the island of the not-famous

first day: the journey

Who said that to find paradisiacal places you have to go around the globe???? Sure, every place outside your own home...is nice if visited as a tourist.... I've always come out a winner from every trip I've taken to this day...maybe because I love traveling to death...I love the world to death...and in this muggy, but not too muggy, summer of 2005, my budget took me to Greece. March 2005, map of Europe in hand...north, south, east, west... "But...what's down there...below Corfu, there's something...what's that tiny little dot you can just barely make out..." Map of Greece, Ionian Sea Islands....."An island I've never heard of, but it's tiny...it's called Paxos....but, this island intrigues me, let's go look it up on the internet....." "Paxos and Anti Paxos can be found 14 kilometres south of Corfu, 20 kilometres to the east is Parga on the mainland of Greece.

Paxos covers an area of some 19 square kilometres and is one of a cluster of picturesque small islands set in the Ionian Sea. Paxos has no airport, can only be reached by ferry boat or flying boat, a recent introduction. Paxos therefore, has been able to protect itself from the strain of modern tourism. You will find the pace is still unhurried, very relaxing with genuine friendly Greek hospitality at its best.

Paxos has a permanent population of approximately 2,300 inhabitants, there are three main villages Gaios, largest then Lakka and Loggos...................................." To tell the truth, it wasn't only my budget that brought me to Greece but the Snav Catamaran, and the islands were those of Paxos and Antipaxos, which are talked about far too little....all of this combined with the curiosity of going to a Greek island I had never heard of...it wasn't Rhodes, Mykonos, Kos, Santorini.....It was Paxos..... August 1st, port of Brindisi...hot, a very skimpy check-in, and then straight to the actual boarding, at ten in the morning. In the modest waiting room of the port, we find a couple heading to the same island, a couple of northern Italians who aren't too friendly, who latch onto us like stamps and never stop talking....

The Fast Catamaran, which takes about half the time of a normal ferry to cross that stretch of sea separating Puglia from the second Greek island closest to us (Italians), inspired enough confidence in me to make me fall asleep after an hour of travel... Broadly speaking, it felt like being on a plane, except for the presence of a bar meeting point and a second "belvedere" level where it was not advisable to take a seat during crossings with rough seas. Sunny day...air conditioning at maximum...television to entertain the passengers...that white-blue color of the vessel carried my imagination to already envision what would become of me in Greece...but in reality it was much, much more...

6:00 PM (local time in Paxos; 1 hour more than Italy) we finally disembark at the small little port of Gaios, the port and main town of the island, after having made a stop in Corfu, which is about an hour away by Catamaran from the little paradise island. Finally feet on the ground, good temperature, sun, gentle breeze,...first thing to do, cast a glance toward the sea...crystal clear, blue, green, white, in short I was in the right place, at the right time. Once we had collected our humble luggage, in manual stevedore mode...., map in hand to follow the directions given to us by the organizing agency in order to reach our accommodation...after ten seconds a bearded little man appeared who loaded everything (including us) into his car, heading for Carols Nest, the studio we had rented for this Greek vacation.

After ten minutes of hairpin bends uphill, unpaved little roads, olive trees, wild nature, scattered little houses...we arrived! "Wow, where have they taken us? Weren't we supposed to be near the center? Hmm..." The little villa was very very Country style. A little stone house, immersed in the most remote nature of olive trees, on a hillside, stone patio, sunbeds and wooden tables. The boss and also our point of reference was the owner of the house who lived at the back of our accommodation, Gordon, a true-blue Englishman from Oxford, retired...who by choice had said goodbye to the rain and clouds of England and now lived there, on the island of sun, olive trees, and sea...to end his days in the tranquility and idleness of that kind of surreal life... He really knows how to enjoy life... The only small problem, later solved, was that he only spoke English...but manageable....

What can I say, the bearded little man had just abandoned us into the hands of the English man who, after a brief excursion around the house and a brief explanation of "what and where," had left us to our life as Italian vacationers. The excitement was great...the curiosity even greater, but...we immediately had to get ourselves a means of transport since we and the town center were separated by at least 2 km of a hillside packed with olive trees...so after a brief look to understand how we had been set up, and I must admit "very nicely," legs in gear in search of a path that would take us into the center of Gaios... How many times did we get lost? Twice...we couldn't see the sea nor even a sign indicating the town center...try and try again, hot temperature for around 6:30 PM...in the end we found the paved road and also the center. First obligatory stop: Vessilis Rent Bike.

