42:15.21N 11:06.41E A Day With The Pope And Our Escape From Rome

Oboe D'Amore's Web Diary
Nigel Backwith
Sun 14 Aug 2011 11:14

OK, we didn’t actually have tea with the Pope but we did take a guided tour of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and of course St Peters.  For someone who makes a point of avoiding anything organised, I have to say it was a wonderful two hours with a Sardinian guide, passionate about all things Roman Catholic and deeply knowledgeable in all things Michelangelo.  This coupled with a great delivery and sense of humour. The Sistine Chapel holds many little secrets, the frescos are awe inspiring and the gilded vastness of St Peters projects a mixture of calm serenity and religious power.  I urge you all to visit if you have not done so before.  On the flip side, we chose a “rip off” restaurant on the way home and were reminded of Rome’s reputation as a tourist trap after it was too late.  No more to be said!

 

Three full days in Rome in the August heat, blistered feet and aching legs was sufficient to convince us it was time to move on.  We reluctantly paid up at Marina Porto di Roma and headed north up the Tuscan coast, the flat plains of Rome soon giving way to the rolling hills for which Tuscany is famous.  A night at anchor off a town beach south of Civitavecchia, a foray into Civitavecchia’s major commercial harbour in a vain search for fuel and an hour dodging ferries and tankers, saw us back track to a marina where we waited on the fuel dock for an hour while the attendant slept in the heat of the day.  Gill snoozed.  I slipped lines and motored gently out to sea.  The Tuscan Islands beckoned.  Several hours later, as the sun set ahead and a full moon rose behind, we dropped anchor in a deep lagoon, nestled close to the rocks on the tiny island of Giannutri.  We are still here, mid-morning Sunday 14 August 2011.  Gill is cleaning and hoovering, I’m blogging and the swell is lapping the rocks around us.  This is possibly the best anchorage Oboe has found for us yet and there is no reason to move on, except perhaps the delights of Monte Argentario, a hill connected by 3 sand bars to the mainland just 10 miles north of here ...

 

 

Follow our progress here:

 

http://blog.mailasail.com/oboe, where you can see our daily progress on Google Earth.  Email us at: oboe {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com any time you like.  Phone us on +881 631 669 194 and we’ll pick up via Iridium satellite.

 

 

Fair winds to you all.

 

 

Nigel

Gill

 

 

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