We travel to Italy three or four times a year and do quite a bit of other travelling in between. It’s safe to say that we are pretty seasoned when it comes to the travel department. Especially on our transatlantic trips we’ve tried a number of different approaches to avoiding or reducing jetlag.

In our youth we powered through the long, cramped economy class flights by watching movies, drinking heavily and doing whatever we could to stay awake until the early morning arrival, usually in Rome. We would spend the morning engaged in some activity, have a long lunch and then retire for a short nap in the late afternoon (after a shower) before heading out, taking a decent walk and tucking in for a lengthy welcome to Italy dinner. The goal was to try to stay awake until around 11pm so that we could coordinate our body clocks with the local one. A long afternoon nap or, worse still, an early evening would delay the acclimation to local time by a few days, we found.

This power through strategy seemed to work and it is the still the basis of our more recent Italy arrival days. But we have exchanged the heavy drinking in coach for a slightly less heavy binge in business class where the reclining seats, a pair of eyeshades and earplugs have enabled us to bank three or four hours of sleep before our early morning arrival. Those few hours have made the afternoon power through somewhat easier, even as our advancing age and general level of burnout cries for an increasing number of hours of sleep.

Over the past several years, though, our arrival days have been manageable and even enjoyable and we have generally gotten in sync with the locals within a day or so, thanks to our strategies. But on our arrival in Ischia yesterday, we stumbled upon a sure fire strategy for making the first day blahs a case of first day ahhs. The heated seawater pool.

Often travel days are tales of woe and we certainly could share a tale or two. Yesterday, however, was not such a case. In fact, it would be difficult to write up a more flawless, seamless and painless day of travel. From the check in less than an hour before our flight, a forty five second wait to pass through security (thank you Asheville airport), a Charlotte layover just long enough to allay any nervousness over a possible missed connection and also long enough to get a manicure (Suzy) and a massage (Bill), to an on time departure and early arrival with a decent meal and (shock!) new movies in flight, no line at FCO immigration and our bags coming out first. Then being met at the airport by Wendy who drove us down to Naples, enjoying a memorable second act at Starita Pizzeria and making our hydrofoil with a few minutes to spare, what else could go right?

Well the Hotel Mezzatorre is what could and did go right. Ischia’s best hotel (or so we are told) is a beautiful, natural property perched high above the bay into which the island’s patron saint is said to have washed ashore in days of yore, with commanding views of its sister islands and the mainland and with every amenity imaginable or unimaginable. Including the heated seawater pool.

When your long day of travel, starting around noon the day before begins to wear you down, I can confidently say that there is nothing quite as restorative as taking your New York Times (iPad edition) to a comfy chaise, catching up on the news of the world you are leaving behind for the next month (relegating it to the category of “their problems”) and, as you start to nod off rally yourself for a pre-dinner float. Easing into the warm water, the infinity edge of the pool falling away and revealing the surf pounding on the cliffs on which this resort is built, and having the accumulated fatigue of the day of travel and the months of stress and life lifted from your skin, from your being. As if being lifted out of the water by an invisible hand, the buoyancy of the seawater buoys not just your body but your spirit, while the current in the pool gently changes your perspective and relaxes you not into a state of sleep, but into a state of contentment.

When we finally rested our heads on the soft hotel pillows after a wonderful dinner and some local wine, we had not just adjusted to the time here in Italy, we had adjusted to the sweetness of what awaits us. Italy and its dolce vita.

Ci vediamo!
Bill and Suzy