FAVORITE PLACES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

Written by John DiMatteo

Greetings from John and Angela DiMatteo on board SV Madrigal currently anchored off the Greek island of Naxos. 

We were recently asked by the Salty Dawgs to write a short article describing the three favorite places we visited in the Mediterranean. We failed our assignment. We are in our third summer in the Mediterranean and have learned that there are so many beautiful and different places to visit it is impossible to narrow the list to three. Instead, we have selected three places that were pleasant surprises, amongst the many pleasant surprises we received while sailing in these waters. 

A brief background: We purchased our current boat – a used 2004 Farr 50 Pilothouse - in May 2017 to sail around the world with the WARC 2018/2019 fleet. After completing our circumnavigation in May 2019, and waiting for the COVID19 pandemic to subside, we sailed across the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean in 2022 with the ARC Europe fleet – New York to Bermuda; Bermuda to the Azores; and Azores to Lagos, Portugal. We spent the past three summers sailing in Spain, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece. Our plan is to winter the boat in Marmaris, Turkey and work our way home starting in 2025. You can see our YB track of the places we have visited so far, sorted by year, by clicking here: https://my.yb.tl/Madrigal.

Three places that surprised us, and where we believe you will enjoy visiting, are Lagos, Portgual; Vis, Croatia; and Kotor, Montenegro. 

Lagos, Portugal is well known to the Portuguese as a popular beach vacation venue but was completely unknown to us. We arrived at one of the best marinas in the Western Mediterranean – Marina de Lagos – and were warmly welcomed after spending six weeks crossing the Atlantic. What surprised us was the beauty of the beaches and seaside caves, the delicious and inexpensive food and wine, and the wonderful marine services and parts supply company located at the marina. It is the perfect destination to complete your crossing and to prepare yourself and your boat for your time in the Mediterranean. We also discovered the app Navily when we arrived in Lagos. It is a “must have” app for the Mediterranean. It is filled with excellent advice and information, especially if you subscribe to the premium version which gives you wind and swell forecasts for all the bays and harbors in the Mediterranean; we would be lost without it. Note, anyone and everyone can leave a review of any bay and marina, so you will need to synthesize the information for yourself before making any decisions based on the reviews.

While we can wax poetic about the Balearic Islands; the mostly undiscovered island of Carloforte in South Sardinia; the Aeolian Islands, gorgeous little seaside town of Cefalu in North Sicily, and some of the beautiful little harbors on the East Coast of Italy like Bisceglie, we will not bore you ad nausem with a travel log. Instead, we will jump straight to Croatia. Put simply, Croatia has become a new mecca for sailors like us. With crystal clear waters, over 1,000 islands - plus a beautiful coastline – spectacular and inexpensive restaurants with their own quays to tie up for the night (many with shore power!) – it is not surprising that there are many new charter boat companies in the area to service the industry. A pleasant surprise for us was the small town of Komiža on the island of Vis – located straight across from Pescara, Italy where we have family and where we wintered our boat in 2022 and 2023. After a short overnight sail, we were welcomed at the small harbor quay with many small wooden fishing boats and discovered a delightful small town that exudes charm. The Croatians are welcoming, speak English very well, and have a great culture of food and wine influenced by the Venetians. In short, a great country to visit when you are in Mediterranean. 

While Croatia is the new sailing mecca, Montenegro is the up-and-coming mecca on the Adriatic East Coast. While the waters are not quite as clear, they are still beautiful, and the food and culture very similar to Croatia. We were especially surprised when we entered the inner harbor of the Bay of Kotor and were surrounded by beautiful tall mountains. While the city of Kotor is not to be missed, along with the 900’ climb to Old Kotor Fort at the top of the hill, it is the smaller villages that surround the inner bay that are special. And if you anchor in the North-West corner of the inner Bay of Kotor, you must dine at Ćatovića Mlini. They will pick you up on a small boat and transport you up-river into another world. We will not say more as we do not want to ruin the experience for you.

We wish you well on your journey across “The Pond” and, if you are already in the Mediterranean, on your visits to these ports and the many other beautiful bays and harbors in this part of the world.

Wishing you fair winds and following seas,

John & Angela DiMatteo

SV Madrigal