After having had such a pleasant day in the little town of Sperlonga, we were ready to take the local bus to another small Italian town. We had heard from our travel agent that there was an American naval base in Gaeta, which was just 50 miles south of our home base in Terracina. My little patriotic heart went pitter-pat with the idea of seeing one of our magnificent battleships docked in an Italian harbor! Kalle was excited too, because despite his anti-war stance, he's still a guy, and most guys are interested in motor-driven air, sea, or land vehicles. During the bus ride to Gaeta that morning, I day-dreamed of the possibility of actually meeting and chatting with some of our naval troops, since the city would certainly be virtually crawling with hundreds if not thousands of American naval personal!
When we arrived in Gaeta, we walked into the first store we saw along the harbor and asked where the American ship was docked. The store owner pointed at the harbor directly across the street and said, "It should be right over there". He went on to explain, to our huge disappointment, that the ship had set out to sea for a training exercise just a few days earlier. Rats!
So, we rambled about for a while, not certain what to do. After a while we decided to buy a brown-bag lunch and sit on park bench in the middle of town to eat, enjoy a bit of people-watching, and to figure out what to do next. After a while, we decided to walk along the harbor and look for the naval base headquarters, which we found fairly soon. We walked up to the gated entrance and were met by an Italian navy soldier who, of course, wouldn't let us go any further. When I explained that I was an American and that we were just hoping to find some navy guys or gals to talk to, he gave me the disappointing news that there were no naval personal in town at all, since they were all on the ship out in the middle of the Mediterranean sea. Double rats! So, to my chagrin, the closest thing we got to visiting the naval base that day was a picture of the parking lot reserved for navy personal!
So, we just gave up and treated ourselves to a wonderful Italian ice cream cone while waiting for the bus back to Terracina. Despite the fact that it didn't turn out as we had hoped, we still had a pleasant day rambling about with each other hand-in-hand on a warm, sunny day in Italy!
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