Lily Island

This morning I woke up and thought of lilies and islands.

The first time he took me there was during my first visit of him and Italy. No talk of the future (and barely any talk at all since his English was still in the making and my Italian was only theoretical), no worries and no dog. Only the heat and, to my amazement, Costa Concordia still on its hip. It was here, almost on the shore of Isola del Giglio (“Lily Island”), that it capsized in 2012.

First we visited one beach and then walked almost an hour to the second one (“But why?” I know now was on his mind). He didn’t go into the sea with me but patiently waited in the scorching sun without a hat. Then a curious young seagull came to check us out and he wrote in my little notebook that even the bird had come to see my beauty.

Yep, I know!

It is two years since we visited it the second time with Bestia and the photos below are from then. After the one-hour ferry ride (which I showed you here), this time we took the bus that passes the old town on the hill in the middle of the island, which we didn’t explore, and reaches the shore again on the other side where there is another beach Campese and a lovely old defence tower. This was Bestia’s first bus ride and he almost asked the lady driver if she could take it easy on those bends. Talking about precision.

We spent a lovely day not on the beach but on the rocks a bit further along. He is a sandy man and I am a rocky woman. I love it when he does it my way and I can see in his demeanour that without me he would NEVER consider choosing that spot and still he tolerates the discomfort without grief. It was the end of May and I jumped into the heavenly blue water. I’m quite sure Bestia followed.

It was one of those long, calm, memorable days just in time, and this morning for some reason I thought of it. Here it is in twenty blinks. (Click on the first photo to disembark.)

The view from the ferry.

The port town reminds me of summers spent in another country in another life: of Trpanj in Croatia.

People! After we took the bus, people got less.

One of the hairpin bends. This photo shows exactly how Bestia felt.

The Campese beach.

The defence tower and refreshing blue sea.

Our rocks. Thank you, amore.

That’s why everything here is so appealing: this shade of orange-pink complements this shade of green.

Again memories are spurred. These hills are natural counterparts of those on Pelješac peninsula on the same latitude, just to the east.

A favourite Giglio sight: a private beach in the middle of the port town.

My kind of nook.

And another.

Amore modelling window size.

Toy-sized again. Maybe because it’s an island and they have to economise.

Except when they don’t. Notice the lily on the nose.

The boy seems to dare me to come closer.

Behind the fisherwoman and behind the ferry, where there are cranes, this is where Costa Concordia hit the bottom.

This is to honour those who lost their lives.

And here are their names. Let it never happen again.

So long, pretty island, and thank you for the memories.

Photo: © signature mmm