As a first impression we weren't all that satisfied with the locals, they weren't very friendly and they didn't even try to communicate with us... But after half an hour, under our beloved backsides was an apparently new scooter in good condition...which would take us anywhere...with a full tank... too bad it was empty.

The fuel station, fortunately, was an obligatory passage for getting back home; after filling up for a good 7 euros, the first thing to do was to go home with some provisions to allow us to survive the first Greek night! A brief scenic tour of Gaios and we spotted a small supermarket that for 40 euros provided us with a few basic necessities such as: sugar, coffee, pasta, salt, detergent...and then they say Greece isn't expensive...but I'd like to know who says these...silly things! The route to get home was tortuous...also because we didn't remember the road very well...try and try again...7:45 PM HOME!!! Nothing better than unpacking the suitcases, getting organized, a shower, and also a further analysis of the house, the garden, the surroundings...peace was with us and against us...only the sound of cicadas, olive trees, open countryside...absolute silence and a sea breeze all around C

arols Nest. I suppose I have never found such a clean and organized accommodation, I opened the fridge to put the groceries in to chill...water and milk were already provided by the hospitality of Gordon and company...more than that, only a Lucano would have made me shudder... After a meager but sufficient dinner, the first thing at the top of the priority list was to go out and see what the nightlife of that little island was like...see where people hung out, where the best places were, what this much-desired Gaios was like, and maybe even take a couple of photographs. Scooter under our golden backsides, miniskirt for the big occasion, which on a scooter was a nonexistent garment...practically naked, off we went through the little alleys of Paxos.

Finally in the center, we were very curious to explore our territory and indeed we spent that evening among gift shops, a stroll along the port of Gaios, packed with yachts of every kind and shape, length and color... Maybe the island was very expensive because it was a bit...elitist....let's say that the standard of living of the vacationers in Paxos was much above so

second day: very ambient....

At 11:00 a.m. Gordon arrived with the vacuum cleaner, fresh towels, a tennis-player-style headband, and all the gear for spring cleaning....and that's when I said to myself: forget hotels and tourist resorts....here it's much much better. They even did full-scale cleaning by none other than....the owner of the house....so much for organization!! We had had a hearty breakfast with croissants the size of "the Sahara desert," impossible to find elsewhere, so we could do nothing but go and test out the beaches, the sea, the sun, the water of that rustic place.

By now we and the scooter had become one....backpack on our shoulders, off we went...from the center of Gaios, following the road that ran along the sea toward the South, we spotted, along with the breathtaking landscapes and rocky coves, a beautiful (pebble) white beach with few people and a sea you'd dive into instantly; we parked the scooter outside the area where tickets could be issued and down to the little cove.... Of course, without a mat or a sunbed, it was a balm for the body to lie on the stones or rocks with only a beach towel...but we did it...sunscreen all over the body...first swim, cool water, gorgeous day. And so on until early afternoon, between a photograph and a cave where we could find half an hour of shade, another pass of sunscreen, and hunger began to make itself felt...

Already a bit toasted by the blazing sun of August 2nd, we lifted our soles from that ravenous little cove "paradise beach" and headed for a refreshment point...center of Gaios, an outdoor grilled restaurant, very nice and above all, we were very hungry!! In the shade of a big patio umbrella, we enjoyed a succulent semi-quick and semi-touristy lunch, getting acquainted with a dad accompanied by 2 little blonde terrors, they had just disembarked and were waiting for their house to be vacated by the previous tourists...This man was a regular visitor to Paxos for 30 years and was tossing around Greek terms unknown to us.

We paid the bill and fled in search of another little cove to capture our curiosity....Scooter under our backsides and...off we went.....the afternoon's little cove was less happy than the morning's, less untouched and more crowded (12 people) but between one swim and another, a digital video and a couple of photographs, the time passed quickly, as you know, on vacation time flies.... It was that afternoon that we met on the beach two slightly overweight couples whose humor was loudly denoted by the terrifying laughter of the 2 women, who, soaking in the sea for two hours, gave us no peace...however, we witnessed several conversations in the local language...which for me was equivalent to Arabic or ancient Aramaic...

