First Dive

I survived my first scuba dives today! We took a four hour dive excursion this morning with a local dive shop, Diving Futuro Mare, who took the small group to two different dive spots. There isn't a lot of large marine life here to see but we did see a number of different fish species, swimming in large schools, plus lots of starfish and corrals. It was very cool to be swimming along, just enjoying the water, sites and life around me.

I was a little nervous before the first dive and got frustrated as I could not figure out my buoyancy once we had descended. Finally after checking and testing my air and BCD, the dive master just look off my weight belt and threw in a 1kg weight into my BCD. That actually helped! I guess I don't need a lot of weight...am I built like a rock then?!?!

The second dive was much more relaxing for me as I had buoyancy and could just move easily through the water. Our dives were a bit shorter than the rest because Bryan was going through his air so fast. He had to take some from the dive master on the first dive, so we just ascended early on the second when his supply ran too low.

No pictures today, as our cameras don't work underwater. We planned an afternoon at the beach snorkling but ended up having a 4 hour nap instead! I guess our late night out watching Italia in the Eurocup semi-finals caught up with us. It was pretty entertaining to be included in the crowd of such avid football fans though, especially when Italia won in the kick off/shoot out after over time (I'm not sure what that's called in European football). The restaurant staff at Davide "Il" Gelato did a stellar job of keeping up with the patrons too, which is incredible considering some of the poor service we've experienced. The sauce on my pasta was simple yet tasty, and I plan to attempt to recreate it once at home; four ingredients - olive oil, garlic, hot pepper spice, and basil.

Tonight we ate at a restaurant overlooking the harbor, which gave us some spectacular views of the sunset, the lights across the harbor, and Mount Vesuvius. I'm not sure if Bryan and I are doing or saying something wrong, but the service was good up until we had our plates taken away, but after that point we sat there and had to ask for our bill 3 times, and still they took their sweet time giving it to us. It's really annoying, but it seems to happen everywhere we go. I'm tempted to just throw down some cash and walk out!

We did have a wonderful experience for lunch today though, and we plan to go back for dinner tomorrow night. The restaurant is called Inn Bufalito, and their concept is as follows:

"Light, simple and creative, our cuisine takes inspiration from the traditional Campania Region gastronomy. Our Philosophy is to use only local and fresh products, in particular buffalo meats and cheeses."

The food was amazing! Bryan had a great pasta with buffalo ragu sauce, and the buffalo mozzarella I had was so light and creamy. I'm looking forward to a buffalo steak tomorrow!