Italy 2007 Day 5: Capri

Friday, March 23, 2007

Today I explored Capri. It was gorgeous. Not just the island, but also the weather. Sunny. High near 60 F. Perfect for being outside walking around.

The day started with breakfast in the hotel (also included with the price of the tour). After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel, left our bags in the luggage room and boarded a couple of mini-buses toward the port in Sorrento. Access to this port is via a road built into the side of a ravine in the middle of Sorrento. It is a several hundred foot drop from the center of town straight down to water level. The road down there looks really neat built into the side of the cliff.

Our guide for the day is a woman named Allesandra and she seems really nice. She gave us tickets for the ferry and explained a little bit about the day. Capri is an island about 5km off the coast. Unlike the other two volcanic islands in the Bay of Naples, Capri is formed out of limestone and is really beautiful. Shear, white cliffs hundreds of feet high surround most of the island. It is truly an impressive site that greets you at the end of a 25 minute ferry ride from Sorrento.

One of Capri's most famous sites is the Blue Grotto, a water-filled cave access only via a tiny little water-level opening out to the sea. If there are any waves whatsoever, they will not allow boats/people to even enter the cave. Apparently, the surf is too high to enter the grotto about two-thirds of the time. With the weather we have had the past few days, I figured there was no chance we would get to visit. Fortunately, I was wrong. Not only was it sunny and nice, the sea had also calmed down enough to send people into the grotto.

Our trip out there got off to an auspicious start. As we were getting off the ferry, two (of the 21) people in our group somehow managed to lose site of the purple umbrella we were supposed to be following around (boy, did I feel like a tourist doing that!). Not sure how they managed to lose site of this, but it was a little bit annoying. Allesandra frantically looked around for them for 5-10 minutes. She was obviously very upset at losing people, but the captain finally forced her to leave the people behind. She called one of her colleagues on shore and asked him to look for the missing people (we actually saw them as we were leaving the marina). On the way out to the grotto, Allesandra's colleague called to let her know he had found our missing people and was bringing them out to the grotto to meet us. Problem solved.

Enough of the technical details, what about Capri itself? It's beautiful. It was about a 25-minute ride on a small motor boat out to the grotto. We had an amazing view of the island. When we arrived at the grotto, 3-4 people at a time had to transfer to small row boats to get inside. I was on a boat with Tony, Lois and their daughter Nicole (who was studying in Rome for a semester). As we were waiting to enter the grotto, one of the boats coming out was a little out of control and slammed into our boat. Our guide was knocked over on top of Lois and Nicole. He lost his oar and the peg hold the oar in broke. Needless to say, the guide was not pleased and muttered something under his breath. Tony, who owns several Italian restaurants in Scranton, PA and is fluent in Italian, latter told me our guide had said it was the other guy's first day on the job.

Entering the grotto is quite an experience. You literally have to just about lay down in the row boat because the opening is so small. Even with that, the guide has to time the entry so he is pulling us through the opening (via a chain above) at the low point of a wave. It's somewhat harrowing but well worth it once you get inside.

Light reflects off the sand on the bottom of an underwater passage into the grotto. This forms a brilliant blue light that is truly spectacular to see. When the Romans occupied Capri, they apparently used the grotto as a private swimming pool. What an amazing place to go for a swim! If you can't tell, the Blue Grotto was one of the main reasons I booked the trip to Sorrento and I'm so glad the sea cooperated and I actually got to see it.

Back in Marina Grande, Allesandra put us on a bus and we headed up the sheer cliffs of the island towards Ana Capri. Beside the spectacular drive up, the only purpose of our visit was to have lunch. This was little nicer experience than the lunch we had been given at Pompei on Wednesday. A small restaurant with pretty good food. Unfortunately, we did not have chance to linger for very long. I would not have minded staying there and taking the chair lift up to Mount Solara or catching a bus out to the lighthouse at Faro. As always, next time.

Our next stop was Capri Town where we had some time to explore. Most of the group followed Allesandra and her purple umbrella down to Giardini di Augusto. The garden itself was OK (though it may have been a little too early in the year for too many flowers), but the real draw was the amazing view of the coastline. My favorite was of a couple of rock formations just barely separated from the main coast of the island. Unfortunately, we only had about 45 minutes before we had to meet Allesandra back in the main square of Capri Town and get back on a bus to the ferry.

As I've already said, Capri is a truly amazing place -- probably my favorite place of the entire 18-day vacation. Stunning views. The Blue Grotto. And a whole bunch of other stuff I didn’t even get to try. My only complaint about the day is that we felt somewhat rushed. Rather than trying to squeeze in both Ana Capri and Capri Town, I think I would have rather just done one. Oh well, at least the weather cooperated and I got a bit of a flavor for what the island is like. I guess if I had to pick one day to have nice weather, today would have been it.

Back in Sorrento, we learned there would be two legs to our trip back to Rome. A couple of small buses/vans picked us up at the hotel and took us to Pompei where a large bus was waiting to take us back to Rome. Several people in the Chicago ski club were very upset by this, talking about writing a letter to Appian Lines to complain. Quite honestly, I thought they were whining and I didn’t understand why. Appian Lines told us we would be back in Rome at 8:30. That is exactly when we arrived. No reason to complain. In spite of this drama, I had a nice time in the back of the bus chatting with Anna, Dino, Tony, Lois and Nicole. We all exchanged contact information and I hope to get in touch with them if I ever find myself in Adelaide, Australia or Scranton, PA.

Back in Rome, the bus dropped me off near the Hotel Julia where I'll be staying another night. Overall, I was very pleased with the Appian Lines tour. I would definitely take a trip with them again. For dinner tonight, I had some pizza from a tratoria (Giuia Mia, I believe) around the corner from the hotel. Pretty good and a nice ending to the first part of my trip to Italy.