The Mediterranean is salty and a dead sea: hardly a fish or bird. Much has changed since ancient abundance.

Now Italy and France have magnificent food but stagnant economies.

Everywhere there's evidence of past glories. Centuries ago Italian cities were Tigers. Now Italy is Disneyland for adults . . . living off past glories. Modern Italians are inward-looking and selfobsessive.

Continentals seek tax harmonisation. That's a good idea, provided tax rates harmonise at low levels. Their problem isn't what happens in Ireland . . . it's what happens in Asia. Only tax competition keeps statist instincts in check. With high taxes come inefficiency and tax evasion.

People lionise the French health system . . . but France has a tradition of public service. France is the exception, not the rule.

Why is Italy so chaotic with people so gifted? They waste energy in squabbles between right and left.

Italy's image is distorted by immigrants from the poor, religious and family-oriented south. We learn of Rome's road-building, practical laws and efficient teamwork often reliant on imported technology. But the Roman Empire was built in the era of Cu Chulainn. It has no more relevance for modern Italians than warrior-nomads like Setanta have for us.

13th July, Ischia island Ever wondered what it was like on a luxury yacht? Now we're sitting on one . . . and we get looks like we used to give . . . and it's uncomfortable. We play Luka Bloom on the sound system and enjoy the cuisine.

Are we now members of the establishment? No. We're outsiders without commitment to traditional approaches. There's excessive glorification of the past. In the drinks industry, for example, it's romantic to idealise the 18th century distillers with their copper stills. But I remember old people in Antrim tossing the first shot into the turf fire as "an offering to blind Aenghus". Those traditional distillers made a lot of bad whiskey. The general quality of wine and spirits is better now.

We believe in free markets and free ideas. No one has a monopoly on good ideas. Privilege restricts progress by favouring some over the many. We all suffer as a result.

Most human progress comes from outsiders, GB Shaw's 'unreasonable men'. Being offered insider status is a snare and a delusion. Life is more interesting and ultimately rewarding as an outsider.

Continentals serve excellent wines . . . but see it as a part of dining. They typically enjoy a glass . . . whereas most Irish people are only warming up by that stage. They rely on aperitifs for their buzz.

Our system rewards the rich: our grandparents depended on the sea, but saw it as work rather than recreation. My paternal grandfather served in Royal Navy Atlantic convoys during WW2. It wasn't spoken of during the troubles but . . . like many sailors . . . he'd contracted TB and died after the war, earning my grandmother a war widows' pension . . . but not before giving TB to his eldest, who also died.

My paternal grandfather worked in the Belfast shipyard as a cabinet maker. In 1932 he was ejected but was one of the lucky ones not forced to swim Belfast Lough.

Their experience of the sea was workmanlike, ours is recreational.

I'm challenged to race in a towed inflatable against our host. This is tricky: like Robert Redgrave in the movie Havana, sometimes you have to lose with a winning hand so that you can later win with a losing hand. I get thrown twice . . . as does the host. Honour is saved, and we each have to eat a hot chilli, grown on the catamaran as it crossed the Atlantic!

14th July, Lepanto Bay

We put into Lepanto Bay . . .assuming this was where one of history's great battles was decided . . . when Christian Europe halted the 16th century Turkish Navy. Christian ethnic cleansing of Moorish Spain had created refractory refugees who plagued these waters and even reached Wexford. And the reverse seemed incomplete: a century later the Turks made it to Vienna, before turning back when stabbed in the back by Persia. But they left coffee and one the foundation of our bloodstock stallions industry behind.

Though now deserted, there's evidence of past commercial activity: strongpoints improbably located on cliff-faces, caves extended into the limestone, historic quarries. How did they build without machines? What drove their economy? It must have been Oriental trade.

Embarrassingly, it transpired that the battle had been was at another Lepanto!

Suspicious coastguards moved us on, as this is a restricted area. No matter how posh the caravan, we're nonetheless travellers!

15th July, Capri

We can't visit the Blue Grotto without wondering about rocks. Compared to Ireland, Italy has complex geology.

The kids spot a perfect fault line running down a hill.

Books are dull but it's easier to get messages across by pointing to the landscape.

Affluent Italy is perfect and fussy. Italians are friendly but I get the feeling . . . as with the Chinese . . . that they're indulging barbarians.

Women are elegant, men more so . . . but no one competes with children and pets.

From the accents, many seem wealthy northerners . . . but the Milanese shop at home year-round, and then visit Capri, where they fshop!

For Italians elegance seems more important than effectiveness. My African ranch hat earns me the nickname 'Indiana Jones'. What's next?

Crocodile Dundee?