Talking Location With … author A L Michael – Ischia

1st February 2018

#TalkingLocationWith… A L Michael, who has set her novel “Procecco and Promises” on the wonderful island of Ischia.

I knew the storyline for Prosecco and Promises well before I knew where I was going to set it. I just had this image of a young woman, standing alone on a pier, staring off at the most beautiful sunset imaginable, and feeling completely unable to enjoy it.

It was natural that I would settle on an Italian island. Being half Greek Cypriot, and having been to many of the islands, those didn’t hold much mystery for me. Plus, I’ve always been in love with Italy. The culture, the family, the cities. I’ve been back to Italy more times than I’ve been anywhere else, and every time I discover something new (and put on a few pounds from all the pizza, pasta and wine!).

My previous book set in Italy was set in Lake Garda, which I’ve been to twice. Choosing Ischia was a gamble, because I’d never been there. I was dependent on scouring websites and travel books, googling pictures, looking through TripAdvisor and zooming in on google streetview. It gave me enough of a flavour to begin writing.

The author on Ischia

Ischia (pronounced Iskia, which I didn’t know until I was on the boat there) is an island off the coast of Naples. It has a collection of wonders, from the thermal baths, botanical gardens, beaches, castle, torture museum, and it’s liable to earthquakes, but when I was doing my research, the last one hadn’t happened for years. Of course, that changed in September 2017, two weeks before I was due to visit the island for my book research.

Writing about the earthquake became complicated – I had already included a fictional earthquake in the novel. Now that it had actually happened, I had to treat it with respect and sensitivity, which I hope I have done.

I flew into Naples and stayed there for a few days before a boat trip over to the island. Immediately, I already recognised changes I would have to make in how I had imagined the boat trip over, where the boat arrived into and where my fictional characters would spend their time.

The sun had beat down in Naples so that I was already tanned by the time I stepped on the boat to the island, but I had bought swimwear and towels to enjoy one of the many beaches. However, I hadn’t checked the weather report.

I have never experienced so much rain in my life, and I say that as an English woman who has spent a good amount of time in Scotland. It bucketed. The rain almost hurt as it bounced off us, and the streets were flooded immediately. We were cold and wet, but I was determined not to miss my day of research, so my partner and I bought ridiculous tourist plastic bags to pull over ourselves, and went stamping through the flooded streets of the port town (Ischia Porto). It was beautiful, the little shops and beautifully paved streets, I just couldn’t get over the disappointment at being cold and wet and miserable. Thankfully, we stopped off in a cafe for a delicious lunch – the bruschetta with sweet tomatoes, with the basil picked straight out of the herbs growing on the side in the restaurant, along with a copious amount of wine, cheered my spirits. We ventured out again, this time with the rain settling a little.

We walked along the long stone walkway, out to Castle Aragonese, almost it’s own island off the port. I could see where this would be used in my book. We then jumped on a bus across the island to Sant’Angelo, where Prosecco and Promises is set. The bus journey gave me an insight to the rest of the island, seeing where the grapes grew for the wine harvest, and the thermal baths where the tourists visited. Even seeing the shape of the houses, the mad curves of the roads and the wondrously talented driving gave me a feel for island life. The bus dropped us off at the top of Sant’Angelo, and it was a slow, spirally walk down the hill to the harbour. We sat and had endless coffees and gigantic ice creams, basking in the tentative sun. I visualised where my character Nikki worked, in the harbour, and saw her boyfriend Enzo getting on one of the boats. A few of the more interesting passersby I scribbled down descriptions for, and they ended up in the book.

Ischia had so many more things to offer, and I wished I had stayed for more than a day trip, but it gave my book the flavour of authenticity. Everyone says to write what you know, but when it comes to travel, I would say write what you hope to know, and then make it happen. If I hadn’t visited, I would have had so many inaccuracies in the book.

I would love to go back to Ischia and spend more time there, seeing the gardens and the baths, and taking a tour in one of the charming little mini taxis (they looked like toy cars!) as well as enjoying more of the wine. Ischia is often forgotten about next to the very glamorous nearby Capri, but it’s still retained an old school glamour in line with the Amalfi coast.

All I would say is make sure you check the weather report!

Thank you SO much to A L Michael sharing some top tips for Ischia.

You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook and via her website and of course buy her book through the Tripfiction database

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