A Yacht Charter in Italy
As you journey down the coast of Italy on a yacht during the long days of summer, the Mediterranean light gets into your soul. It stays there forever, like the memories in a dream: images of sun-soaked villages and piazzas, of the happy screams of kids jumping off the yacht into a deep blue sea. It’s not just the sunshine that warms the rocks and the citrus groves, and slowly turns your skin a soft golden brown. Or the pretty fishing harbours along the Ligurian Coast, with the coloured boats pulled up and their nets with baubles stretched out drying on the cobbles.
It’s not just that sapphire lagoon in Sardinia, where you snorkelled among giant granite boulders, or the afternoon in the thermal springs on the cliffs of Ischia, explosions of pink bougainvillea clambering down to the glittering sea. It’s not just the medieval fortresses on distant hills, the spires and pensive bridges of Venice or the eerie catacombs under the city of Palermo. It’s not even the fresh-caught sea bass baking over hot coals on secluded moonlit cove, white tablecloths set up on the sand by the yacht’s crew, lanterns burning all around.
It’s the weight of history that has soaked into this land that you’ll remember, the ancient civilisations that have crumbled into the dust. It’s the deep red tomatoes that taste like they did when you were young- grown on vines under the sun and ripe to almost bursting, crushed onto crunchy bruschetta with fresh basil and olive oil. It’s the sound of church bells carrying across the water on a Sunday morning, and gossiping Italian matrons dressed in mourning black.
When your Italian yacht charter is over you will remember many things. Perhaps you’ll remember being anchored in a crystal clear bay surrounded by deep pine forest, afternoon breeze picking up off the water and fluttering the pages of your book where you lie on a deckchair, champagne fizzing softly. Or dressing up for a party on the sundeck, watching Stromboli volcano glowing red in the night, the boulders tumbling down from the crater into the sea with a splash of white in the darkness. You’ll remember sitting in the Jacuzzi under the stars as the yacht carves a white fizzing path through the dark sea, Café del Mar drifting softly from the speakers.
You’ll never forget the day you visited the famous Blue Grotto in Capri, where sunlight streams onto a captured lake and turns the cave walls into a glimmering light show of ethereal blues.You’ll certainly remember a nightclub in a sea cave in Sardinia, dancing on a glass floor with the beautiful people and watching the waves crash and swirl beneath your feet. Or shopping in the glamorous boutiques of Positano, and that late afternoon walk along a coastal path lined with wildflowers.
There’s something extraordinarily special about chartering a yacht-no matter where you do it – but a yacht charter in Italy is a journey through a timeless land, where vengeful gods and emperors once ruled and the past is everywhere you look. Will you remember your yacht charter in Italy? Of course you will. The light got into your soul.
This article first appeared on Oceanscape Yachts.
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Image credit: Freesurf via Adobe Stock