I felt a bit sunburned and a bit tight from the salt, it was time for a regenerating shower and maybe a dinner out to savor the local specialties, the time had really come.... After a little tour of the center, a stop on the seafront at port level to see what new yachts had arrived, a quick trip to the supermarket to feast our eyes and sharpen the libido of gluttony,......home. We had a new cat friend, to tell the truth the whole island was full of cats, and we even had them in the garden, scampering among the hung laundry, my new friend even let me come close and pet him... I dedicated myself to: grooming, dry cleaning, Cinderella, and we were fairly ready to dine in a typical Greek little restaurant, the ideal way to inaugurate our vacation, which had gotten off to a good start...

another miniskirt for the big occasion,...center of Gaios, restaurant in front of the sea, one of the most beautiful and largest, with a spacious outdoor patio, facing the port that was swarming with people, Greek salad, beef souvlaki, Greek yogurt with honey, a romantic dinner but not too romantic. We ran into Gordon at dinner with the family and a thousand other people dining at our same restaurant. It was a lovely dinner that went on until late in the evening... And meanwhile we greatly appreciated being at the sea, on vacation, far from everything and everyone, various comments flew about the place, the sea, the heat, the house, Gordon, and what we would do the next day: ANTIPAXOS was the answer.

Antipaxos is a very small island south of Paxos, uninhabited in winter, 3 square kilometers, reachable only by boat from Paxos with organized trips at scheduled times from every main port of the island. The little island we would visit the following day is a terrestrial paradise, comparable to the atolls of the Maldives, where you remain enchanted just by the limpidity of the sea and the beauty of the place. Antipaxos is 15 minutes from Gaios at sustained speed by motorboat, an obligatory excursion to admire untamed beauty and a place where anyone would want to spend their "peace of the senses." Before going to bed that evening we landed at a place facing the port, or rather facing the yachts, very "In," soft lights and very loud music, outdoor tables, waiters who understood our archaic Italian language, and affordable prices.

Tourist-king treatment, the waiter took the order consisting of 2 mojitos, which were served to us complete with nibbles.....Greek olives, carrots, Greek cucumbers.....pretty Caribbean, right? I felt very VIP there that evening, sipping, smoking, knowing I was only at the beginning of that relaxing and curious vacation..... The waiter was a big Greek guy with black hair and eyes, of considerable build (I later discovered he was a surfer). That evening, at home, we took a pause for reflection on the stars, with the lights off, noses pointed up, sitting in the garden...admiring the multitude of stars visible from that tiny and insignificant island that isn't even marked on some maps..... It was quite an emotion, that starry sky...that night....we talked about Egyptian pyramids, constellations, planets, solar systems....until late...The night was cool and brought rest with it...

Antipaxos...third day

Wake-up at 10:00, departure after a lavish breakfast of enormous Greek brioches, in time to catch the 12:00 boat for Antipaxos....backpack, beach towel, camera, video camera, sunscreens, little hat on my head.....15 minutes and arrival in Eden! I was stunned. The water was so clear that if there had been a grain of gray sand on the bottom...I would have seen it.... White sand, blue water, yes I was in the Seychelles.....no I was in Greece and not even that far from Italy.......but would you look at that, sometimes...if only I'd known..... We were all astounded with our mouths wide open..., the boat left us on a small scenic pier that in the late afternoon was covered by the high tide....beside it only white sand and sea, some clumps of marine flora here and there.....without flip-flops I didn't hesitate to walk in that water until reaching the beach equipped with pay sunbeds.

The beach of white stones was short and steep toward the sea, and on the other side it turned into a little road that led up to the bar..... Vegetation was the watchword in that place.....the beach where we were was a small inlet in a green mountain.....at the top....a panoramic restaurant that was the subject of several photographs during our lunch break. After securing a spot in the front row under the sun...I took the one capable of immortalizing magical moments and headed toward the small pier... Photographs galore and in every direction....sea, sky, boats, mountain, nature,......many vessels were stationed a few meters from the shore, arrived from who knows where, whose passengers were there to do what everyone was doing.....photos, swimming, sunbathing, relaxing.....

