tales from the sea!

ciao bellas! i am in italia! we got here earlier this week after a short trip from toulon (france), about 3 days at sea. we had a shit ton of wind the first few days. 45 knots the first day/night - a bit stormy, so much so that i definitely couldn't keep down any of the food i had ingested that day.. gross. the second day was perffffect sailing, and the third day the wind died. we motored into naples on monday morning and were greeted with this wonderful view --
mt vesuvius at dawn.. . the sleeping giant! i think i'll climb the volcano tomorrow, and i'm definitely going to pay a visit to the ancient towns of pompeii and herculaneum soon! we've been working steadily to clean the boat all week - the owners fly in from the usa on saturday night so the place has got to be spic and span! but it hasn't been so bad. there's a studly italian boy working on the boat next door - half nude, of course. (no picture as of yet, but i'll try to be stealthy and snap one soon ! hahaha) mmm, how i do love the italian... scenery.

no but seriously, italy! wowza! on monday, i'm heading over to the magical island of Ischia to enjoy some post-Easter celebrations (scroll down to where it starts - "All what’s sacred on Sunday gets profane on Monday") and bask in some wondrous thermal hot springs! after that, perhaps rome for a few days, then cinque terra, and finally venice - that's the plan for now, but of course, it's subject to change. hahah. my dad is always making fun of me because my plans literally change by the minute. oh well, i'm just tryin to go with the flow!

thinking of you all! lots of love from the birthplace of pizza -
carmella

χαιρετισμός αργκό !

Lovelies! The subject of this post is "hello most loyal friends!" in Greek! I'm still in utter disbelief that I'm here, but anyway... I missed my day, and I am so sorry! We actually got to Greece at the beginning of the week but internet has been hard to come by and also, I have been a very busy bee and I've barely left the boat.

The trip to Greece from Italy was blissfully relaxing. We meandered our way down the Italian coast for a few days, passing by the island volcano of Stromboli, swimming off the coast of Capri, and sailing through the straight of Messina at dusk. There are 3 of us on-board, my dad and I, and a French crew my dad's age named Jean-Philippe. During the trip, we each had two shifts a day of 4 hours (mine was 8-12 am and pm) where we were on watch - basically, we have to make sure the boat doesn't run into a tanker and sink. Pretty straightforward. When I wasn't on watch, I was doing a variety of things, none too exciting: sleeping, reading (Omnivore's Dilemma, Of Love and Shadows, a book about the Camino, Nat'l Geographic magazines), writing, dreaming up Watson ideas, listening to my dad's crazy adventures of his youth, sitting at the bow watching for dolphins (none came! very sad) . . . that's about it really.

By the weekend, we had reached Greek waters and Monday afternoon, we squeezed our way through the Corinthian canal and headed for our final destination - Athens (or rather, Pireaus, which is the port city just outside of Athens). As idyllic as life at sea may sound, life on land sucks for a sailor. Getting to shore means you have to do all the things you couldn't do at sea, like CLEAN EVERYTHING and fix all the things that have broken en route, etc. My life here at the marina has not been very inspiring. Mostly a LOT of manual labor, all day, in the hot son - scrub, rinse, polish, wax, repeat. In a few days, we'll get to do some sightseeing (although I've been doing a little bit already here in the marina, and let me tell you, Greek men are quite the lookers, especially the one working on the boat next to ours. Dark features, olive skin- I'm a big fan.).

I'm still feeling like a huge dunce who can't speak the language, or read the alphabet for that matter, but that's okay. All is well in the land of Zeus and friends. It was most lovely to catch up on all of your lives - I miss my babyloves! Next Tuesday, I'm going to France to spend a whirlwind 24 hours with my friend Laura, then I'll be London-bound, and then America! Expect a phone call (or for me to show up at your door - Cait, Rachel, Julian, Dan, Megan, others?!).

αγαπάω (love),
Carmella

buongiorno di Italia!

Hola amicos, from the land of pasta and pizza! After a long and harrowing journey across the country (from San Diego to Boston to NYC, with an overnight stop in Boston that involved delicious food, great company, and some very dangerous mojitos!) and then across the ocean blue, I finally find myself safe and sound in La Spezia, Italy, aboard the Marianna, the barca a vela (sailboat!) that my dad works on. (For those of you who don't know, my dad is a sailboat captain and every once in a while I join him to help out on the boat and deliver it to a new place - in this case, Greece.)

Sorry for all of those parenthetical interjections, but my mind is a bit of a mess at the moment. I'm a bit overwhelmed to by the language barrier here; I've never really spent any time in a country where I couldn't easily communicate with the people. I can read most of the signs and string together a few simple words to get my point across, but the minute anyone speaks to me, it just goes way over my head! I feel completely dumbfounded and helpless, and the intense jet lag is certainly not helping...

My dad seems to have become a local, which means his Italian is fantastic and his driving is terrifying. So far, Italy has been mostly a blur from the passenger seat. I wish I could get out into these hills and take in the sights, smells and sounds of this incredible place, but no can do. We're on a tight schedule! I arrived on Sunday in Pisa, my dad picked me up, we saw the tower (it's leaning alright!) and then we drove to Florence to meet up with my sister and her friend. They're traveling around a bit before they start their summer jobs in France working at an English camp. Florence looked awesome (Megan, was that where you were during your time in Italy?) but we only had time for a quick walk around the town, then dinner and gelato - YUM. (My dad's favorite word in Italian? Assaggiere, which means "to taste", and he uses it quite often at all of the gelato stands.)

Anyway, we're aiming to leave tonight or early tomorrow morning and it should be about a week-long journey to get to Athens. It's been 3 years since my last sailing trip, so we'll see how long it takes me to get my sea legs back! Hopefully we'll get to see dolphins (my favorite part about sailing) and we'll be passing by several Greek islands so maybe I can convince my dad to stop for some swimming!

Below are some pictures of my life as of late. The first two are from San Diego. Rosie and I loving life at YOGURTLAND (not to be confused with yogurtWORLD) and the next one is of Windansea at sunset, a beautiful beachy cove just a few blocks from Rosie's apt! The last two are from my first sunset in Italy, at the Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence.

multo amore!! Carmella