A Welcome Home Of Sorts

As soon as I set foot on the boat my bags became lighter, my face began to smile, and my heart began to sing… I was going to see my old friend Italy! For the first time in months everything was familiar. The name of the boat I was on, the port I was departing from, and most familiar was the port I would soon be arriving in… Ischia! Sitting on the boat everything just seemed right. The sun was shining, the sea was calm, Mt. Vesuvious was getting smaller behind me as the Island of Ischia was growing larger in front of me. As the castle slowly passed on my left side my brain was suddenly flooded with thoughts and memories of the six months I had spent living on this Island some seven years ago.


I could not wait to get off the boat and drop my bags as usual, but I was happier to know that this time it would be different. I wasn’t checking into a hostel for a day or two, I was going to be here for a while. I was going to unpack my backpack, put my clothes into drawers, fill a refrigerator with food and drinks, have my own laundry machine, my own shower, a bed I could call my own, and more importantly, I was going to have friends! Francesco picked me up from the port and took me directly to the coffee shop Chris, Trevor, and I had stumbled into on our first visit to Ischia. It was a great homecoming… friends I had not seen in years ran up to me with the biggest smiles and even bigger hugs. Some of them knew I was coming and some didn’t, but all we were happy to see each other just the same. After a couple beers Francesco and I went to my favorite pizzeria, and like I had been there just yesterday, Ariana, the waitress greeted me and asked me if I would like to have my usual, the pizza diavola, or if for once I would like to try something different. Her father, Franco, a third generation pizza maker, made the woodfired pizza diavola just as I remembered it… perfect! After dinner Ariana brought over a glass of rucolino, a liquor unique to this island, that she knows I love and told me it was on the house. Setting it on the table she happily and correctly said, “Welcome home!” After talking for awhile Francesco took me to the house I would be staying in and told me he would see me the next day. Walking into the house everything was exactly how I remembered it. I truly did feel as though I had come home. I happily put my clothes in the drawers and sat at the dining room table, the one I had played so many games of solitaire on years before, and let my wander its way back to those days, to all the wonderful memories created here, and I smiled as I thought of the new memories I would soon create. After some time I climbed into bed excited to see what day two in Ischia had in store for me.