That day I had no hesitation....I swam at least 350 times in that spectacle of nature called the sea, and the day was truly fantastic, hot and sunny. Many tourists were present and many arrived after us, the sunbeds ran out and people kept arriving, I finished the roll of film and put in another.....it was impossible not to be captivated by those beauties of nature.....Mother Nature had truly created a masterpiece on that little island.... After a climb of hundreds of stone steps that clambered up the verdant mountain, we reached the panoramic viewpoint.

Well, the view from up there took away your strength, your breath, your curiosity, and gave you an appetite....the little table facing the balustrade overlooking the sea on that terrace was the best we could get...A hearty order, rigorously of Greek food, and it was time to immortalize more moments and more images, it was hot, we were satisfied and our eyes were filling with images... the restaurant was in perfect harmony with the surrounding nature, from a little downhill path you reached a terrace with tables and chairs, in a corner a hammock for the laziest... very comfortably we took our lunch break, observing the neighbors at the table, observing the sea below us, observing the rocky and at times verdant mountain that surrounded us. With our stomachs overflowing we went back down the staircase to finish our run on the sunbeds in the scorching heat of the 2:30 PM sun.

That day I was truly satisfied with the place where I was and I promised myself I would return before leaving....I kept looking and looking again at those landscapes, that sea, that water.....captivated by the beauty I kept repeating to myself in my mind that soon it would only remain a beautiful memory of that place......and I wanted to enjoy it all until the end, to the very bottom. The boat that took us back to Gaios at 6:00 PM had a transparent bottom and you could admire the underwater world of those fantastic waters..... At the port we disembarked and didn't return home until after a long reconnaissance tour on the seafront facing the shops....

By now we had wandered around that place enough and taken photographs, and the thought was to change scenery the next day.....maybe going to look for a beach in another town....nearby.....the wind was starting to blow, the waves to crash and the sea to ripple.....the evening would turn out cool.....actually cold! We had dinner at home and that evening we didn't go out...what with the tiredness...what with the wind.....what with the sweet idleness that takes hold in those cases.....we stayed home and after dinner I fell into a restless sleep, without a doubt I needed to rest, but to that extent....

The island...

On Thursday morning at nine I was already active.....breakfast, swimsuit......backpack......but when I poked my head out the door of the house......alas, the wind had not calmed down at all...on the contrary...and the weather wasn't the best......"curse"......no, not bad weather!!!!!...... Since nothing and no one would ever stop us, on the scooter that morning we decided, after a tour of the center where we gathered that no boat would be leaving the port for various excursions because force 7 seas wouldn't allow it....., to go and visit the cheerful little town of Lakka, at the extreme north of the island (10 km away).

And so we set off on the journey.....which was anyway an undertaking with the scooter, the wind made itself felt and the ghost villages we passed through to reach Lakka immersed us in a Far West reality.....or Canyon.....every now and then a little church....a little road climbing toward the interior...... we skirted the sea until the road allowed us to......Lakka was a small, picturesque village clustered around the small port.....crowded but organized beaches, a campsite, little houses and alleys, tourists, bars, restaurants, a stretch of panoramic promenade that made me finish yet another roll of film....We dared to say that Gaios was more beautiful...the sea water clearer.....the town larger....so we considered ourselves lucky....

After a "loop" tour through the streets of Lakka, the pit-stop for lunch was made at a restaurant on the port....very much on the port, the little table was right up against the water....if I stretched out my arm...I touched the boat of the friendly Greek fisherman who by "default" was elderly, tanned, bearded, scruffy, and...tired! I must admit that if there was one thing we never denied ourselves.....it was eating "properly," we never skipped a meal, always in very beautiful and picturesque places...typical cuisine, cats around the table, that too was typical! It was a succulent lunch, slow and long, I'd say relaxing, where a multitude of cats scuffled around our feet to snatch a piece of cheese, meat....bread, they ate anything, that day we had mother and children at our feet.

The Greek girl who served us was nice, asking us where we were from, Italy, seeking conversation and also trying to understand us since she sensed Italian. After lunch, seized by nostalgia for Gaios, we returned to the Big Apple, heading toward the nearest accessible beach in Gaios. We found it, we stopped.....who did we meet????? Our friend the waiter from the bar taking advantage of the windy day to windsurf in that sea cold as ice and rough.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach trying to tan our little bodies which were already leaning toward the color "earth," I tried to swim, the water was so cold it would reactivate your blood circulation....the wind didn't seem to want to calm down, the beach was very popular perhaps because it was the closest to the center....there were lots of people, tourists, Greeks, islanders, children, a boy was diving with mask and fins.....girls were sunbathing topless in the late afternoon, I tried to cool off now and then without immersing myself...the sun was still hot anyway.

