Would you like to come up the coast in the Audi and catch the train back to Rome tonight?
How could I refuse. After the car ownership business had been done Jack invited me to join him in his new car for a trip two hours up the coast to a beautiful part of Italy where the people of Rome go for their holidays in the picture-postcard village of Porto Ercole. He was visiting his aunt Judy and her husband Phil in Orbetello; she originally from Dublin and he from Seattle, but they had lived and worked in Rome for decades before retiring to the idyllic seaside on the Costa d’ Argento.
Jack had spent the summers of his youth with his family in this area for years and knew all the best swimming spots. We drove through the village and were soon picking our way down the gravel steps to Spiaggia L’Acqua Dolce – and the water was divine. Jack is a fountain of local knowledge about the Spanish forts that sit high on the hills, and we visited Braccio Beach and breezed through the town of Porto Ercole.
Finally, a Vermentino on the roof terrace with Judy and Phil before catching the train back to Rome Termini.
