Thanks for a great report! Loved and waited (and sometimes waited too long 
) for the next installment. Really appreciate the time you take to help us live vicariously.
With your love of sculpture, I assume you have done the Borghese gallery at some point in your travels? Even Neanderthal me was amazed with the Berninis.
the orchid-like flowers are cyclamen, most likely herifofolium napolitanum which blooms in fall. I dont see the leaves in your pic but they are beautifully patterned when they come. Various cyclamens are endemic all over the mediterranean area. Here’s another one, cyclamen confusum, which is blooming in Crete right now . Sorry, I coulnt resist! You are lucky to have seen this gem. Did you make it all the way up to Ravello? (I have walked down, and around but not up that mountain!
You took a much better picture! Cyclamen are a nice accent to the trail!
I did not make it up to Ravello, I think I had Atrani on my left down below the cliff. Maybe the south side of Ravello but I do not think so. I cannot see the scenic twin domes in my photo of the area to the east of the cliff.
Amalfi was definitely to my right.
I failed to post my usual animal photo, so here is a gratuitous shot of a very dignified cat.
It is hard to take a bad photo of a cat.
Two more gorgeous shots!
Erica, I just re-read this post of yours and realized that I had not replied about it:
" I wonder if you even got to Da Peppino di Renato? I have such wonderful memories of that restaurant, even with that steep uphill trek with the barking dogs in the dark of night… "
The building still has the wooden da Peppino sign on the front of it, but everything else is gone from the outside.
I did try to visit da Peppino di Renato but they were still closed and the outside of the place is bare, no furniture at all. I was convinced that it was going to be open because it had a relatively new sign on the main road.
It looked like a restaurant worth visiting when Renato was alive. Sad to hear of his passing.
I did not want you to think that ignored your request!
Ziv I got heaps of pleasure from reading your report, which kindled a desire to return to Ischia!!! The Renato sign looks very new; I remember no sign at all, but as I mentioned, that steep, very dark uphill trek with the dogs barking!
Now, a couple of decades later, I would investigate more and even rented a car for a few days, or taken a taxi to the restaurant…that offers a clue about how our physical capabilities have declined as our finances increased since we were last on the island! But Ischia appears, to me anyway, to have developed in a good way, with more restaurants waiting to be discovered but still not inundated by foreign tourists like us! When you get older, that saying about having the money but not the time (in reverse, for some of us) surely comes into play… Even a decade ago, future travel possibilities seemed without limit…today the question has become "How many more independent trips will we be able to take before something "conks"out!??)
I’ve got Madrid, Cuenca and Denia on the calendar for next month…Puglia return in May/June…much of that trip a return to places we loved on earlier visits.
As much a I long to take three weeks devoted to Sardinia, I wonder if that will ever come to pass…
And your fantastic writing, enhanced by photos, about Ischia, as I wrote, has moved that island to the forefront on the travel front!!!
From the (very little) I’ve gleaned about you and your enthusiasm and your willingness to use public transport. I wonder if you might look into the Gargano promontory of NE Puglia for sometime in the future. You sound like a person, like me, who gets pleasure just from reading and researching about various areas…it’s fun, even if the trip never comes to pass!!!
Very best regards, erica
