[ Oct.2017 ] On the second day of our short holiday in Porto Cesareo in Salento region of Apulia in the south Italy, we chartered a boat and went to the Isola dei Conigli (Rabbit Island) which is just across the port of the town.
The journey started from the fishing port in front of our hotel.
It was a lovely day with blue skies and the fishermen who had already finished their fishing were selling their catches or mending their fishing nets.
We called the number displayed there and a boatman who turned up who, when there were no tourists around, himself was a fisherman.
He took us around the port before visiting the island.
We saw the Greek columns sunk in the sea, which
was talked about the day before at one of the watch towers scattering in this region as well as the island that the boatman insisted was the shape of a heart.
We could not see the shape from our level on the sea, though.
That reminded me of meeting a group of people who were taking photos using a drone.
From above, the island probably is heart shaped.
Also we saw some stones under water which were thrown from Roman boats back in Roman times.
Those boats came here with the stones as ballast and threw them away to take olive oils and other products on board and went back to Rome.
The emerald colour water was very clean and we could see things very well in the sea.
We saw many sea urchins, but according to the boatman, they were prohibited to take them at the moment until March.
He said “If you go to some black markets, you can still buy them, though”.
Then we reached the Rabbit Island, our destination.
My husband learned how to swim here when he was a child and enjoyed fishing, too.
There is not much here on the island, so we spent time without doing anything on the small quiet beach.
The warm sun and the calm sea made us feel very relaxed.
The sea colours which was a mixture of various greens and blues 
were so beautiful that I wished I could take it back home.
My husband remembered one summer when he was fishing here until late in the evening, he saw some big rabbits, maybe hares one time.
But now because it was in October and not many people were around, many rabbits showed their faces, though it was still early afternoon.
They were not big, but ordinary sized.
Later we learned that those big rabbits died down, so they released ordinary rabbits and they are protecting them.
The same boatman came to pick us up at the correct time and we went back to the mainland.
This boat service cost €40 (£36, $49), which I thought reasonable.
Later on the day, we went out for walking to see the sunset.
We saw a silhouette of the statue against the orange sky and sea, which commemorate the fishermen who did not come back.
