[July 2024] The highlight of a trip to Procida, a small island in southern Italy, is this amazing view.
Carlo, the taxi driver who took us around the island, first took us to a vantage point where we could see the old town, with its colourful houses, in the distance to the left.
The houses are colourful so that fishermen could easily spot their houses from offshore.
I’ve heard this kind of story a lot.
Carlo described the houses clustered here as “Arabic houses,” meaning box-shaped houses with no sloping roofs.
There is a beach just below this point, and this is his favourite beach.
But he said that we have to go down more than 180 steps.
That means we have to climb more than 180 steps on the way back.
It takes determination.
A famous 20th century Italian author called Elsa Morante stayed around here and wrote her masterpiece, “Arturo’s Island.”
It is said to depict the growth of a boy who grew up on an isolated island.
Seeing this island, I want to read it.
Afterwards, we passed through the old town and enjoyed the view from the other side.
At the top of the hill on this side is the ruins of a castle from the Bourbon dynasty.
Until very recently, it was a prison that held about 300 people.
My husband said that when he thinks of Procida Island, he first thinks of the prison.
We walked around the side of the building that used to be a prison, and there were windows here and there.
Carlo said that the guards’ rooms had windows, and the prisoners’ cells did not have windows.
At the overlook, there is a rusty cannon that seems to have a history.
It was built by the Spanish to protect against French attacks, but was never used.
The view from here was absolutely wonderful.
The deep blue-green sea and the pastel-coloured box-shaped houses stacked up in a jumble.
If you were born and raised in a place like this, you would have a completely different sense of colour from those of us who grew up in the grey city.
There were many fishing boats moored in the port of the old town.
According to Carlo, there are seven large fishing boats on Procida Island that go out to sea every day, so you can always eat fresh fish.
Well, it was time to go and eat some of those fresh fish.
We ended the tour a little way down the hill and headed down to the restaurant Carlo recommended.
