are the jasmine bushes that are now in bloom all over the island, walking through Forio town centre last night it was impossible to miss the sweet aromas that the freshly blooming jasmine provides which just add to the overall feelings of sensory pleasure.
Today's photo comes from Forio harbour and was taken from the "Il Torrione Museum", one of the town's medieval defence towers from which raiding pirates were once repelled. Last Sunday we took a fascinating guided walk that started at Chiesa del Soccorso and led on to three more of Forio's churches as well as a number of other defence towers while the town's history was explained to us. The walk took me to some places I'd never seen before and really opened my eyes to Forio's past which I was previously unaware of. The guided tours are run by a group of local enthusiasts and are also in English so for anybody who is interested to know more please drop me a line and I'll tell you how you can join one of the tours yourselves.
Ok that's all from me today, we've got a really busy week ahead with lots of catching-up to do on the website, over the last couple of weeks we've been adding lots more apartments and villas to our self-catering section and for those of you that are looking at accommodation in Ischia I would definitely recommend checking out some of these new pages. In fact apart from the new ones we've added there are plenty more to come so if you do look and don't quite find what you're looking for simply drop us a line as it's likely that we'll have something that will suit your needs.
Apart from that it goes without saying that if you've got absolutely any questions about Ischia that you'd like to answer then feel free to write us an e-mail or give us a call and we'll be very happy to help.
I'll be back with more next Sunday, have a great week wherever you are.
A presto!
Dion Protani
Sunday 11th May 2014 - [email protected]
Today's Saint's day/Name day: San Fabio Martire, Stella, Achille, Fiorenzo
Today in history: The waltz is introduced into English ballrooms and is criticised as being "disgusting and immoral", those Victorians eh!
Born on this day: Spanish painter Salvador Dalì (1904)
Sun-rise (alba): 05:49hrs - Sun-set (tramonto): 20:10hrs
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