Capri was gorgeous – really lived up to its reputation.
The ferry ride took about 40 mins. It was quite rough up the front of the boat, and even though I don’t get seasick, my head was a bit iffy by the time we landed.
We wandered around the Grande Marina for a while, laughing at all the taxis – they were all convertibles! Then we took the furnicular up to Capri Centrale. We walked around looking at the shops, but they were either touristy tatt or horrendously expensive designer stuff.
Then we caught the bus up to Anacapri. See the mountain there? There’s a windy road going along the edge of it, and at one point the ENTIRE bus went “woahhhh” as we rounded a particularly steep curve, only to see the side drop away and a perfectly unimpeded (yes, not much of a barrier!) view of the bay. My tummy was down there too!
We did make it to Anacapri though, despite a Canadian man telling me “they lose only about three buses a year off the cliffs” – not funny!!!
We stopped there for lunch, and followed the gf guide to Italy’s advice about going to La Rondinello, which was a good 10 mins walk from the bus stop. But they had no GF pizza, pasta or otherwise, and the risotto was 17E, plus 3E cover AND 15% service. Plus, no pizzas at lunchtime, so even my compatriots were offended enough at this to go elsewhere. We eventually stopped at a snack bar and had a much more reasonable 10E risotto.
Next stop, Azzurra Grotto! We met a lovely Scot on our way down there, who T was getting on very well with.
More stairs (what’s with all the hills on Capri?) and we were down to the rowboats which are rowed into the grotto’s mouth (about 1m from the water level. Beware of large waves from passing boats!!). This service costs 10.50E per person, plus a tip for the rower. The payment guys have set up in a boat where they just take people’s money all day (entrance fee plus boat tax???) which sounds like a pretty good money spinner to me! Hope the gov’t is getting at least a percentage of that!
The cave itself was amazing. It really is blue! (and dark, so hard to get a good picture) The rowers sing, which echoes all around, and the blue light is really eerie. It’s blue because of the sunlight reflecting off the white sand at the bottom of the 50m or so deep water. Very cool.
Then we had to climb back up the stairs past two cute kitties who were begging for fish from the fisherman who had a line over the cliff a good 10m or so up! After another hair-raising bus journey back to Anacapri we said goodbye to Stuart, our friendly Scot, and headed back to the Marina to catch our ferry back to Naples. Much smoother at the back of the boat!
Here’s a couple of gratuitous kitty cat shots for those of you who are wondering how I managed so many non-cat-pic posts! Heh heh heh…
Two Weeks Away 