In the Summertime

"In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry has been playing for almost three days straight now and it's really stuck in my head. We took a sailboat cruise on Monday, sailing around the southeastern coast of the island and stopping at a couple of beaches along the way. In the morning, we stopped at a small, seemingly uninhabited island- aside from one lighthouse I didn't see any other buildings. I swam into the island and hiked to the top of a small rocky hill and got an amazing view of the island, the ocean, and the surrounding land. We had a lunch consisting of pasta, sausage, bread, cheese, and wine & mirto on the sailboat. After that, we stopped at another beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon. That night, I decided to visit a restaurant run by two brothers that I had met at the local music bar, Republik, and had become friendly with. Fabrizio and Gianluca had been messaging me asking for me to visit their restaurant with friends, so I thought it would be nice to stop by, grab some pizza and say hi. What I thought was going to be a quick bite to eat turned into about a six hour dinner. We walked into the massive restaurant, 3 Archi, and were immediately greeted by Gianluca. He brought us into one of the rooms and we shared a bottle of wine. Then, he brought us to a table where we ate delicious pizza followed by cappuccinos and seemingly endless mirto. Gianluca's older brother Fabrizio introduced us to his entire family- mother, father, other brother Stefano, and younger sister Alessandra. After paying (a VERY reduced bill) and chatting for some time, they brought us just about every drink in the restaurant- beers, liquors, etc. Towards the end, before we left and after the restaurant was closed, Dima and Danielle were the bartenders, serving us and the two brothers. It was incredible end to an amazing day, and an experience that I will never forget. Tuesday, we had a guest speaker come in to talk about site contamination from the old mining areas on the island. It was really fascinating, and the man who gave the presentation was very enthusiastic and interesting. Today, we spent the day at Tuerredda, a beach about an hour and a half from the city- it was very windy and not nearly as crowded as Poetto. Just like all the other beaches on the island, it was gorgeous.

The lighthouse

Dima, Danielle, and Fabrizio bartending