Introduction
We’re currently living in Milan for the summer – so we’re taking advantage of the time here to visit lots of different parts of Italy. Last month we travelled south to Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples. The trip was mostly for top-side activities but we did manage to satisfy our craving for scuba diving and squeeze in two dives.
Getting to Isola d’Ischia (the Island of Ischia)
We travelled to Ischia from Milan. The easiest, quickest and most environmentally friendly way to get anywhere in Italy is via their fantastic train system (see my Portofino trip report for more train praise).
We stopped for a night in Florence on the way which meant a two hour train from Milan to Florence (~€40 pp) and a three hour train from Florence to Naples (~€40 pp). On arrival in Naples we jumped in a ten minute taxi to the ferry terminal. A note on taxis in Italy: they should all have meters. Our taxi in Naples didn’t which meant an argument (in our basic Italian) with the driver on arrival at the ferry terminal when he tried to charge €20 for a €10 trip. We settled on €15 in case you’re interested.
Ferries run almost every half hour (day of the week dependant) and we paid €13 pp for a 1.5 hour “slow” ferry to travel the 30km across the Gulf of Naples. You can pay more for a fast ferry but we like being on boats so the slower one suited us!
The Island
Ischia is predominantly a tourist destination with almost six million visitors travelling out to the island each year. Expect a relaxed beach holiday with plenty of eating and drinking (Ischitani white wine is particularly good). Our favourite restaurant was Ristorante Duilio which has great food and wine and incredible views over the ocean from their terrace.
There are a number of places to stay across the island – we stayed in Ischia town itself, a two minute walk from Corso Vittoria Colonna.
Our non-diving highlight was renting a small 5.5m boat for the day from West Coast Ischia in Forio and visiting all the bays and beaches around the island. In Italy you can rent a 40HP boat without a license – you’d be surprised at how much speed you can get from 40HP! Aragonese Castle (Castello Aragonese) is very impressive though you should visit in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the baking summer heat.
The Scuba Diving
We dived with Ischia Diving Center. They’re based in Ischia Porto and conveniently close to the marina when you’re carrying 20kg of dive gear in the Ischitani sun.
We met at the dive centre at 8:15 to arrange rental gear. They use jacket style BCDs but after recent trips using a backplate and wing (BPW) in Portofino and Scapa Flow, I’ve decided I’m more of a BPW fan. When I finally invest in my own full set of gear, it’ll be a BPW all the way. Much like our diving four weeks earlier in Portofino, we were in 5mm full length wetsuits (this time with hoods). Our Divemasters were again in drysuits and I had a strong feeling of deja vu on what to expect from the water temperature. After collecting all our equipment, we walked around the corner to the waiting boat and met our fellow divers for the day.
Once we were onboard, the boat motored out through the marina at Porto d’Ischia and towards Procida, a neighbouring island. The trip took no more than 15 minutes and we moored up in the southern of two large bays on the east side of the island. Our first dive would be at Punta Solchiaro.
Punta Solchiaro and Formichine
We geared up and dropped down the line to the anchor, which had nestled in between two large rocks at 10m. After fine tuning our buoyancy we descended to 30m. The temperature quickly dropped down to a chilly low of 16C – the cycle of deja vu was now complete. In an effort to escape the cold, we kicked along the reef, admiring an impressive crop of coral. I’ve been surprised by the healthy looking corals I’ve seen while diving here in Italy.
We exhausted our cold water tolerance after five minutes at 30m and ascended to 14m, spending the rest of the dive in comfortable 20C water. A school of Barracuda swam past as we finned our way up the reef, peering in between rocky gaps looking for other signs of sea life. Unfortunately we wouldn’t succeed and so we worked our way back up to the anchor, dislodging it from between the rocks before ascending to 5m for our three minute safety stop. We climbed back onboard the boat before heading off to the second dive location for the day.
Our second dive site was in the middle of the channel between Ischia and Procida at a site called Formichine. This was the definite highlight of the two dives with the site featuring a beautiful series of underwater arches and swim throughs – you can see these in the video linked above.
The walls of the arches were encrusted with coral and even a few Nudibranch. One of the swim throughs had a small cavern which lit up with life from the torchlight.
We swam in and out of the arches for the duration of the dive, admiring the sights before ascending over the top of the rocky arch for our safety stop. We climbed back on the boat and headed back to shore.
Stats and Summary
- Date: 21st July 2022
- Dive Log: #59 and #60
- Max depth: 30m
- Max water temp: 27C (81F)
- Min water temp: 16C (61F) at 30m – much like diving in Portofino, a thermocline means it’s generally at least 20C (68F) above 15m but drops quite rapidly below that.
- Exposure protection: 5mm wetsuit, booties and hood. This was ok for one day of diving at shallow depths but I recommend a drysuit if you’re doing multiple days of diving and diving below 15-20m.
While diving in Ischia wasn’t some of the best diving I’ve seen in my short (so far) diving career, I really enjoyed both dives. Particularly the dive at Formichine which was beautiful and a lot of fun swimming in and out of the swim throughs.
It’s fun to break up a non-diving holiday with a couple of dives, regardless of the diving quality. Once you’ve dived in a Scottish quarry with 1m visibility (no blog post to link to on this one as yet…) it helps you to appreciate each and every opportunity to dive.