Day 136: Gaeta, Italy

Monday, 22 May 2017
At Sea — Tyrrhenian Sea … En Route to Civitavecchia

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:00p (CEST) … UTC 7:00p (22 May)
Temp: 68F (20C)
Position: 41.09.15N / 13.09.76E

We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand ‒ and melting like a snowflake.
~ Marie B. Ray ~

Sunshine and blue skies greeted our mid-morning arrival in Gaeta, Italy … the last port before this segment draws to a close, leaving us with just two more before our RTW voyage ends.  Sigh … time is flying.

Gaeta sits between Rome and Naples.  It’s location high on a promontory made for a scenic approach and provided an opportunity for photos of some of the places we hoped to visit today.  The city looked charming from a distance … inviting us for a meander of the streets of old town.  But that wasn’t what was on our agenda today — at least not until later in the day … and by that time old town was all but dead.  Perhaps we should have switched our plans and hiked in the afternoon.  But we wanted to take advantage of the cooler morning temps for the hike … one that Peter, Insignia’s destination lecturer, described as a “two-dessert hike” … one that looked quite daunting from where we stood watching the tree-clad mountain as Insignia made its way to the berth it was assigned to at the commercial port outside the city.

The hike we plan to do will take us to the top of the green-clad Monte Orlando.

Starting the day’s story from the beginning.

Shortly after 10:00a the ship was cleared.  The information we had said the city center was a 10-minute walk from the port, but we wanted to save our walking for the Regional Park of Monte Orlando.  So, when we got off the ship, we went through the small tent that served as the tourist information kiosk, picked up a map, and hopped on the complimentary shuttle that would be running throughout the day.  We expected the shuttle drop off to be in the old city.  That wasn’t the case.  The stop was near the post office in the newer part of the city.  That actually worked out better for us as the road leading to the trail up Monte Orlando was on that side of the mountain.

Soon we were walking towards the trail, Sonia and Boris and another couple from the ship tagging along at their own pace.  When we came to some steps that looked like they were heading in the right direction, we took them … only to find that they dead-ended in a parking lot that looked like it also served as an RV campground.  Walking through the lot, we connected to another road — Strada della Trinita [Trinity Road] — and started hiking up.  There was no sidewalk, but luckily traffic was minimal.  What the road did have in some spots was scenery … in spades.

The overlook we eventually reached gave us an expansive view of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the beach … behind it all, the cityscape of Gaeta was spread out, with Insignia visible in the distance on the other side of the isthmus.  The white sand expanse of Spiaggia di Serapo [Serapo Beach], with row-after-empty-row of sun loungers, was waiting to receive beachgoers.  Only a few courageous people were braving the cold water on a cool morning … a few others were sunning themselves.  The beach actually looked quite inviting for a moment or two, but we decided to stick with our plans to hike today.

Spiaggia di Serapo is ready for beachgoers, but only a few people are
taking advantage of the sunny day to catch some rays and take a dip.

Way off in the distance Insignia is docked at the commercial port.

The road dead-ended at the Santuario della SS Trinita [Sanctuary of the Holy Trinity] … also known as the Santuario della Montagna Spaccata [Sanctuary of the Split Mountain].  It was built by the Benedictine monks in the 11th century, and it owes its present appearance to restorations done in the 19th century.  There’s apparently a Way of the Cross here with tiled panels, but if the entry was open today, we missed it.  We went inside the church for a few minutes though.

The Sanctuary of the Holy Trinity awaits us just beyond the gate.

Near the church was the entrance to the place we were looking for — Grotto del Turco [Cave of the Turk] … free admission; donations welcome … but seemed more or less mandatory considering the way the entrance is set up.  Mui emptied his pockets of the change he had and we went inside.  We planned to walk down the stairs to the grotto, but it was not possible.  The gate to the stairs was locked, a sign stating visitors were allowed only as far as the overlook.  At least we got a decent enough look at the grotto.

