First, I would like to apologize for leaving you all hanging. I know I dropped the ball in wrapping up our 2024 sailing season, and who likes an unfinished story. So as the saying goes…..better late than never.
Sadly, September of 2024 was not shaping up to be a great month for sailing. We were constantly being hammered with thunderstorms, high winds and big seas. We were so excited to show my sister and her husband all the treasures of some of the islands and Italy by sailboat. Apparently, Mother Nature had other plans. Once we found a quick break in the weather, we headed to the town of Rossignano Solvay, on mainland Italy, where we parked Zoe in a marina and headed out for some fun on land.
Our first land outing was renting a car and heading to Siena. We had booked a cooking class in the countryside where we picked farm fresh produce and herbs to be used in our cooking class. During our class, we learned to make gnocchi, tagliatelle, and several different bruschettas. Of course, we got to eat all of these delicious dishes while enjoying lots of wine from their vineyards. Our luncheon was topped off with some great accordion music played by our chef/owner. It was truly an awesome experience.
From there we made our way to the heart of Siena where we had a room booked for the night. We explored some of the night life that evening before digging into more of the sights in the morning. We started at the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta as we knew this would get very crowded, and we had more places to go see. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site and definitely worth the visit. It was designed and completed between 1215 and 1263. What made our visit even more special was discovering that the incredibly decorative floors were only uncovered in the month of September which was when we were there. All the other months of the year, these beautiful floors are covered up for their protection.
After visiting this heavenly place, we decided to take our adventures to the bowels of hell. Just kidding. Well, sort of. We decided to tour the Museum of Torture. The exhibit contains unique and gruesome instruments of torture. It shows the worst side of humans throughout history and the unspeakable ways they found to punish one another from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Age. I’ll let the pictures tell the story. It’s more fun that way. You know you are curious. We’ve included a few pictures here, but we will include a link to many more for those of you with a morbid curiosity (like me)!
http://www.torturemuseum.it/en/permanent-museums/siena/
After Siena, we headed to the next hilltop town of San Gimignano. This beautiful town is encircled by 13th century walls and lined with medieval houses. We wandered the cobblestone streets taking in the sights and many medieval towers that create the skyline of this lovely town. Unfortunately, the rain and wind had begun, so our time here was cut a little short.
It was time to make our way back to the marina. As we pulled into the entrance, our mouths dropped in shock. The beach just outside the marina was no longer visible. Huge waves were battering the shoreline and washing over the boardwalk. They were very short period and relentless. As we looked toward the marina, the sea was crashing over the very large sea wall built around the marina. I felt bad for the boats that were tied to that outer pier as they were getting doused in the waves crashing against the outside of the wall. Boy were we grateful to be tucked in so deeply in the marina. As we made our way to Zoe, we had a tight grip on all our things. The wind was howling and the dock swaying. Dan tried to get our passerelle (the gangway that runs from the dock to the boat) down in all of this chaos, but it slipped and hit the dock knocking the wheels off which now meant the slats that are walked on started to fall off. Oh no! This was bad! This was our way back onto our boat! Luckily there was a spare wooden passerelle laying on the dock, so we used it to get us all back on board. Fortunately, we still had our old wooden passerelle on board, so we were able to use that until we could get our nice metal one fixed.
We rode out the worst of the storm before deciding to head out once again. This time, our destination was La Spezia and Cinque Terre (5 towns). Cinque Terre consists of 5 different towns perched high on the cliffs in the northern part of Italy. We had originally planned to sail the boat to La Spezia, but the seas were still rough and the marinas that were in the heart of town were outrageously expensive. The four of us hopped two different trains, rode through the beautiful countryside of Tuscany into Liguria, and soon arrived in the town of La Spezia. This part of our adventure would involve trains and walking….no rental cars. We checked into our hotel and hit the ground running (not literally…haha). Our first stop was the Naval Technical Museum of La Spezia. The focus of this museum is the specialty equipment of the Italian Navy special forces which is still stationed in La Spezia. Within the museum, you could see the history and evolution of ships, gear, and weapons. On higher ground outside of the museum, you were able to see the modern day military ships nestled in the harbor.
The following day, we took the train up into the mountains of Cinque Terre. We spent the day exploring 4 of the 5 towns, each with their own charm and style. The one thing they all had in common, lots of hilltop climbs and gorgeous views. It was a long, full day logging many, many steps. We enjoyed specialized cocktails, delicious food, and of course gelato. We were all worn out when it was time to hop the train and head back to our hotel in La Spezia.
We returned to Zoe where the weather was still looking rather ugly. The skies were heavy with storm clouds, and the seas were still nasty. We even saw several waterspouts out on the water. I was super glad we weren’t out on the water! We were down to our last day with my sister and her husband, so we made the most of it enjoying delicious food and cocktails at a few beachfront bars and restaurants. In the middle of the night, my sister received a call telling us that our mom had passed away. She had been in a care facility for a number of years due to Dementia, so we knew this would come at some point. However, she had been stable for so long that this was completely unexpected. The next day we walked my sister and her husband to the train to get them to Rome for their flights home. It was a very sad ending to what had been an amazing few weeks of cruising with them. What made things worse was that the weather was still bad, we needed to get Zoe to her winter storage location (no where near us), and the marina could not keep us more than a few more days. That evening, the rain came in. As I sat inside feeling very sad at the loss of my mom and the departure of my sister, I heard bagpipes playing. As I listened closer, I realized someone was playing Amazing Grace on the bagpipes outside on a boat. I jumped up and ran to the bow of our boat in the pouring rain. A few boats down, on the bow, stood a man in a kilt playing this haunting song. This was one of my mom’s favorite songs. I stood there in the rain with tears streaming down my face. I felt like it was a sign from my mom.
The weather finally cleared a couple of days later, and we got Zoe underway. Dan and I sailed 24 hours straight to get to our final destination. We pulled up the Tiber River outside of Rome and spent the next couple of very long days getting Zoe shut down for winter. Once Zoe was safely on land and ready for our extended absence, we headed to the airport and began our long journey home.
I’ve tried to keep this somewhat short and sweet with words but loaded with pictures. At this point, Dan and I are planning to head back to Zoe toward the end of March. We have never gone out quite this early in the year, so this could be very interesting in terms of weather. So, I hope you will rejoin our Zoe adventures coming your way very soon!
