Day 4 – Faragolini Rocks
Tuesday, 18th April
Hello,
yesterday we put on our walking shoes and started hiking. The destinations were the Gardens of Augustus, the Carthusian Monastery and the Faragolini. The latter are huge rocks that rise postcard-worthy out of the water in the east of the island.
The gardens and the monastery were quickly explored. Except for us, all other tourists on the island and many from the mainland had the same idea.
The Faragolini viewed most of the others from the water. It was probably the part that doesn't mind the mare mosso. Maybe it's the part with foot problems, the International Association of Couch Potatoes or the part that has little time but big plans. In short: the island is surrounded by many ships with loudspeakers.
The speakers lived up to their name. Matthias was happy not to be on a boat. His stomach could easily have withstood the rocking motion, but the noise was too much for his ears, even at a distance.
Matthias had planned to walk around the entire eastern part of the island. I, on the other hand, wanted to see the Faragolini up close.
He wanted to know if I could manage the whole distance after we had descended to the sea.
I could only determine that experimentally. Matthias is far less of a scientist than I am. He is more of a discoverer and dispenses with in-depth considerations. I like to leave discoveries to other people. A classic trade-off or conflict of goals, as we say in business administration.
I was glad we are traveling in the off season. I didn't want to share the narrow path along the east bank with many others. Being constantly overtaken would have discouraged me in the long run and spoiled my mood.
At the end of the hike we made a detour to the Arco naturale, a natural arch made of rocks.
Two American hikers asked me to take photos of them. Apart from the usual poses where they smile for all they're worth,
they also felt like experimenting, such as seemingly propping up the bow. It took a while for both of them to get it right, but it worked. The two were very happy and offered to take a picture of me. I declined with thanks. I look very uncomfortable at the end of a hike. I don't want to keep that.
Matthias war bereits auf dem Rückweg. Ein bärtiger, junger Mann fragte ihn, ob es da unten etwas zu sehen gebe. Mit emsländischer Eloquenz antwortete er: „Ja!“
„Komm runter, Baby!“, rief der Bärtige nach oben.
„Das mache ich nicht für nichts“, erwiderte Baby.
When I got to the two, I was also asked how it was at the end of the path.
Atemlos keuchte ich: „Atemberaubend.“
Whether the two understood the ambiguity, I do not know. Baby was skeptical and I was out of breath, so I pulled out my phone and showed my photos of the natural arch. Baby was convinced, the bearded man wanted to move; so our ways parted.
In the evening we went to the Ristorante La Capannina. There we met Manuela and Stefan from Dessau,
both of whom work in the IT industry. They have set up a small business, take care of restaurants, are very nice and love to travel.
Twice during the course of the evening the waiters began to whip out their tambourines and sing. Unbelievable. It was just like you know it from the films that used to be shown on television on Sunday afternoons.
The first time a woman was made a declaration of love, the second time it was someone's birthday.
The sung about were both called Baby – at least if you believe the lyrics.
In any case, I'm glad that my parents were more imaginative when choosing a name.
Kind regards
Pinky
