Santo Stefano

A little driving adventure and a pleasant discovery.

So, this morning....well I say morning.... it was actually still dark, so in my book that makes it the middle of the night......we were woken up by the mother of all thunderstorms!! For about half an hour the room was illuminated by lightening and the house was rocked by claps of thunder which ricocheted off the surrounding mountains. Then it poured with rain and for a little while I thought I might actually have to get up...... yes I can hear you all laughing..... but I did drop off again and when I awoke for the second time that day..... the sun was trying to shine. Luckily, I had had the forsense to bring the almost dry washing in from the terrace the night before..... not so Dear Richard, who now had a pair of trainers full of rainwater.....

soggy footwear not withstanding, we had another gourmet breakfast and decided that as the weather was a little uncertain we would take a drive around the “island”.

Santo Stephano is located on a piece of land which is joined in two places to the “mainland” of Italy. One appears to be a natural join, i.e a spit of land , the other ( which we could see from the top terrace ) looked like a man made causeway. To all intents and purposes therefore it was surrounded by water and so more of an island than not. All this considered and having looked at the map we decided that there was probably a scenic drive around the coast of the “island” which would give us something different to do. We also entertained visions of stopping in little towns by the sea, having lunch and enjoying the scenery, then driving on for a bit to the next pretty place. Ha ha thought the God of “you must be f-ing joking” I’m a bit bored today.... let’s have some sport!!!!

And so we fired up the Corsa and set off on what we thought would be a pleasant little drive. We followed the most likely looking route on the map and it seemed promising, we were climbing ( not unexpected as there were a lot of mountains) and the road was going in the right kind of direction.... so we climbed and we climbed..... fellow travellers were sparse , except for the bloke we passed leaning on a post outside a house, but the scenery was amazing and we were both optimistic that with the sea on our right.... as it indeed was.... we were on the right track..... famous last words my friends, as you will discover.

I know that by now you will all have twigged that some type of disaster is looming.... but we carried on climbing. Then the road began to descend and our spirits rose, we passed a small yellow van as we rounded a particularly sharp bend and then the road started to become very steep , with huge drops on one and then the other side of the road, ( I know two people who would have been very unhappy at this point....one of whom would have been sobbing in the footwell!!! )not only that, it got very narrow and the bends were very sharp. Our little car was really struggling with the gradient but she was being driven by an expert

( for a change not me !!! ) and so with all three of us holding our breath we made it to the next 1 in1 incline. And then the road , which had been dodgy for the last few uphill miles became little more than a track...... we paused to gather our thoughts which were now verging on suicidal, and at this point the little yellow van passed us, bumping along the track. Dear Richard was up for turning round but I persuaded him that if the yellow van could do it then surely our little Corsa could manage to follow. Oh my dear Lord, the road/track then disappeared and we were bumping along a stony, potholed dry river bed!!! and then around the bend came the yellow van, it’s occupants laughing and shaking their heads as they bounced past. With nowhere to turn round we drive on , not knowing what might be round the next corner we stopped and I went ahead to see how the land was lying.... good job I did, the land disappeared down a very steep gravelly slope. Our poor little Corsa might have got down it, but no way on earth would she have made it back up to the top. Given that there was no way forward we re-traced our steps, back down and then up and then down the way we had come , passing the same bloke still leaning on the post.... and this time he waved gaily as we went by, I can imagine the scene over dinner that night......” 14 of them went by today Lucia..... 14 stupid buggers who don’t know how to read a map !!!

Finally we reached civilisation and to celebrate we stopped in Santo Stefano for a coffee...

This is me blaming Dear Richard for thinking we could drive around the Island.....

And this is him thinking f**k off !!!

And this is the view from the bar where we caught our breath before attempting to circumnavigate the “island” once again.

Fed and watered we set off once again, this time following the main road which led us to the causeway. Crossing this was nowhere near as exciting as I had imagined, but it was an experience. On either side was a lagoon and nature reserve... nothing more to say really..... if I can work out how to add the video you can see

for yourselves. At the end of the causeway was a little town called Orbetello, we parked up and went for a wander.... there wasn’t much going on, a few restaurants and bars and not a lot else, it was pretty but not mind blowing.

After a wander through mostly empty streets we went back to the car and set off to find what we had been looking for all day, a small seaside town for a drink by the ocean. A few miles along the coast we found it..... Ercole harbour, there was the bar, by the sea.... there were boats for Dear Richard to lust after and alcohol for me.... well you must admit it had been a pretty stressful day thus far!!!!!

And so we sat in the sun eating a sandwich of some description.... I think tuna was involved but we were that hungry that we didn’t really care!!! I have included a picture of the table as it was really pretty, the best bit came when we went into the bar to use the toilets.....I went first without my phone .... Dear Richard went next with strict instructions to take pictures of the toilet.... what you see is how he interpreted the brief.... I said take pictures of the the toilet , this is what he came back with !!!

Anyway you get the gist..... the bar was also amazing, there were several items I would have liked to “borrow” but my bag wasn’t big enough!!!!!

There was just time for a quick wander around the harbour as the sun began to set.... then we jumped into our little car and made our way home. After a tasty salad.... washed down with wine and a liberal

dose of insect repellant it was time for showers and bed..... another day over.... I fell asleep hoping that there would not be another storm to wake me at stupid o’clock and dreamt of Rome, which is our next stop and a long and winding road which led to a cafe by the sea.....