I did a little research to figure out the source of the grotto’s name.  Legend has it that the split in the mountain happened at the moment Jesus died on the cross.  When the Saracens were overrunning Europe, a Turkish pirate apparently expressed his disbelief that the split in the rock was associated with the death of Jesus.  He touched the rock and said, “If this is true, let this rock become liquid.”  As he spoke, the rock liquefied and gave way to an imprint of his hand.  An imprint that is said to still be on the rock.  Is it really?  Can’t say one way or the other since we did not get down to the grotto to see it.

Left: Our view of the Grotto from the overlook.
Right: Visitors were once allowed down the steps to the grotto.  But that’s no more.

From here we separated from the others who had hiked to this point with us.  They planned to head down; we planned to head up.  The hike up wasn’t necessarily a difficult one, but it was steep.  We had plenty of time though, so we were able to pace ourselves.  The overhead canopy of the trees provided welcome shade as the temperature and humidity rose even as we went higher.  We stopped to check out the scenery from a few overlooks, but for the most part we walked through some old-growth forest until we reached the stairs heading up to the Mausoleum of Planco.

The circular mausoleum has four rooms inside.  A perimeter hallway allows visitors to make a 360° circuit of the building.  In various spots, there are signs for those interested in learning more about Planco … more formally, Lucius Munatius Plancus.  I’ll admit I didn’t read all of the available information, but the gist seems to be that he lived between 87-15BC; came from a rich family; had a brilliant military and political career; served as a Roman senator, consul, and censor; and managed to survive through dangerous times by shifting his allegiances.  A small number of archaeological artifacts found around Gaeta are on display in some of the rooms.  There really wasn’t much of interest here for us.  In fact, our hike turned out to be more for exercise than it was for sightseeing.

At the tippy-top of Monte Orlando is a mausoleum with a statue of Planco inside.

Getting down Monte Orlando was easier said than done.  Yes there were trails to follow, but the signage for directions left a lot to be desired.  And once we lost our bearings it was difficult to get them straight again.  As we were trying to figure things out, we got a text from Sonia with the name of a pizzeria they had found for lunch.  So down we hoofed it, hoping we’d end up relatively close to the address she gave us.

The trail through the forest eventually gave way to the road we had taken going up.  Somehow, though, we meandered onto a side road that looked unfamiliar.  Our only indication that we were heading into the city was the downward slope of the road.  We passed the cathedral, which was closed by this time, and kept going.  When we finally got off the mountain, we found ourselves just a short walk away from the address Sonia had texted for Genera Pizzeria.  Lucky break.  The pizza wasn’t the best, but it served to quell the hunger pangs after our morning of hiking.

Genera Pizzeria is beyond the arch and past the Church of the Annunciation.

After lunch, splitting up from our companions, Mui and I walked into the Old Town.  We expected to find it hopping, but it was quite dead.  There was hardly anyone around.  A lot of the shops and restaurants were closed.  We found one gelateria, but decided to look for another one where we could sit outside and enjoy a sweet treat.  Big mistake … we did not find another place.  Why was the place so dead?  Maybe because the beach season hasn’t quite started.  Or maybe because we hit it during siesta time.  I really have no idea.  Regardless, the few places that we were told would be open until mid-day were already closed by the time we made it into that part of the city.  So we didn’t dally long.  Walking back to the shuttle stop, we hopped on the next bus to the ship.  It was about 3:00p when we got off at the port — still four hours to go before sailaway.  But we had no energy left to do anything but walk over to the frutteria [greengrocer] we’d spotted just outside the port to pick up some apples.

Perched high on a hill, the Church of St Francis overlooks Old Town Gaeta.

The veranda was in the shade when we re-embarked Insignia, so I got to enjoy some solitude out there until dinner time.  After a quickie meal at the Terrace Café, I hurried back to the veranda to take some shots of the coastline and the city before settling back down to read for a while.

Old Town Gaeta from our veranda.

Tomorrow we begin a new segment … one that has very, very few days at sea and a very, very long run of two weeks of non-stop port calls.  We’re going to be exhausted by the time we start to cross the Atlantic Ocean … I’ll put money on that.

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