There are places you go to get away from it all. And then there’s Sant’Angelo.

To get to this Italian village, you take an hour-long ferry from Naples to Ischia, nestled a few waves’ breadth from Capri in the heart of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Then you take a meandering hour-long bus from the island’s manicured capital, Ischia Porto, through fishing villages and hill towns, vineyards and rabbit warrens.
Finally, where the car roads stop, you climb a very steep pedestrianized hill.
The thousand-odd person village of Sant’Angelo, among riotous bougainvillea and parched, lizard-dotted tufa on the southern slope of the island…
Sant’Angelo is almost entirely dominated by a mix of local and “regulars”–  tourists who develop a relationship with the town and return, year after year.
Sant’Angelo is hardly a place to go for a package holiday.

To walk from the seafront to the neighboring hill town for Serrara–from where it’s possible to hike among Ischia’s greener vineyards to the top of Monte Epomeo for the island’s specialty, rabbit braised in tomatoes–is a grueling 40 minute uphill slog…