214. Tale of Two Beach Towns

I’m a sucker for salt water.

Having grown up close enough to the Atlantic to have the air smell briney when the wind blew a certain way, I am always going to seek out a salt-water destination if the opportunity arises, even a slightly cheesy one like the Jersey Shore.

My all-time favorite, of course, is Gaeta, where my father grew up, and to which I return time and time again.

Gaeta’s Serapo Beach is set up in typical Italian format, with private beach club chairs and umbrellas. After nearly a century, the Simeones have made it up to the first row of their section.

But on this trip, I was eager to check out two other world-famous resort towns on the Tyrrhenian Sea, Ischia and Tropea.

Ischia, an island about an hour’s ferry ride from Naples and part of its metropolitan area, is sometimes referred to us the poor man’s Capri; that island, famous for jet-setters, is less than 20 miles away.

Since we were there a bit pre-season, it was a little too chilly to use the beaches, but perfect for dining al fresco on the water, and for hiking. We hopped on a bus to the tiny town of Fontana, and from there, hiked a couple of miles, most them up, to the top of Monte Epomeo and its spectacular view.

If there is one image that is ubiquitous here, it would be the lemon, which grows profusely and is stamped on every possible thing one might buy.

An icy glass of limoncello is a frequent coda to dinner on Ischia. It might look like a confection, but it’s potent. We have family lore about Ben totaling a rental car in a lime tree grove in Sperlonga after one glass, but I’ll save that for another time.

But if you really want to see a town organized around a particular food, go to Tropea.

When I saw Stanley Tucci’s Calabria episode on his series Searching for Italy, featuring Tropea and its onions that could only be found in that one town, I felt that surely he was exaggerating. But it turns out, he was exactly right: if you drive ten miles in either direction, forget it, they’re nowhere to be found.

Supposedly sweet enough to eat like an apple, they are sold in bunches at every commercial enterprise, and included in local pasta and pizza specialties, sandwich spreads, pesto, and jams.

Fileja homemade pasta with Tropea onions

Beyond its famous onions, however, it’s a beautiful little town on the top of a cliff, with an ancient, historic centro. Just to get back up to town from sea level after my morning run, my watch registered nineteen flights of stairs.