Many people ask me what’s winter like in Ischia. When I was growing up in New York, we would visit my family in Naples every summer. Up until I moved to Rome in July 2009, I only knew Italy in the summer. Since then I got a chance to see what life was like at different times of the year. But I never experienced winter on an island until we moved to Ischia in December…
On a warm day in October, me and my friend Christa, who was visiting Ischia, decided to spend the day in Procida. Neither of us had any idea of what we wanted to do or see there, so we just went and wandered the streets. Procida is just a 10 minute ferry ride from Ischia. It’s much smaller than Ischia with a population of about 10,000 residents (Ischia has about 70,000 full-time residents). Ferries run…
Can you drink the water Ischia? Short answer: Absolutely. I drink the tap water here and quite like the taste. Back in the Hudson Valley we had a water softener at our house and the water was salty, while the water in New York City was treated with chlorine and had a chlorine taste. The water here tastes much better. So if you’d like to save money on bottled water and avoid using plastic as…
If you walk around the island for awhile, you’ll notice there are beautifully coloured ceramics everywhere from window sills to doorways, from street signs to restaurant signs, from gorgeous murals on the front of buildings to tiny tiles of house numbers. If you take a close look, you may notice that in the corner of many of these signs is written Keramos d’Ischia. These custom hand-made signs come from the ceramics shop Keramos d’Ischia in…
Ischia keeps surprising me. As soon as I start to think I’m beginning to understand the island, it suddenly shows another side to me. It’s a volcanic island with fertile soil and has a rich agricultural and wine-making history. But it also has a famous residential botanical garden, visited by garden historians and enthusiasts from around the world – i Giardini La Mortella in Forio. British composer William Walton and his Argentian wife Susana Walton…
My mother used to say that when September came around, Ischia finally became hers to enjoy. It was her favourite month. I’ve never liked autumn and my heart deflates as summer winds down, but now that I live in Ischia I understand why my mother loved September. September in Ischia really is beautiful and one of the best times to visit the island. The August crowds leave to go back to work and school and…