Amalfi is lovely and everything the tourist broachers brag about. But I don’t understand its enormous popularity. Cinque Terre wins out for my favorite Italian destination. Events in Amalfi:
1. I was swallowed into a crazy Catholic Jesus parade
2. The Deckhand was fired
St. Andrew's Day! he is buried in Amalfi (acording to some, butnot all) but his face was donated by the Pope of the moment to another sacred location (can't remember details). weird to have your face removed and sent somewhere because millions love you.
1. All day, cannons were going off and horns honking working up to the big night. I was planning a nice stroll through town and hoping to stay awake late enough to see the St. Andrew’s Parade that started at 10pm. The parade started on the ocean front, lots of Catholic regalia, gilded saint statues carried by young men clad in gothic robes. I followed the procession, with the entire town of 6,000 plus tourists. We squeezed into to town plaza and it became as manic as Mardis Gras in New Orleans: chanting and clapping and yelling in the throbbing crowd. Everyone was having a great time smashed in together as the statues pushed their way through to crowd to the base of the cathedral steps. The crowd was revving up and the excitement growing and suddenly one of the saint statues is run up the steep ancient steps of the cathedral. The crown goes insane! I am looking for a reason: show girls? Elvis? The Pope? It takes a while for everyone to calm down, and within 10 minutes the plaza is half empty and a band is setting up where thousand s of villagers had stood a moment ago. I find the chef form the boat and we decide to have some wine in the cavern of a restaurant under the cathedral. Neither of us understand what just happened or why, but we were enjoying the band. As we relax we realize why everyone had hurried away: fireworks! But from where we were seated we could see most of it without the crowds.
2. I sleep through everything. I was sleeping on the bridge deck when the Deckhand and nanny came back to the boat at 4:30am after a long night of celebrating St. Andrew’s. They woke most of everyone trying to be quiet, but not me. The next day the family and nanny are to leave for Rome. I had to wake the nanny after the kids and parents tried, I am not so gentle. The captain had given up on waking the Deckhand. Poor girl looked bad, and was going to be in a car with 2 kids and 2 upset parents for the next 5 hours. Eventually the deckhand woke, a few hours late for work. The captain told him it was his day off and to avoid the owners. The deckhand did not bat an eye and walked off with a smirk. When he did come back the captain fired him- this was his 9th offence, all similar situations (the nanny was a new element).
Next morning the deckhand is flying back to Florida and I am pulling lines and driving the boat. With only 4 crew members we were all multitasking, now as 3, I have a lot more responsibility and I am learning fast.
We did a full day of travel to notorious Sicily and passed through the legendary Strait of Messina, where many Greek mythology characters perished. As we pulled into the marina the captain warned the dock master that we were short handed and would need extra help, hoping on eof the many dock workers could come aboard to help dock. Unfortunately very few Sicilians speak English or are willing to put in extra effort at work. It was a successful and adventurous docking. My favorite part is when the dock guy hands me a mooring line (big rope that in anchored to the sea floor and we tie onto the bow of the boat) and the line is covered with sea life. I asked if they were barnacles, concerned I might get cut, but as I grabbed the line I felt it squish in my hands and spit in my eye. I had to pull up about 20 feet of this mess in a real hurry and I was covered by sea life spit. I have never heard of or seen a sea squirt, but I know exactly how they got their name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_squirtFor week we were docked in Riposto, in the shadow of Mt. Etna. Riposto is a gloomy little town, ash covered and wind beaten. There is not much the locals can do about the appearance of town, the volcano spurts ash and the wind blows it all over. We had to rinse the boat everyday from the ash and I couldn’t sleep on deck. Despite that is was a wonderful location, every night we watched the moon rise over the volcano and the trail of lava grow towards us.
