Porto Ercole - Cala Galera

A nice sail trip to the Promontorio Argentario, on the hills the most fabulous villas overlooking the sea towards Isola Giglio. Then around the landmass to Porto Ercole (Hercules) and on to Cale Galera.
All the pontoons of Porto Ercole are owned by private clubs and if you are not of the club you cannot moor there.
Cala Galera is a very big port with even larger boat yards for repairing from a dinghy to a 100 m yacht. We had a German couple next to us who were already 6 years underway and now going back to Germany from Greece.
In the marina 1 restaurant and 1 small supermarket, both with excessive prices, so one has walk to Porto Ercole for food shopping and more reasonable restaurants.
We took the bus to Orbetello (2,50 to go and 4€ back!?) nothing much to see there either, so we had a decent lunch there. Then trying to find things to do for the 5 days we were stuck because of the weather.
Finally we made our get-away on Monday after lunch to sail to Civitivecchia and stay overnight at Riva di Traiano port. A bit of rough sea with a NE strong breeze in the back. The autopilot did not cope well with the swell, so it was steering on the surf by hand for the 6 hours to get to the port.

Porto Ercole view from the Fortress Philippe II

The old town where Caravaggio has lived and died

The fortress Philippe II, which is divided into apartments