In the Warm Arms of Poseidon

In a sheltered bay on the other side of the island sprawls the Poseidon Spa. On our second touring day, after lunch, we packed our beach towels, bathing costumes and shower caps and rode a couple of different buses to this marvelous spot. As you can see in the second photo above, there is a private sandy beach with deckchairs (and shelters, if needed). The rest of the spa is spread out along the cove and up the hill from the beach. There are pools, a Roman sauna, myriad areas for just taking it easy on deckchairs, a restaurant, a snack bar, changing rooms and toilets, and at extra cost, facilities for various types of professional massages, inhalation therapies, and mud facials. The resort also includes the cliffs above. There are flowers and tropical plants everywhere and the landscaping as well as the layout of the place, attention to detail, and so forth, is most impressive.

We headed for the pools. There are 20 of them (including one large indoor one), all filled with beneficial mineral water mixed with salt water and all at varying temperatures, from the icy plunge pools at 15 degrees F to the hot 104-degree pool and many in between. We started out in an 80-degree pool. I must admit that I felt silly walking aorund in a shower cap but everyone--even David!--had to wear some sort of cap to keep hair out of the filtration system. After a while, you just forgot about how silly you might look.

Once you eased yourself into the warm water and found an "aim-able" underwater jet for a self-massage of whatever achy joint you wished to soothe, you could care less what anybody looked like. Don soothed a knee, David eased his neck and upper back and I aimed a jet at my hip. As David said, the best thing about this sort of massage is that it never gets tired.

After about half an hour in this pool, we each tried out one of the several "Thrones of Poseidon" which were stone "thrones" built into a wall. You sit down with your arms on the arm rests and your feet in a shallow but warm pool while a cascade of hot water falls onto your head and shoulders. If we had any tension left after the first pool, it was gone within 5 minutes. The only drawback is the awful racket the water makes falling on the shower cap!

From here, we dried off, found deckchairs--in the shade for me and sun for the fellows--and spent quite a bit of time just reading, relaxing or just drifting. From time to time we would, individually, get up and wander about, trying out various other pools. There was one that was 84 degrees that had a couple of spouts from which water cascaded down into the pool (see photo below). You could maneuver yourself under one of these to get a head and neck massage which was even stronger than the one in Poseidon's Thrones.

When we weren't in one pool or another, we spent the entire afternoon just doing our own thing, sometimes sleeping, sometimes just wandering around to explore, and sometimes reading. When it was time to go, we went to the snack bar/gelatoria for delicious ice cream before walking up the hill to catch the first bus in our return journey.

After riding the two buses home, we were completely enervated and had to take a nap to get over our afternoon of relaxation! When we got into our room, Don said that when we had started out for our trip to Poseidon, he really couldn't imagine what all the fuss was about, but he went along on David's recommendation. Now, though, he was completely sold and felt he hadn't relaxed so thoroughly and utterly in an age. He considers this particular afternoon one of the high spots of the week!

That night Gianfranco prepared fresh anchovies which David had earlier beheaded and gutted. These little darlings (about 5 inches long) were rolled in flour, fried, sprinkled with salt and served with freshly cut Ischia lemons from GF's garden. They were absolutely delicious, so much so that we ate them bones, tails, and all! This was followed by pasta with fresh zucchini and cheese. Also on offer was roasted sweet peppers which David had made, salad, crusty bread, and wine--of course.