Tremiti Islands

Introduction

Hello Hivers,
today I want to talk to you about the second part of my travel with my teammates of RAJAX.
In case you have missed my previous post, here is a link:

On vacation with my football team - part 1 ⚽️

Landing on the island

After the night spent in Termoli, we took a ferry boat and from the harbor we headed towards the Tremiti Islands.

The Isole Tremiti (in Italian), also known as "Isole Diomedee" are an archipelago in the Adriatic Sea, positioned north with respect to the Gargano Peninsula. The archipelago is composed of 5 islands:

• San Domino,
• San Nicola,
• Capraia,
• Cretaccio, and
• Pianosa.

The origin of the name is still uncertain and there are different theories that try to give an explanation. Among them, the one that I like the most is the one that relates the name to the seismic hazard of the area, which has a long history of earthquakes (from Latin "tremor" which means "tremor").

We actually didn't experience any shaking during our stay on the islands, but maybe we were just lucky 😂.

The view while approaching land was mesmerizing.

And also from the island itself it isn't bad at all.

Is this Zou???

A thing that really left me impressed and I remember still now, was this rocky conformation that as you can see in the picture below, which resembles a lot an elephant.

This is something really peculiar by itself. But to me it was even more peculiar, because I am a huge fan of One Piece (the manga by Eichiro Oda) and if you are too, you should know that there is a famous country in the anime which is called Zou, that has the also the shape of an elephant, even though it is way bigger than this one.

The reason why Tremiti islands are so beautiful

We were going to Zou... pardon to this rock conformation with a boat and when we entered inside of it, "my god", the view inside was amazing. The color of the water was really beautiful.
Here I must make a comment. As you may know from my previous posts, I live in Ravenna, which is a city by the sea in Emilia Romagna. And I really love to live there, during summer it is really funny because there are a lot of things you can do. The "Riviera Romagnola" (which is the sea side of the region) is really peculiar with respect to the other region of Italy, since there is the concept of the beach as a touristic attraction. There are a lot of activities that you can do while being at the sea, and everything is organized by the owner of that space. So there are fields with nets where you can play beach volley, beach soccer, beach tennis and so on.
And this is the main reason why I like our sea. On the contrary the water is really ugly, dirty and full of algae.
On the contrary, the sea in the Tremiti Island really seamed like paradise.

This area of Italy, i.e. the Gargano Peninsula, is rally amazing. I have also been recently to Vieste and Peschici and I will make also a post on that trip, because these places were really marvelous.

Padre Pio, where are you?

We were moving through the various islands with the boat, when our touristic guide stopped and told us to look at the statue of Padre Pio ( an Italian Franciscan Capuchin now venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church). The problem was that we were in the middle of the sea, and there was no sign anywhere of a statue.
So I asked him where the statue was, and to my great surprise he pointed at the sea.

It was really difficult to take a picture from the boat, and I am sorry if it is not so clear, but that gray spot in the photo is actually the statue of the saint. The statue is truly impressive and evocative: about 3 meters high, weighing 12.25 quintals of bronze, plus 110 quintals of base, with open arms, and the gaze turned towards the sky, as if to invite swimmers to join it for a fleeting greeting. It is positioned 13 meters underwater (and this is why it was so difficult to take a photo).

Pirates or Fishermans?

An other really interesting story our guide told us, was about the San Nicola island, and in particular about it's Abbey.
Here, in the year 1321, a pirate fleet arrived on the Island from Croatia. Two pirates went directly to the Abbey, and acting as Fishermans, they started crying in front of the father superior, telling him that one of their friend died during the crossing and they needed help to bury him.
The father was moved by pity and decided to help those poor men, so he sent some of his priests with them to collect the coffin and bury that poor soul.
The priest helped the pirates to bring the body from the ship to the abbey (and I must say that this must have been quite tiresome for them, since there are a lot of stairs). When they arrived, the pirate who was only faking to be dead, got up on his feet and together with his other two accomplices, killed all the poor priests. They then entered the Abbey and they plundered everything that was inside as every good pirate does.
Now I don't want to to be too nerd, but pirates plus an island with the shape of an elephant, maybe the treasure they stole was the one piece 😂.

The Island of San Nicola is really beautiful, it was the last that we visited and we took our time to enjoy it at maximum.

The view was really great.

Here a photo of me scanning the horizon. I don't know if I was suggested by the story of the pirates (or by one piece) but while I was on the island it really felt like being in a lair of pirates.

Here a picture of me taking a photo of one of my friends, who is taking a photo of another friend who is taking photo through a slot in the wall overlooking the sea... 😅

Here the same view but without my friends in the middle. Probably better in this way 😂.

Conclusion

This was a really funny vacation, both because the places we visited were really beautiful and also because I was in great company. I believe that life is always better when shared with others. We always enjoy things more when we can share our emotions with others, when we look at something funny we laugh a lot more if there is someone with us.
Unfortunately our society is going more and more in the opposite direction and with the advent of social media we are more and more becoming antisocial, probably because we are not able anymore to face our insecurities and facing life through a smartphone or a pc is easier.
But I would like, through my experiences, to show that life is really funny, there are a lot of thing to do, a lot of things to see, a lot of people to know and especially a lot of food to try 😋.
I love writing and reading of HIVE because it is an amazing way to share experiences and to see that life is better lived for real than through a screen.

If you enjoyed the post, please leave an upvote and/or a comment and feel free to follow me (at the link below) if you want to see my next post about speleology/climbing/skydiving and all the places that I have visited.

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