When we decided to do some shopping it was 5:30 PM and between gifts and little gifts, souvenirs and photo calendars, an aperitif, a scenic tour, a little stroll, an analysis of the possibilities that the weather would improve the following day and allow us to take to the sea toward some hidden place.....we came to the conclusion that we could go home. Dinner was prepared by yours truly who, after washing swimsuits and cover-ups, delighted herself with a relaxing read in Italian, on the wooden garden sunbed that was still for a short while in the sun, with a Diet Coke on the little table, I read Caty Reichs until I felt the cold of the wind on my shoulders when the sun had now set behind our olive trees.... That evening we had dinner late and went out equally late with jackets and sweaters.....it was genuinely chilly.....on the port the wind blew and on the scooter even worse.

Our favorite place welcomed us, I recognized the surfer waiter, we drank, snacked, chatted, and admired the passersby, the moored boats, it was a long evening, which also included the usual seaside stroll, window shopping and street stalls, photographs. The hope that the following day we could go elsewhere by sea...kept fading more and more, with every gust of wind...with every wave that crashed on the port...the forecast was sad......and so there was no better solution than the famous midnight spaghetti....which for us took place at 2:00 in the morning. In fact, once home, we barricaded ourselves inside since the wind blew from the sea hard enough to sneak into the house and slam doors and windows shut (rigorously blue as Greek tradition demands...).

Consolation came with a plate of macaroni, let's say "Italian style," a photo that immortalized me at 2 in the morning glued to the stove...video camera placed on the table filming that stomach-churning scene, and me in front of the video camera announcing the sketch of "Italia Uno." The night was young and we went to bed around 4:00 in the morning hoping to wake up to a blazing sun.

The beach.....

Friday morning greeted us leaden and cold for being August 5th, and the sadness made us have a hearty, long breakfast that stretched until Gordon's arrival for the systematic spring cleaning. Anticipating that we wouldn't be able to go to Antipaxos again nor visit the famous sea caves of the island, the scooter carried us far and wide all morning, around the coast, and we got as far as the extreme southern cape where the road ended on a hill dotted with olive trees. From up high the view was very suggestive but the road didn't let us continue. Hills with houses under construction, little roads leading to big villas, every now and then a dog barked, work in progress for a house overlooking the sea.....most of the villas scattered around the island were owned by travel agencies, they were rented out to groups of tourists and were extraordinarily beautiful.

There were villas with 10/12 beds with garden, pool, garage, two floors of Greek houses in various colors and blue window frames. Heading back we found one of the very few tourist complexes on the island, a sort of camping-village where we decided to spend the day. It was a very nice complex, with bungalows set along the little hillside and sports fields, a ping-pong table, an equipped beach, restaurant, bar in the small square, the center of the complex. To the kind lady at the bar service I asked for information, obviously in English, in order to spend the day at the beach and rent sunbeds so as not to be fakirs on the stones. Once she handed me the key that opened the padlocks of the sunbeds, we stationed ourselves on the beach, it was broadly 11:30 AM and there was almost no one since the weather was truly stormy.

The sea was very rough and the sun had started to impose itself, despite the strong wind. The only possible thing to do...sunbathing. Tourists staying at the campsite began to land on the beach and soon the little beach was "full." Youths, children, adults, Italians, foreigners. Near us a group of very "In" families of genuine Italians, perhaps Romans, where classically, the wives bonded and gossiped about friends and relatives, smearing themselves with sun oil, the husbands... sun and sea...the children....definitely sunbathing and looking down their noses!! I was really tired of hearing Italian spoken and opted for lunch. The very lovely restaurant was outdoors and the waiter who served us was also very good-looking and friendly.

Obviously I had to let loose with the best of my English...No one was having lunch at that hour at the restaurant, there was absolute peace and a wind that carried off napkins and tablecloths...I ordered baked stuffed tomatoes which I remember being something truly tasty and delicious, a stuffing of meat and rice with lots and lots of very tasty spices. For Fabio, instead, it was the fish's turn...mixed fried calamari. We ate again and again well, by now I was resigned to the fact of returning to Italy with a few extra kilos, but the thing didn't worry me all that much. From the restaurant, which was located on a raised balcony compared to the rest of the village and the beach, I had an excellent view of the little square where the bar was and....of the sea.

