We entered the Fumicino Canal near Rome and were joined by Anna Maria Saruis, who was going to be our host in Rome. Anna Maria, after discussing with an "ormeggiatori", convinced us that it was safe to leave E. Galois for a few days and we joined her in Rome. We visited many places we had not seen before, there is so much to be seen in Rome!!
Here is a nice view of the Roman Forum. Then we headed South.
Here we are entering the Bay of Gaeta, about 80 miles South of Rome, with its impressive Castle guarding the entrance of the Bay.
 

Then on to the Bay of Naples. We first stoped at Ischia where we were the only sailboat in the Bay North of the Aragonese Castle.
We then stopped at Procida Island and, as had been arranged by Antonio D'onofrio, we proceeded to Mergelina Marina in downtown Naples.
Meet our hosts in Naples: The D'Onofrios:
Antonio, his wife Marilena and their daughters Alexandra and Jennifer. They spent a year in Oak Ridge. Antonio is Professor of Nuclear Physics at the University of Naples
The ormeggiatoris of our quay. One of the technicians at the Cyclotron Institute in Naples had a nephew who was an ormeggiatori at the Mergelina Marina. This was why we went there, even though we had been told by cruisers to avoid Naples like the plage because of thefts. But in Italy, if you are the friend of a friend of a relative you are family! We did not even lock E. Galois: she was under guard 24 hours a day.
Antonio drove by the Marina in the morning on his way to the Institute. A few mornings he would stop and I would drive him there and keep his car for the day! The Naples Municipality was bankrupt when we were there, so there was no trafic lights operating in Naples. You can well imagine the trafic. We did not add a scratch to Antonio's car!

We hiked Vesuvio.

Spent a day visiting Pompei. That had been buried under ashes in 79 AD. It was very impressive.
Equally, if not more, impressive are the ruins of Herculanum that were also buried in the same erruption in 79 AD. However, Herculanum is better preserved because it was buried under mud rather than ashes. Excavations are still in progress.

On our way out of the Gulf of Naples we visited Capri. Here is the ceramic floor in St Michael's Church at Anacapri depicting the Garden of Eden.
After Capri we stopped in Agropoli and visited the very well preserved Greek site of Peastum.
Our next stop before the strait of Messina was the delightful harbor of Maratea.
The crusing guide described the Strait of Messina as a rather dangerous place with strong whirlpools. That coupled with "Charibdis and Scilla" from antiquity, made us rather apprehensive. We waited in Scilla for the best tide but we did not see any whirlpools. Instead there were strange boats equiped to spot and harpoon swordfishes.
We spent a few days in Catania where our host was Dr. Papalardo of the Nuclear Institute. Then on to Syracuse that we loved. So many things to see. The old town: Ortiga, founded in 734 BC by colonists from Corinth. Archimedes set fire to the sails of blockading Roman ships using mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays. The huge cave, known as Dionysius' Ear, where Dionysius kept his prisoners so he could hear their discussions. Francis is standing at the entrance when Claire took this picture from inside. The modern Archeological museum is one of the best we have ever visited. The documentation is superb. We met "L'Altavilois", a French sailboat with Serge and Lilliane on board. We were to cruise in their company for the next 6 weeks, until Aegina.
They took pictures of E. Galois.
and we took pictures of L'Altavilois. After a short stop in East Calabria we made an overnight sail to Corfu. During the night we kept hearing on the VHF US planes intercepting ships headed for Yugoslavia.
We are in the small harbor next to L'Altavilois. The sewers of Corfu empty into the harbor. The difference in color of the waters in the harbor and outside gives an idea of the smell!! We sailed South among the Ionian Islands making many stops.

This picture was taken right after the scooter accident on Zakynthos. We had rented two scooters to tour the Island, as we had done on previous Islands. Serge's scooter slid on some gravel in a turn and they both had bad scratches on their legs which took about a month to heal.
This one was taken on Ithaca after we hiked the hill overlooking the anchorage.

From Zakynthos we crossed over to Katakolon on the Pleponnesus from where we took a bus and visited Olympia. I am standing on the steps of the Stadium.
We then decided to go through the Canal of Corinth, we therefore headed north to Mesolongi and Patras.
 

In the Gulf of Corinth we stopped at the very picturesque town of Galaxidi. With a very safe harbor we took a bus to visit Delphi in the hills some 10 miles away.
The view from one of the altars in Delphi.
Then it was through the Corinth Canal. Possibly the most expensive three and a half mile waterway.
From Corinth we went to the Island of Aegina, about 10 miles South of Athens. L'Altavilois left for Turkey.

We arrived in Aegina on the 14th of July and because the Saronic and Argolic Gulfs, South of Athens, are rather busy with charter boats at this time of year, we decided to sail to Crete via the Cyclades Islands before returning to Aegina to winter.

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