The Weekend

Since Paco and Anthony had left, and my next set of visitors was not arriving for another week I had some time to enjoy the island by myself, find the friends that I had yet to see around town, and simply relax a bit. As I had mentioned before, last time I was here Gianni had a power boat and we would spend almost every day on it. Also on the boat everyday with us was Gianni’s right hand woman from his office, Uschi. Uschi is originally from Austria, but had been living in Ischia for I think fifteen years and had become best friends with Gianni. Uschi and I hit it off from the start and by the time I had left seven years ago, we too had become very close friends. We talked a few times once I was back in the states, but over time had lost touch. In the time that I was gone I had heard that she moved back to Austria, and had not expected to see her on this trip. I was excited to find out that she had actually moved back to Ischia one year ago, and Gianni gave me her number. The Friday after the boys left Uschi and I made plans to go out and grab a drink. We first had dinner with Gianni and then made the drive over to Ischia Porto for a drink. We sat and talked for hours, half in English and half in Italian, and once again it had seemed as if no time had passed. She dropped me back at the house and we made plans to get together again soon. Saturday was the normal night at the club with Carmela and Martino that got me back at the house sometime around four am. Sunday morning I woke up around nine and made my way to Napoli to watch a futbol match. Since we had a big night out, we all slept on the ferry to Naples, then made our way to the train to the stadium. We reached the stadium at 12:15 and much to our disappointment discovered that you cannot buy tickets after twelve. We found a scalper on the street and got tickets from him. We then went and had a pizza before attempting to enter the stadium. The three of us were so excited to go to the game that we for a little bit forgot how tired we were, but the rug was quickly pulled out from under us when we were told by security that the tickets we had paid thirty euros for were fake and we could not enter. Completely deflated and disappointed, we suddenly remembered how tired we were as we made our way back to the train and eventually to the port. The best (or worst) part of all of this was that Carmela’s dad had called to make sure we had purchased tickets, to which she told him yes we had. He had told her before she left to NEVER buy tickets from the street, and since we did we could not tell him that we didn’t go to the game. So, once we were back in Ischia we had to hide out at my house till the time we would’ve been back had we actually made it to the game. To top it off, everyone in the town knew I was going to the game and was so excited for me to get to experience San Paolo Stadium; we had to listen to the game on the radio so we would be able to tell everyone what happened during the match. Luckily we pulled it off and no one was the wiser. Monday was what has become a normal day for me… lunch with Gianni’s family, a nap on the pier, dinner with Gianni’s family, and I finished my night off with a late night walk on the pier.


The moon had just was full two days prior and was still illuminating the sky, the water was calm, and the air was warm. I took off my sandals and sat with my legs dangling over the side of the pier as I stared out to Naples as I had done so many times before. Sitting there I thought about many things, but mainly all I could think about was how happy I was to be sitting there in that exact moment.