D41 Italy - Mount Epomeo

Anthony had been dropping breadcrumbs towards this hike in Ischia for a week or so, so of course it was to be! Mount Epomeo stands tall and proud as Ischia’s tallest peak, which protrudes downwards to each corner of the coastline, and subsequently can be see from almost every port on the island. Due to the active volcanic history of Ischia, and the fact that the island has emerged from the sea surrounding, the mountain itself has many mineral characteristics. This meaning that once you reach the peak of 789m above sea level, the ground you stand on doesn’t exactly give you much comfort or reassurance of safety. Tuff as it is called, is a lightweight and porous rock formed from the consolidation of volcanic ash over time.

When planning our hike, Ant managed to find a hike up to the top but from our side of the island, rather than the recommendation and well trodden path on the southern side of the island (starting from a small town called Fontana). So when we left at 7.30am to beat the heat, we had a reasonable map on which to base our adventure.

Readers, we will now leave you to conjure up your own images of two young travellers hiking up a steep hill of brambles, being attacked by flies and other insects, and running away from potential insect fumigation in a vineyard.

Ok, I’m going to take over at this point and say it wasn’t THAT bad... it’s just that the research that I’d done was the best it could be, but it turns out that:
1 - the trails aren’t regularly maintained, an neither are maps or the trails.
2 - it’s the end of summer so the trails are seriously overgrown, but at least covered in delicious fruit - blackberries
3 - Italians would prefer to lounge on the beach, than tackle a peak from sea level.

Needless to say, once we had been successfully escorted by a delightful little dog through a very lush terraced vineyard with stone walls and steel balustrades, with plump fruit hanging from the vines panted blue from copper fungicide, we found the trail upwards. Unfortunately after five steps in, the dog staying put (I think it must escort many tourists to this point, following dubious google map instructions found on random blogs), and the blackberries and wired flying insects slowly covering the surface area of our bodies, one look at each other said that we had gone as far as one can go.

We retraced our steps back to the main road, and in 45 minutes we were on a bus to Fontana, in the foothills of Epomeo on the southern end of the island. The ride alone continued to be somewhat torturous, as the blood and sweat mixture stang our shins caused by the blackberries gashes, we navigated the Italian holidaymaker crowds, which included :
- People standing on seats, counterproductively trying to get cooler air.
- Many Italians screaming passionately at each other as they navigated entry and exit to the bus.
- Poor little Nonnas getting trapped behind the door as it opened and shut.

We reached Fontana, followed the signs up Via Epomeo and arrived at the summit an hour later. We took our victorious photos on top of the white tufa summit, then celebrated with a beer, iced tea and one of the most incredible bruschetta we’ve had so far - ripe plump tomatoes, garlicky, finely chopped onions on chunky flame toasted sourdough.

Descending past overweight and unprepared Italians slipping on the dusty trail, we were occasionally startled by the scamper of lizards darting for cover beneath our feet. We passed abandoned holes bored into the soft rock, creating eerie black caves, presumably deep into the mountain. A quick google yielded not a great deal of facts about these caves (most of which are barricaded up or too creepy to enter), but I did find some fascinating fiction (or perhaps not?!) for those interested in knowing what Antarctica, Ischia and Aliens all have in common. I’ll leave the rest to you:
http://www.naplesldm.com/agarthi.php

During the afternoon, we headed back to Spiaggia di San Montano where there were some fun little waves pumping. We both enjoyed the hilarity of watching Italians getting nervous as the waves rolled in, riding along on their inflatable K-mart style air mattresses, before getting dumped. The beach is connected to Negumbo thermal springs (private resort), so people in the free area of course were rubbing rocks furiously together to make their own mud, which they paraded around the beach covered in.

As we were leaving the next day, Kate used up our left overs in a quick panzanella as an appetiser. Dinner wasn’t bad either - a lemon zesty cream pasta for me, and Kate had swordfish. The meal was capped off by a light and fluffy cheesecake with pistachio cream, pistachio gel, pistachio crumb and pistachio crunchy bits. There was a lot of pistachio, and my goodness was it tasty - there’s one for the ‘going to try this at home’ list!Read more