Life in Gaeta

We initially thought that our time in Gaeta would be filler, between our two cruising seasons and various land trips planned, but we may all remember our time in the marina there as the single best segment of our year.  Most days we’d start school at 8:30 and go until about 1:00 p.m., although more often than not, the school day was dotted with regular interruptions so that we could get stuff done before the daily riposa.  Who said the siesta is a dying ritual? Everything in Gaeta closes down from at least 1:00 until 4:30, and sometimes longer.   We never quite became accustomed to this lengthy riposa and were told by some American friends who have spent years in Gaeta that one never does.  So frequently we found ourselves racing out at 12:50 to buy bread and fruit before everything shut down.  We’d regularly have to make phone calls during school to find the repair-person before he/she checked out for riposa. On top of these interruptions, each day that didn’t begin with rain, we’d rush out between math and science and again between science and writing to hang out to dry the small loads of laundry that had just finished. We quickly learned that whatever didn’t get hung out by lunchtime would need to be re-hung the following day.  Wednesday morning school would often be interrupted by a quick trip to the weekly open-air market, which also shut down at 1:00.  When the kids came along and did the shopping, we’d call this Italian, and consider it all part of the school day. 

All this is to say that between school and these simple tasks, mornings were pretty full, but they were not rushed. We’d all have our favorite tasks – Deb loved the market and, for some reason, stringing the laundry out (unless it was very cold). Steve often got stuck making the fix-it phone calls and doing the constant minor repairs. Sometimes we surprised ourselves by how traditionally we divided the labor, but mostly we marveled at how much we each enjoyed doing these simple tasks and not having to hurry through them. Although this often made for fragmented schooldays, we all became accustomed to the rhythm.

At 1:30 or so, we’d break for lunch together.  For Deb, stopping to eat lunch was itself a novel thing and often she would convince Steve and sometimes the boys to go for a run before eating. Either way, lunch was usually a nice time where we’d plan out the rest of day. As often as not, Sarah’s friend Charlotte was on board or waiting in the wings for Sarah to come out to play. Charlotte had a shorter school day, and since learning English was the main objective of her schooling for the year, playing with Sarah became an integral part of her learning.  They also became very close friends, and it touched us all deeply to watch them say goodbye when we left, but that’s another story.

Before our Norwegian friends left in early March, most or all of the 8 the kids in the marina would often bicycle to the beach for a game of beach football (soccer) and sometimes wiffle ball. (When we arrived in Gaeta, we bought five used bicycles, which served as our primary mode of transportation all winter.)  Once the kids on the Norwegian boat (Andreas 14, Annette 10) set sail, trips to the beach became less frequent, though sometimes the boys and Martijn (10) from the Dutch boat would head over and create a game appropriate for three.  That is, they would until Danny broke his toe shortly before our departure when his kick was blocked by Martijn’s shin.  The kids also participated in activities within the Italian community and through the American Navy Base. All three kids played in the Navy’s basketball league, Sarah joined a Brownie troop, and the boys played hoops regularly up at the Navy community center with some friends they had made. In addition, both boys played basketball in Italian kid’s league, though their interest began to fade when they learned they were not eligible to play in the games. That, and the language barrier (their Italian took them only so far) and our frequent travel away from Gaeta, led their participation to lessen as the winter went on.  Adam stuck with it longer, and while they were at it they always - even in the rain - biked to their activities.  Early in the year we usually cycled to the venues with them, but the boys quickly became independent and were able to ride themselves wherever they needed to go on their own. As we look back on Gaeta, we think the smallness and the safety of the town contributed greatly to our experience there. The kids’ sense of confidence and independence grew immensely over these months.

Riposa would end by 4:30, though we were typically involved in a project, a kid activity, or returning from a run around then. So around 5:30 or so, one of us would wander across the street to run errands, market for dinner, or do a bigger shop. Unless dinner was pizza from our local favorite – Pizzaria Rustica – marketing for dinner involved three or four stops – the pasta shop or butcher, fruit and vegetables, pannificio for bread, and the cheese shop for our nearly nightly fix of mozzarella de buffalo. The kids never stopped wondering why the food, even cooked by mom, always tasted so good and fresh.

Dinner prep often became a family affair, or at least one of us and the child on cooking duty for that week.  All of us by 7:00 or so were back together in the galley/salon, cooking, listening to the radio, sipping our favorite local vino rosso ($2.25/bottle), and talking about the day. Lest this sound all too blissful, the “talking” frequently degenerated into arguing or shouting, particularly if dinner was delayed and kids had become hungry and cranky.  Sometimes this period of dinner prep was indeed wonderful (Deb’s favorite part of the day) and sometimes, well, you can imagine.

After dinner clean-up, by now 9 or so, we’d check email, play cards, look at maps, and/or go to bed.  It always got too late, but we never could figure out where the time went. With no TV on board, there was never any debate about what to do before bed, it was just a matter of which book and how much they were enjoying their current reads. While Danny was an avid reader before the trip, Adam has become one, and Sarah is now starting to read for fun.

Because we spent a good amount of the winter traveling from Gaeta, we enjoyed the typical day less typically than the kids would have liked. We all loved life there and often felt torn between our impulse to hang out in Gaeta and our desire to travel around Italy and ski the Alps.  Danny didn’t want to go on our trip to St Anton because he wanted to hang out with his new friends and play ball. Sarah also didn’t want to miss a Brownie meeting and hated the idea of leaving Charlotte for a week. Adam, most eager among the kids to find powder skiing, was roaring to go, as were we.  Of course we all loved the week in St. Anton (though Adam was sick for much of it!) and Danny probably had the most fun, but our different inclinations to go or stay say a lot about our own and the kids’ general temperaments and lust for travel.

In our planning for this trip we worried about how 5-6 months living on a boat, in port and in a relatively cold climate, would fly.  We knew we would use it as a time for travel and exploration around Italy and other parts of Europe, and as a skiing family we knew that we wanted to experience the Alps.  What we didn’t anticipate, and now look back on  with incredibly fond memories, was just how rewarding our day to day life in a small Italian town would turn out to be.