Buongiorno again, sons of bitches.
It’s 4am and something wants out of my colon. This is most irregular. Must be a lactose related event, probably the old butter-in-the-schnitzel trap. There’s a repeat performance at 7am.
Lisa’s beauty routine starts. Towards the end of the routine, she watches Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, her new addiction. Either that or Little House on the Prairie.
09:00 Breakfast
Nothing new here. Same old same old. Except no vegan croissants, the swines.
Stu gets the worst seat in the house for once and had his back to the seaview. He eats fruit from his teeny tiny little bowl.
After brekky we go back to ours and read the blogs out loud.
11:00 Port & Tortolì
Excursion time. We head for Arbatax port to see if there’s any shops to look around, and maybe see the local landmark – Rocce Rosse (The red rocks). We don’t see anything worth stopping for, so bin the red rocks off and drive on thru.
And so on to Tortolì, where there might be a shopping area worth writing home about. Stu parks the nano-car (we worked out it’s called an Ypsilon) in a parking space. The car literally only takes up half the space.
There’s a quaint pedestrianised street through the old part of town. It’s not huge but had some gift shops. Some music is ringing out of some sort of gallery. Some people are hanging about in parts but nothing sinister.
We stop and have a coffee near the place we ate on day 2 (the garish diner place). Barista/Owner speaks no Inglese so I’m confused about the system. His gestures don’t help in the slightest. Stu ends up paying, get it on the spreadsheet mate.
In a gift shop, with old school Italian music playing, a sweet old man keeps talking to us in Italiano. We smile and play along. Stu translates parts. It’s to do with fridge magnets mainly. We think.
I’ve bought some playing cards and a fridge magnet/bottle opener. I also go into a sports shop and buy some goggles for going back in the sea.
13:00 Hotel
Back to hotel, and straight to poolside to bag a space. I venture off for another swim in the sea. The sea is so calm and clear today, it has been beckoning me since I got up – I can’t pass the chance up.
It’s so easy to get in, and the goggles are great so I can see plenty. There’s so many fish and they are hanging around in schools, chilling. They are not bothered by my presence. There’s a few different types. I swim over by the rocks where it’s a bit deeper but only about 2m or so. A big fish is pecking away at a bit of seaweed.
Back at the pool, I go hydropool with Lisa and Stu, then go sauna. We head back to room about 15:30 and start to pack the cases etc ready for the early start.
17:00 Terrazza Bar
Our plan is to have a drink, play cards, and then order some food off the bar menu, which we were told operates from 8-10pm. Andrea sorts our drinks. Lisa has Pina Colada and it’s very good. The rest of us have wine.
There’s a beautiful sunset and so we make a dash to take pics.
Cards ensue, and I have a bit more luck this time, not a total shit-show. Andrea brings snacks over; crisps, olives, and what can only be described as chewy mushrooms with tomato puree. We ask about the bar food – only cheese and ham toasties are available, and they cannot be customised. That’s no good for this little lord lactose. And Lisa doesn’t want ham. So we decide to head to the snack bar that Lisa and I went to by accident on day 1.
As we walk down the road, it looks very dark at the snack bar. Oh bollocks, it’s only bloody closed. No-one wanted pizza (especially not me) but it seems our only option is to walk to a pizza restaurant which is 5mins away. We’ve passed it a few times and it looks big.
We walk into Pizzeria Acquolina and another Stanley Tucci-alike says no tables are available until after 1 hour. Not a good option, so we ask about take out. “30 mins” says Stanley. “Vegano pizza?” I ask. Stanley gives a stern no, like I’ve just tried to molest his grandmother. I think he’s a man under stress. We settle on Margherita pizza, and I’ll just have fries. It takes about 15 mins. Other people turn up and face she dilemma but walk away.
Pizza and fries are €13, bargain. Later inspection of the bill shows that the pizza cost €5 and the fries were €8. What the hell kind of pricing strategy is that? My lactose intolerance is gonna bankrupt me. Pizza and chips are consumed back at hotel, on our balcony. Lisa manages to spray oil on Stu when ripping out a slice.
And so to bed. It’s an early start tomorrow, we need to leave by 6am. We paid the hotel bill earlier so will hit the ground running in the morn. See you soon.
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