In the afternoon I couldn't not immortalize something of that place too, and with my inseparable "photographic" friend I wandered around the edges of the beach to take photographs and I also captured a Greek flag on the tiny pier. The village was packed at 4:00 in the afternoon and we were already worn out by the sun since you couldn't do much swimming in that rough, wavy sea. On the way back we made stops along the coast to photograph some beautiful rocky coves and looked for immaculate beaches to photograph. An oil tanker near the coast stirred up a hubbub of opinions that we exchanged to decide whether to call Greenpeace, a ferry in the distance was arriving from mainland Greece which could be seen clearly on the horizon on clear days. We looked for a way to go to Corfu or Parga the following day, but with that sea...who was moving...

A quick stop at the port, a photo in front of the Blue Dolphin, a completely enclosed vessel (it vaguely resembled a train), which reached very high speeds gliding over the water. The schedules posted on the ticket booths of the various maritime companies gave us no answers. We didn't know if there was a way, if there was a means, or at what time to reach places other than that island that had practically held us prisoners there for 2 days, without giving us the possibility of leaving for excursions and destinations.....my thought was: but if it continues like this, and the return catamaran doesn't leave? In the end I believe and maintain....it would have been a great thing.....and instead it never happened.

After yet another tour of the center, yet another shopping trip to the supermarket, yet another aperitif which I decided should consist of Greek yogurt with fresh fruit pieces, after various chats about the weather conditions, a few purchases here and there, a stop at the ATM, we went home. Late afternoon, warm sun and cool wind, up there, in our palace, no one disturbed us, there were no noises, not a trace of stress lined my face, the only intruder was the adopted cat that often hung around our garden looking for comfort and food. I even did the laundry, prepared a very succulent and elaborate dinner, 4 were the things I had in the fridge, and ingenuity did the rest. At the supermarket I had gone so far as to buy a mango, which I then discovered I didn't know how to pit, but I created a sort of mango stew that turned out to be a balm for our parched throats.

First course, second course, fruit, dessert....we treated ourselves very well even at home. We had neither TV nor a radio, we were exempt from the civilized world, from the news, from the newscasts and nothing touched us, unaware that anyway elsewhere life went on. The very few texts that my mother and I exchanged reminded me that in Italy there was life and that the weather was even worse for her than for me....a few texts with various friends, then the cell phone became such an accessory for me that I turned it on half an hour a day to see any calls or messages. As the saying goes...I had really unplugged.

The after-dinner we spent as usual: a little tour of the center, a stroll along the port, a dirty look at the yacht owners whose boats were bigger than our house.....the surfer's little place, a little alcoholic drink, with the difference that that evening we decided to enter the jewelry stores facing the port to give our opinion on the prices and the merchandise.....up and down the stores, we decided that the following day we wouldn't be caught unprepared by the weather that continued not to improve....we would go to Loggos, another cheerful little town on the island, 3rd most important in order of size in all of Paxos.

Loggos and go...

After spending the morning at the sea between filming and photos, swimming and wind, the usual clear water and pebble beach.....sandwich.....a light lunch compared to what we had become used to......and then: After lunch, in the early afternoon, the sun wasn't omnipresent and we made the big decision to reach Loggos. It was an exciting and fun little trip, I took the video camera and from the back of the scooter I filmed the highlights of that journey while Fabio drove us into the interior of the island. Hairpin bends, curves, climbs and descents, I filmed everything, the road, the road signs, the cars we met, trees, houses, sea. I felt very "on the road" and very much a director.

On arrival in Loggos we were greeted by a semi-deserted village peace, it seemed like an uninhabited little town, the small port was deserted and the only human present was a restaurateur who, following the fishing, was cleaning some very fresh fish for his evening customers. We took a couple of steps on a sort of tiny beach until we came up against the rock that formed, in the water, small dark caves. The video camera kept filming every instant, everything. A series of small motorboats were moored near the shore waiting for someone to rent them....the water was clear but the bottom was gray with stones, the sun was no longer there and it gave the impression of being a sad Ligurian sea....We lingered for a few moments to film the strange fish that the restaurateur still had in the bucket.....an unknown fish, pink in color with a squared snout, lay there now limp.

