Marco and I both really like scuba diving. So after our crazy day trip to Pisa, Florence, and Siena we slept in the next morning and then headed to Porto Ercole. This is where the Argentario Divers have their scuba diving center. They have a big boat for longer trips and a zodiac for shorter trips close to Porto Ercole. We heard that diving in Giannutri and Giglio was the best, but it was also fairly expensive and so we reserved a spot on the zodiac for one of their shorter trips around Argentario instead.
We showed up in the morning and met a few other divers that would be on the boat with us. We got in our suits and took our spots on the zodiac. Then the dive guide navigated us out of the harbor and we headed out for maybe 15 minutes or so. Our destination was a dive site called “Cala dei Santi”. Loosely translated it means “cavern of the saints”. They told us it got this name because it looks like a nativity scene from Christmas. The guide explained how we could dive there and right before we were about to jump in I realized that I forgot my mask. How stupid is that? I felt like such an idiot 
Luckily, they had brought a lot of spare stuff and I could use one of theirs!
getting ready
Cala Dei Santi
The dive itself was really nice. There was not a whole lot of coral, but the visibility was pretty good and right at the beginning we managed to find a few octopuses Who could complain about that?! They were so cute! There were also a bunch of huge sea stars everywhere. After about 10 minutes, we reached a drop off and followed the wall for a little bit. While it of course couldn’t compete with our dives in the Red Sea, it was still very nice overall and the cute octopuses made my day
Octopus
drop off
huge sea stars
When we got back to the boat, they had some water and rosemary crackers for us. So nice to get the salt taste from underwater out of your mouth! They drove us back to the port and we packed our stuff back in the car. After walking around for a little while at Porto Ercole, we bought a few slices of pizza and just enjoyed the view. Such a nice morning!
feeding the little birdie with pieces of our pizza...
... while enjoying the view
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Reading your new post made me remember i need to buy a new mask before we leave!!
Yes, you do
Today 
Because we’re leaving tomorrow!
It sounds like a really nice place to dive, i do a lot of diving in Tenerife and this year i am looking to go on a diving holiday somewhere else. i will certainly keep this in mind when booking.
Ian Meyer recently posted..Diving
It was fun, but a little bare compared to our dives in the Red Sea
I heard the little islands further out have much more to see in that area. It was a good dive, we saw lots of huge sea starts and even an octopus, but I wouldn’t do a whole dive vacation there.