I thought I’d be able to find a good title, but apparently not, but the partying in this place made up for it.

We happened to arrive just in time for a food and wine festival (which nearly caused my parents to start partying before it began), attempted to rent a car, failed, and decided to walk around until the party started!

There was definitely no shortage of sights to see, and from some we had very good views.

It was a colourful little town, trying to make otherwise plain designs into something far more noteworthy and interesting, and it definitely succeeded.

The food and wine festival was a bunch of stalls from which you could buy coupons. The coupons allowed each person 3 food samples and 3 drink samples.

Since we had a group of five, and only three eligible people for the drinks, my parents and Ciara were very excited.

We left completely stuffed and drunk (well, not me) and we’re very glad that it was me and Kian driving the tender back to the boat…

Late the next day, after visiting a castle and exploring more, we finally got a rental car and went inland.

Inland, we visited a highly overrated, virtually opaque lake, where we didn’t stay for long, and spent most of the day being treated to an 8 course meal, after which, none of us needed dinner.

Ciara left in the afternoon, taking the train back to Cagliari, and after returning the car, we slept and digested.

We felt we had to do something special for her birthday. Isola Mal Di Ventre.

Of course; private, meaning, there were no people or infrastructure…

But we did a nice walk, had a debris competition (I found a spade and won), and took photos (none of them by me).

That was basically it, but the next place, Bosa, probably can’t fit with anything else…

We’re in Sardinia.

I have that much.

Somewhere north of the capital, and near a town called Bugéru (pronounced by westerners as bugga-roo)

I only remembered that from the name.

The west coast is not so big on tourism and lacks many marinas, so we have been staying in bays most nights.

One night, we stayed in a completely empty bay, it turned out, this was because it was a military zone, they came and told us off, but let us leave peacefully when we told them we were only dumb Australians.

Afterwards, we kept going up the coast, spending a night at the island of san pietro or something, then went back to the mainland, picked up one of my Aunts, and then went back to the top of the island.

We taught her how to jump and swing off the boom, but she didn’t really do it, and then, several nights later, dropped her off at Bugéru.

The coast has some very nice cliffs though, and we swam for a while in them.

The next few days were uneventful.

We picked up an Irish relative in some other place and did the typical routine of wandering around and eating (in some not-so-typical banana restaurant though).

We did this long walk across some coast to a town called Tharros, where there was a big tower and some ruins, and in the most recent two nights we have anchored, swam, and jumped, and not much else.

At least the service was great. The marina we stayed in wasn’t in the best location, but the guy showed us a map of the best places for each individual meal, places to visit, bars, and was even specific enough to show the best gelateria and what flavours to get (these things are important)!

Well, we were close to the wall and had great wifi, so naturally I decided to do something that will probably get me a bunch of negative comments. But I re-downloaded Pokemon Go, because I figured we’d be doing a lot of walking around a highly populated city, and although I had ulterior motives relating to other Pokémon games, I just felt like doing it for fun.

And it’s as a result, that I conveniently had my phone to take photos with, because there were no shortage of things to photo.

In Palermo, we arrived quite in the afternoon and didn’t really do munch, the next day, however, we met in the morning with a friend from Singapore, called Orhan. With him, we visited a butterfly museum (even though it was closed), wanted through the vast city, and had lunch.

Because we are slowly accepting Italian customs, we spent most of the day doing blissfully nothing.

The next day, (today), we opted to go on a long walk throughout the city, passing numerous cathedrals, ape and horse taxis (the ape is a three wheeled car and the horse is a real horse), and Pokestops…

Whilst exploring the markets (a bunch of illegal migrants with Gucci fakes and stuff) we came across a marching band, and we watched them a bit

We also visited a cathedral with roof access that enabled view of most of the city, and after more exploring, we headed back to the boat.

Funnily enough, we figured it was barely midday, and with nothing better to do, left Palermo for a bay around the corner, with some remarkably fast sailing, in to this windy bay (thank goodness we have such a good anchor🙄), and anchored.

