Today was a rare cloudy day for us, with a few tiny spots of rain as well. So it wasn’t exactly a beach day, but we made the best of it.

What to do? Take a crowded bus across the island, then climb our way down to a cove with a hot spring right at the edge of the sea. And squeeze into the right little spot with all the other would-be bathers trying to warm up.

Then catch a water taxi to the stunning town of Sant’Angelo for a slow seafood lunch and find a great reading spot overlooking the sea.

After three low-key beach days in quiet Procida, we took a 30-minute ferry to the neighboring island of Ischia this morning. There’s a lot more tourism and general buzz here, a nice contrast to peaceful Procida.

Walking through the town we noticed a lot of high end retail stores with window displays dominated by winter clothes. This struck us as a bit of a non-sequitur in a beach resort town. We also thought, “Why would you go stock up on winter clothes when you could just go someplace warm?”

We’ve left the chaos and excitement of Naples behind for an 11-day visit to the islands of the Bay of Naples. A 40-minute boat ride brought us to Procida, the smallest and quietest of the three islands.

The little towns of Procida are post-card perfect, with black sandy beaches strung between them. Only after arriving here were we reminded that the 1994 movie “Il Postino” was partly filmed here. I remember watching that movie and pining to visit the magical Italy it depicted.