Day Trip to Island of Procida

Procida is a little Island about 30 minutes by hydrofoil from Ischia. It’s one of Italy’s best kept secrets: the houses are simple and coloured in soft pastel tones, fishermen’s boats dot the harbours, the people are friendly and either work as fishermen or for the tourist industry. It’s rural Italy at its best, especially in the locations of Corricella and Porto. It’s original, unspoiled, charming. It may be off the beaten path, but, at the same time, it’s been to everyone’s home, or nearly so. Why? Well, it’s all to do with a movie, an Italian movie: oscar-winning il Postino (the postman, from the book of Pablo Neruda), with the late great Italian actor Massimo Troisi. To visit the island you can either take a bus or, even better, hire one of those funny-looking 3-wheeled vehicle taxis (called “ape” -bee- in Italy) to go around the island. Most roads are very narrow, and buses can’t go there. Needless to say, you can get the best views from remote places. There are only a handful of villages on the island, so you can visit them all easily on a day tour. Another place where they can take you and buses don’t go to, is the little island of Capo Miseno. A bridge links it to the main island. It’s deserted and it’s a natural reserve: a great place to go for beautiful walks Procida is very famous for its lemons… so it’s also the best place to buy a typical southern-Italian lemon flavoured liqueir: limoncello (sometimes also called limoncino). It’s delicious and it’s also meant to be served very cold: normally the bottle and its shot glasses are places in the freezer for a few minutes before serving.