Isola Tavolara, etc

Since we left Rome, there has been a veritable dearth of internet connectivity.  So, apologies for lack of posts.  I'll try to make up for it here, in Sicily.

We arrived in  Sardegna last Tuesday, with plans to stay 2 nights.  When we got there, we were all so in-love with it (especially Brian) that we made plans to stay 2 extra nights.  With that in mind, we arranged to join a boat tour around the Tyrrhenian sea and the Islands of Tavolara and Molara.

On Wednesday morning, we got up, had breakfast at the Hotel Don Diego (www.hoteldondiego.com) and hopped into a taxi for Porto San Paolo.  There, we boarded the 'Sir Lawrence' for a truly amazing day.

A beautiful view of Isola Tavolara

Tavolara is a limestone massif, 1 km wide and 5 km long with steep cliffs except at its ends.  The story of "Isola Tavolara" goes like this (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavolara_Island): a couple hundred years ago, Tavolara was ruled by the Bertoleoni family as the kingdom of Tavolara, one of the smallest kingdoms on the planet.  In 1836, King Charles Albert of Sardinia visited the island and acknowledged Giuseppe Bertoleoni as an independent sovereign monarch.  The sovereignty remained in the Bertoleoni family for quite some time, including in 1900 when Queen Victoria of England sent her Royal Photographer to Tavolara to take a portrait of the royal Bertoleoni family for her collection of royal portraits.  While the sovereignty of the Island has finally been lost to simple Italian hegemony, the island is still owned by the Bertoleoni family to extract a hefty tax on local tourists in the form of mediocre restaurant food.

Ale, Brian and Nate swimming in the sea (not a pool...)

Our boat tour took us through the waters between Porto San Paolo and the islands.  We went past an interesting shipwreck and finally stopped near Isola Molara for a swim by those were interested.  Alessia, Brian and Nate all jumped in, swam with fishes and enjoyed a truly unique experience.  Brian let Nate know how lucky he is - Brian was 32 before he first swam in the Mediterranean/Tyrrhenian and Nate is still only 7...

After our fun swimming diversion, our boat motored over to Isola Tavolara and moored at the dock for us all to disembark.  We made lunchtime reservations at the aforementioned restaurant and played in the water.  After a good but relatively uninspiring lunch, we headed for the beach again and played, swam, floated and collected rocks and shells.  With multiple re-applications of sunscreen, we had a great time!

Brian and his boys on the shore of Isola Tavolara

Our boat picked us up at 3:30 for a direct route back to Porto San Paolo.  I think for all of us, this was a once-in-a-lifetime amazing experience!