A sad series of 4 shops in a cross shape created the little square of the village and a small empty bar seemed the only gathering point in all of Loggos. We were determined to play explorers that day and we didn't give up, we set off in search of a beach.....we got lost several times among olive trees and country lanes, I filmed the poverty of the landscape, not a car, not a person......a few houses under construction and small, steep alleys. After getting lost at least five times, we understood the direction we had to take to reach the sea.....What appeared before our eyes when we emerged from the olive trees was a breathtaking panoramic vision. I couldn't help but immortalize it...I looked like a little Japanese tourist, always with the camera in hand....

From up on the hill you could admire for its entire length a beautiful stretch of coastline, the sea was beautiful and the long beach of white stones in the presence of the verdant vegetation was a balm for the eyes and brain. We admired that viewpoint and from up there you could see many vessels that had spotted that wonderful stretch of coastline. We went down a very winding little road

last day

I slept very little, and when I opened my eyes again I thought I was recovering from a head-on car crash....swollen eyes, stomachache, hot forehead, awful taste in my mouth like an ex-alcoholic, nausea, poor sense of balance....basically a hangover! But I couldn't miss the last day of sea and sun; the weather had improved and my only wish was to go back to Antipaxos. Breakfast was precarious due to bile issues, and the fresh air of the scooter ride brought me back to consciousness....that saying is really true: at night Lions Lions, in the morning Cogli.....Cogli...., I was in the Cogli..... phase. We got to the port in time to catch the 11:00 boat to Antipaxos; the sea was calm and the sun was beating down....I climbed aboard and just the swaying of the boat made me shudder. After ten minutes we were in the most wonderful place on earth that I had known up to that point.

Lounge chair and hat on my head, the aftereffects continued to make themselves felt. Under a scorching sun the first urge was for a nice swim in that clear, regenerating water....too bad the water temperature was -20 degrees!!!! At that point the dilemma was: to swim or not to swim in this vegetative state and in this frozen water? I decided no, not yet! That day there in Antipaxos we ran into a group of kids from Rome who had already been our travel companions on the way there; we ran into them very often, in fact.....the island was small, the spots were those....hard not to run into each other. The Romans were four couples very different from one another; the girls were different from one another and the guys were, I'd dare say, true Romanacci; one in particular had aroused our curiosity from the start.

He was the classic Roman with his pants crotch at knee level, shaved head, rebellious, of that type that nothing looks good on, misunderstood by the rest of the group, and if you will, also a bit unlucky....The first encounter with Roman Boy had happened at the Rent a Bike; they had fought for hours to rent scooters and a car and didn't feel any sympathy toward the rental owners; let's say there was misunderstanding and dismay. We had done it all in half an hour..... That day I devoted myself to finishing the roll of film in my camera, and around lunchtime I decided that a bit of shade wouldn't hurt us. A beautiful bar with hot dishes was near the beach, which, due to the effect of the high tide, had shrunk.

The classic Caribbean bars with wooden structures and straw umbrellas, few people; we sat down at the table, ordered two toasted sandwiches to keep it light, given the upheaval of the previous evening.... I knew that was the last time I would go to Antipaxi and that was also the second-to-last day of vacation.....I was sad. It was very hot and the sight of the sea refreshed my soul..... We placed a second order of toast...and lingered in the shade of that bar for almost two hours....we talked about the things we had done in the previous days and about the new friends with whom we had shared the alcohol of the night before.

After that break maybe we were ready for a swim...the clear and terribly cold water had been waiting for us for a while; just the sight of that water invited long swims and long strokes....boats, swimmers, umbrellas.....lots of tourists, some playing beach volley in the water, some capturing moments of relaxation, people under the umbrella gasping from the heat and children playing at the water's edge. We went swimming, in fact we swam a lot, until 6:00 p.m....every now and then a smear of sunscreen even though I was already hazelnut-colored....I could still feel the aftereffects of the hangover.... When we got back on the boat to return to Gaios, the sun was slowly lengthening the shadows on the beach and people were starting to head back home.

