Aquaducts, Grottos, and Cliff Diving

Today was unreal. The morning went by pretty quickly, I went out on my own for the first time to the bar around the corner for a cappuccino and a pasticciotto. I walked to the panetteria to buy my daily roll of bread, and came back to the apartment before anyone was even awake.

At three we all straggled onto a lovely air-conditioned bus for the hour-long ride to Santa Maria di Leuca, a gorgeous little town on the very tip of the “heel” of Italy. The houses were all white, crowded around a harbor full of brightly painted yachts and fishing boats. When we got off the bus the first thing I noticed was a giant set of stairs up a hill that led to a lookout point on the hill overlooking the bay. Between the two sets of stairs was what looked like a dried-out waterfall, which our director Nella told us was a Roman aquaduct that the town still opens once a year to release a flood of water down to the harbor.

We practically ran up the stairs- until we got to the third flight, when we slowed down to a sweaty trudge with lots of breaks for pictures. When we got to the top the view was breathtaking. Even at 4:30 in the afternoon the sun was high in the sky and the breeze was strong at the top of the hill. We made friends with some Italians because everyone wanted pictures. I’m currently working on a post of most useful Italian phrases and puoi fare un foto di noi is definitely one of them!

When we got down the many flights of stairs, our teacher Paolo was waiting to whisk us off to a lovely little boat in the harbor. We sat on wooden benches and looked out over the waves as the little stereo system played American music that was popular when we were in middle school. We passed many other crowded boats whose passengers waved and cheered from across the water as we went by. I’m hoping they’re all normally friendly to fellow seafarers and weren’t just taking pity on the obvious tourists.

Rounding the edge of the harbor we saw a breathtaking view of the grottos and cliffs along the coastline. The water was electric blue and clear straight down to the bottom. We stopped and anchored the boat just off the shore and jumped straight in! It felt like a very salty swimming pool, and was surprisingly easy to swim in. The salt made us all float like buoys. We propelled ourselves toward the cliff face and then straight through it! The grottos were cool and blue, with vaulted white ceilings covered in salt deposits. It is going to be one of the great disappointments of my life that I couldn’t take pictures of what it was like inside them. There were soft stone floors, smoothed by the waves and covered in carpets of purple and red spongy algae. It was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had, and thank god I have 20 friends who were there with me or I might think it was a dream.

When we had had our fill (as if that’s possible) of the grottos, and those Disney-inclined girls had sang a few choruses of Part of Your World, we headed back out to open water in search of cliffs to climb. Miles, one of the only two boys in the program, is a rock-climber, and he found a spot to clamber up the 20-30 foot crags. A few of us, after seeing him jump fearlessly off, hurried to climb after him. Paolo went first and helped us find footholds. I cut my feet up a little on the sharp rocks, but boy was it worth it. Standing on the edge, alone, looking down into crystal waters with bobbing faces yelling encouragement was a perfect moment- and the stomach plunging drop right after was even better!

The cliff

We swam back to the boat for fuzzy towels, white wine, and rosemary cookies and watched the sun set over the water. When we got back to shore, the bar right across the street from the marina had a huge crowd and some live music. We stopped and after a moment realized that the singer was our teacher Francesca! She was incredible, and we sat amongst the crowd of locals, sipping iced almond espresso and listening to Italian jazz.

 

It was about as close to a perfect day as it could get.