Okay, we had a day of rest yesterday. We just laid around the beach doing nothing. Time to get back on the horse and cover some territory-however this horse is a Honda. Mark told us that the campground we are a part of, "Lacona Campground", rents motor scooters for 30 euro a day. Today, we are going out to see the countryside.
The last time I rode a motorized two wheeled vehicle was before Andy was born, 35 years ago. But, I spend a lot of time on the unmotorized cycle, so I figured the transition should be easy. As a good friend of mine is known to say, "What could possibly go wrong?"
We got up a little earlier than yesterday, about 7:00 am, showered, ate breakfast and walked down the hill to the camping registration window by 8:45 am. It is so nice to be here before the high season. The campground is empty, yet the weather is perfection. It gets down to 65º at night and all the way up to 75º during the day. The water of the Mediterranean is perfect for swimming. There was no one at the campground office. The lady is sweet and patient. It took about 10 minutes to photocopy my drivers license and give me quick instructions on how to operate what looks like a brand new scooter. To be safe, I took a quick run down the block without Sally on the back to be sure I had the hang of things. All systems go. We put our pack with swim suits, iPad, towels and other necessities in the box behind the seat, Sally climbed on between me and box and we were off.
First stop, Napoleon's summer home about 8 miles away, up over a pass. We cruised through the outskirts of Portoferraio, then head to his palace. We had checked their website yesterday to be sure they were open on Mondays, but when we pulled into the empty parking lot we suspected something was up. We parked the scooter and walked up to the driveway that leads 100 yards to the palace. A elderly woman with serious dental decay but a sweet and warm smile told us the palace was "chiuso". We looked up to the palace to see the gates closed and locked. Bummer. We walked up to the palace gates and eyed Napoleon's home. The kind women also told us his winter home, the one that overlooks the sea was open "lunedi e chiuso martedi". Surprisingly, I understood her! Open on Monday and closed Tuesday. We decided to visit his other home across town in Portoferraio.
We returned to the Honda scooter, donned our helmets, Sally climbed on, I inserted the key, applied the left hand brake as instructed, pushed the start button . . . and nothing happened. Hmmmm. We fiddled with it for 5 minutes, to no avail. Mark had warned us that he and Robin had had the same trouble when they rented it a week ago. We tried pulling both breaks, the key in different positions, lights on and off . . . pretty much every combination of switches possible, without success. We were stuck. I texted Mark to ask for any hints he might have. While waiting for his reply, I noticed a little lever sticking up that operated a disc of metal that covers the key hole, I assumed to keep the water out. Maybe that would help. I closed it. When I tried to reverse the closing . . . It would not open. Great. Now I could not even get the key in the ignition! We pushed the scooter over to the gift shop in the parking lot and asked the owner if he could help us. He repeated all the moves we had made, except inserting the key which was impossible now that I had blocked the keyhole with the secondary locking device. Mark responded that he had no ideas but that he could come pick us up if we were unable to figure it out. At least we had a backup.
As I fiddled with the key trying to pry the cover off the key hole I noticed a hexagonal shape in the plastic of the key that matched perfectly the hexagonal hole that covered the keyhole. When I applied it to the hole, voila!, the keyhole cover moved out of the way and we had access to the keyhole again! With the gentleman's help, we inserted the key and repeated all the actions of the first 15 minutes with the same effects; the scooter just sat there. Frustrated I decided to push the scooter to another part of the parking lot. Straddling it, I kicked the kickstand up . . . and a thought popped into my head; could the kickstand being down keep it from starting? We had not tried that. I turned on the key, gripped the left hand brake and pushed the starter button. It came to life!! Wow. Thirty minutes to figure that out. I texted Mark to tell him we were up and running, but the message would not go out. Now I feared he would come for us unnecessarily. We boarded the beast and headed for Napoleon's other home across town, hoping our signal would go out from that location.
I guess we should have been a little scared about driving through Portoferraio, certainly not a major city, but full of Italian drivers. We had learned a bit about their ways from the pedestrian's point of view while in Rome. They don't stop if you look timid. The only way to get across a street is to walk out into the street and make them stop for you, which they will, but as soon as you are past their bumper they zoom by, missing you by inches. We also watched the scooters weaving in and out of traffic with no regard for traffic lights, lines or stop signs.
I applied what I had learned through observation into practice in Portoferraio, although with Sally on the back I was not aggressive at all. This meant we were constantly being passed by cars and motorcycles. The city had one of those radar signs that states what speed you are going along side the road as you pass by with the speed limit of 35 Km/hr posted right below it. I watched cars flit by with the electronic sign reading 75. I registered a 45, not wanting to seems like too much of an out-of-towner.
Sally sat on the back with Google Maps running on the iPhone as I navigated traffic, she yelling out rights and lefts as we followed its directions to Napoleon's villa. We made a few wrong turns which we quickly rectified, but Google thought we could ride our steed up stairs and we soon were in a 4 foot wide alley wiggling through town, unable to find a route to his house up on the hill. After going the wrong way on a one way street, we parked the scooter and walked up those stairs to his villa.
I have read about about 6 books about Napoleon, so getting to his house was a goal and a treat. We have found the island and now found his house wonderful and questioned why he would want to leave, but his ego was too big for such a small place. We paid our 5 euros each and toured the house and the grounds before returning to the scooter and continuing our ride across the island.
Mark had suggested we ride to the southwest side of the island due to its beautiful coastline and to visit Marina di Campo for a quaint Italian seaside town. We found Mark's recommendations were spot on. We had lunch at a restaurant in Marina di Campo and enjoyed the small town. From there we headed out on the southwest coast, the road right above the water with small towns tucked into the coves between the points. We stopped at one particularly picturesque town, Cavoli. To get down to the beach you must wait for the uphill traffic to come past as the road is only one lane wide. A stop light at both ends controls the flow, and the Italians respect the light.
We continued down the road another 5 miles, then made a U-turn to head for home, but first we stopped at Cavoli beach and had a swim. It was fun to swim in the warm Mediterranean waters and enjoy this small, but popular beach. Again, it was nearly vacant, but photos on the snack shop wall showed the beach covered shoulder to shoulder with thousands of bathers during a special weekend.
After our swim, we motored back along the coast, through Marina di Campo and up over the ridge into Lacona where our campground is. We had hoped to fill the scooter with gas, but found the closest gas station was in Portoferraio. I dropped Sally at the campground, then soloed it up over the mountain and down into Portoferraio. It took a while to find a gas station, and in my weaving around town looking for one I began to worry I could find my way home, especially because my iPhone was down to 2% battery.
I found an Exxon station and the attendant filled me up, 1.5 liters and $2.50, for an entire day of riding. I stopped at "Conrad's Supermercato" and found Pepsi for Sally and green beans. With my prizes stored under the seat of the scooter, I motored back to the campground and turned in the scooter.
Back at camp I found Sally reclining in the community tent, talking with Mark and Robin. We had a dinner of fried potatoes and onions, green beans and an apple, then talked with Mark, Robin, Ester and Katarina until 9:00 pm when we crawled into our cots and called it a day. That was a great day!!
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