Our second week in Pollica at the Paideia Campus, the castle of the Future Food Institute and Bluera, quietly preparing for students to arrive for the Climate Shapers Save the Ocean Bootcamp week. Meeting folks in Acciaroli and Pioppi to talk Posidonia seagrass monitoring. Testing DIY hardware sensors to monitor ocean surface temperatures. Osaka-style okonomiyaki night and fruit salad with shiratama dango and sparkling water. Celebrating Sean's birthday. Fireworks with a brass band and a lightning storm over the sea for a procession of the Madonna. Children emphatically singing "Figaro!" A road-trip day hike to Cape Palinuro, where the thunderstorms loomed and we gave away almost all our water to hikers who had run out.
The Cape, visible in the distance from Pollica, was named after Palinurus, helmsman of the ship of Aeneas. His life was taken as a sacrifice for their safe passage from Troy to Italy, on the way to founding Rome; drugged by Somnus, the god of sleep, he fell overboard in a calm sea. Where his body washed up became Cape Palinuro.