On the small pier...I looked and looked again at that magnificent place, at that water that let you glimpse some small fish, I looked with sadness at that beach and the lush vegetation all around....what a magnificent place we had discovered...I had captured it far and wide but I still wasn't satisfied and didn't want to leave, but I had to make that effort too!! During the brief return trip to Gaios, the video camera filmed me with my hair in the wind and the sun setting over a stupendous sea....seascapes and rocky cliffs, vegetation, rocks, the splashes of water reached all the way to me; even today when I watch that video I feel like I'm reliving the moments and the places of that corner of Greece.

At the port I didn't hesitate to get the last roasted corn before going home; on the bench facing the sea I ate like a squirrel and thought.....I thought.....there was activity that late afternoon in the center and on the seafront; it was Sunday; in the meantime a lot of people had arrived, lots of yachts,.... it was August seventh. A stroll in the center; we were both a bit sad, and the thought that those days of rough seas that there had been had taken away the opportunity to take trips outside like the magnificent caves...little coves...visits to Parga and Corfu.....but they say that whoever is content...Rejoices! At home each of us suffered in our own silence, amid the laundry, dinner in the pot, the shower and our friend the cat wandering in the garden.....

We had dinner and packed our suitcases for the next day; we had arranged to meet our 2 English friends that evening, at the usual place....we didn't want to be late, much less miss it....so we set off......by now the scooter was routine for us and was a good substitute for a car; comfortable and fairly fast, it had taken us everywhere, and we had covered quite a bit of ground that week; that evening too it took us into the center.

By now we knew the shops, the bars, the owners,...we went to our usual little place where there was no shortage of music, people, cheerfulness...but our faithful little English friends...weren't there...had they stood us up? Had they partied too hard the night before to be able to come say goodbye? Had they deliberately wanted to avoid us? We'll never know...they didn't show up for the meeting, and we regularly ordered and consumed, even though my alcohol level was still high and my physical state made me consume only half a cocktail, then I threw in the towel!!! It wasn't late when we decided to head back; we were tired, baked by the sun, sad, and also a bit disappointed by the no-show, so we said goodbye to our waiter friend who had served and honored us for a week and above all put up with us...A little ride in the quiet island evening with the cool wind and the newly arrived tourists

sitting at restaurant tables, savoring succulent dishes, drinking wine and cheerfully chatting with friends. The scant general lighting of that place made everything softer, everything more muffled...like in fairy tales, in dreams... and amid passing scooters and people out and about who like us were enjoying the evening, we went back home. That evening was long anyway; we didn't go to bed early; we watched on the small screen of the video camera what we had filmed during those days spent among white beaches, Caribbean seas and mistral wind.... The suitcases were ready, everything was ready for the next day...only we weren't ready and even less happy to leave.

return to Italy....

The morning was cloudy but warm; we left the suitcases at home and after a long breakfast we went for a final reconnaissance tour of the Paxian coasts; we stopped at various points to take photographs and admired the sea for long stretches of time. We went down onto the rocks, and in a setting both rocky and marine at once, we captured our tired faces and tanned bodies. Every now and then the sun came out....people on the beach were enjoying the day and swimming while we were dying of envy.....The catamaran was supposed to leave at 4:30 p.m. from Gaios to arrive at 9:30 p.m.

in Brindisi (this was the timetable given to us on site) and obviously we couldn't go to the beach in the morning; we had to be at the port an hour early and we still had to check in.....so in downtown Gaios at lunchtime we looked for the Snav office, and once inside we also asked what would happen if we wanted to stay a few more days...no use...the penalty to pay was too high. After the disappointment of check-in, we looked for a little place to have our last lunch and headed to a restaurant that served combined plates of meats and sides, very "American" in style; the outdoor terrace was half-empty, it was hot and the sun had definitively come out, warming the whole central square of Gaios. Tourists were arriving on foot from the port and people were walking around in beach flip-flops with a newspaper under their noses, some taking photos, some going shopping.....

Grilled meatballs with a side of french fries was my last order, and I consumed my lunch with all the calm in this world...I ordered fruit and coffee, which on that island really made you shudder...used to good Italian coffee, there we had more than once tried to tempt fate, but always losing. After lunch and whole half-hours of paranoia, we approached a newsstand; the newspapers were very expensive and a lot of people just read the headlines on the front page without buying; we had a journey to face and so we bought the newspaper to know what to do on the catamaran for six hours......We learned some Italian news: planes that had crashed, killings, arrests, stock market figures, in short, endless tragedies; maybe it would have been better to skip the