From there here, we’ve had a great view of incoming boats, one sailing boat came in so fast it was at a 45 degree angle and saved only by its keel. Another rib, that came in shortly after us was blasting ridiculously loud music, and let me tell you, we weren’t assisting it when it crashed in to another boat, due to the fact that they only put down three metres of anchor, without realising it was 8 metres deep.

Tomorrow, we’ll be doing the passage, up the coast, to a city called Trapani.

After coming from Alicudi, a peaceful marina (with wifi), was certainly welcome, not that Alicudi was unpleasant, but we’ve learnt not to place a huge amount of trust in the anchor. So we went on shore, typically just wandering around, looking at the scenery, and eating and drinking lots. That evening we had to say goodbye to Liem, who was taking the train somewhere, and then, wandering around some more.

After another day there, and a day at anchor, we arrived, in probably Sicilys’ biggest town, Palermo.

(Which, I am pleased to announce, I took pictures of)

After Salina, we spent the next few days in a pair of islands, the last two of the Aeolian islands, called Filicudi and Alicudi.

During those days, me and Kian devoted ourselves to teaching our Irish apprentice how to properly swing and jump off the boom without your back ending up stinging and red.

Since early Sicily we’ve come upon a practice of rigging the boom so it hangs off the side so you can jump or swing off it:

At the very least, he only landed painfully once…

On those two islands, which had a combined population of about 300, we climbed up the main mountains, (supposedly a shortcut back to the boat, although it had a great restaurant on top), ate food, and wandered around the, (rather small), main town.

Here, we met with our Irish cousin, Liem, who we saw earlier in Ireland, he arrived on a ferry, and joined us after a day of wandering around and eating gelato (gluten free cones!)

We didn’t do much in Lipari, aside from a pretty typical anchoring (the anchor went in first try though, so I suppose that should be mentioned), and the left for the next, very large, island of Salina

What was rough in the middle of the day, drastically dissipated, leaving us with dead calm water to comfortably anchor, and have dinner.

The next day, we climbed the volcano (all of these islands have at least one volcano, and two are still active)

It was nearly 1km tall, and ten or 15 times that to walk.

The ascent was in particularly good condition, despite the top not having the best view, because we were in the clouds, we did find a very well kept little hut with thankfully cold walls and ate biscuits.

The descent was more how we expected the entire track to be, thin and covered in loose, small rocks. It was a pain, literally because a lot of people (not me) fell over.

But the swim and lemonade at the end made it worth it.

The place smelled like sulphur.

That’s going to be my main memory of the place.

But in compensation, it had warm underwater geysers that you could float by and be warm, sure you had to hold your breath, but it was nearly worth it.

I remembered a lot of the scenery from last time, two years ago; the volcano itself, a restaurant where Kian got this huge pizza (he got it again, he couldn’t finish it), and the highly sulphuric pass between the halves of the town, with sulphur so thick in the air you could see the yellow tint.

Anyway, we rented a mini moke, this car that outdated seatbelts and doors, and decided to drive around the island.

We ventures down a very steep hill that we weren’t confident the car would be able to get back up, and found a restaurant, where I had meat on papaya (it was the only gluten free thing), and my parents had this slightly oversized pie.

We struggled back up the hill, in the end, and then drove back, with several stops for lookout, and returned, to leave the next day, to the next island of Lipari.

We received quite a warm welcome in to the Sicilian capital of Catania, which is to say, everything was on fire…

I’ll tell you, if this is what happens every time a poorly thrown cigarette is combined with a warm wind, it’s a wonder this place is still populated.

The marina didn’t seem all that concerned, despite the helicopters regularly getting water nearby, and we uneventfully moored there. It wasn’t the most picturesque of capitals, even with Mt Etna in the background, so we didn’t stay long, only to supply in the morning.

We continued up the coast of Sicily until you could see the mainland, to a place called Messina. This place wasn’t too interesting, but for one attraction, supposedly the oldest working clock in the world:

After visiting a few other cathedrals, we went to the boat and, the next day, left for a series of islands; the Aeolian islands.