Notes from Italy

Ischia—On the steamer from Naples to Ischia, there to look at the Ambra winery, I consider the famous Bay and think how infinitely more beautiful San Francisco is. Sister to Capri, this lovely island, once covered with vineyards, now bears the traces of the untrammeled Italian building boom. Villas of all sizes crowd the foot of Mount Epomeo, the heart of the island; and the island’s three little towns are jammed with cars and people. A very comfortable luxury hotel, with three swimming pools and bellboys galore, occupies the top of a lesser mountain. Here, as elsewhere in Italy, they are beginning to enforce building laws to save the countryside. One wonders, though, if people aren’t entitled to their small villas even if they spoil the appearance of the countryside.

The Ambra winery is one of the most modern anywhere, and its owners, an old Ischia family, are marvelously cordial and generous as only Southern Italians know how to be— not like the tight-lipped Milanese or cautious Tuscans. Tourism has halved the wine production of Ischia, taking over vineyards and the people who worked them.

NH

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Nika Hazelton

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Ischia—On the steamer from Naples to Ischia, there to look at the Ambra winery, I consider the famous Bay and think how infinitely more beautiful San Francisco is. Sister to Capri, this lovely island, once covered with vineyards, now bears the traces of the untrammeled Italian building boom. Villas of all sizes crowd the foot of Mount Epomeo, the heart of the island; and the island’s three little towns are jammed with cars and people. A very comfortable luxury hotel, with three swimming pools and bellboys galore, occupies the top of a lesser mountain. Here, as elsewhere in Italy, they are beginning to enforce building laws to save the countryside. One wonders, though, if people aren’t entitled to their small villas even if they spoil the appearance of the countryside.

The Ambra winery is one of the most modern anywhere, and its owners, an old Ischia family, are marvelously cordial and generous as only Southern Italians know how to be— not like the tight-lipped Milanese or cautious Tuscans. Tourism has halved the wine production of Ischia, taking over vineyards and the people who worked them.