From Giglio to Porto Santo Stefano

Being my last morning at the wonderful Hotel Saraceno, I decided to have my breakfast outside on their terrace. When I returned inside to get a drink, a large seagull swooped through and helped itself to my bowl of fruit and yoghurt. This caused much hilarity and was a great conversation starter for me in Italian!
An Italian woman asked if she could join me (she left her husband alone at another table!) and she was so curious about my travels - it was a lovely conversation in the sunshine over coffee.
When I returned to my room I noticed they had opened the access path, across the large boulders directly down to the ocean for the first time (it is closed when it's at all windy). With 10 min before check out, I decided to be super brave and give it a go....I can be quite the nervy ocean swimmer. It was a very cold and quick dip but I was so pleased that I did it.
I felt sad leaving this gorgeous paradise but was so happy to know I will be returning in 4 weeks.
I was welcomed at the Airbnb by the lovely Antonella and the apartment is just perfect with another incredible view.
Verena arrived shortly after and we squealed like excited children about this incredible opportunity we've created 🙏 We did manage to lock ourselves out as we unpacked her luggage but we were rescued by a lovely neighbour within 5 minutes.
After enjoying prosecco and the view from our terrace, we set off for dinner quite late (not by Italian standards) but every restaurant was fully book due to their holiday long weekend.
We eventually had success with takeaway pizza and beers and we sat down by the port on a bench - not the fancy restaurant meal we set out to have but it was perfect!Read more