Capri

The island of Capri is located a quick boat ride from the Sorrento area. It’s been a resort since Roman times and has a reputation for attracting the rich and famous. But, more importantly it is drop dead gorgeous. Since we were so close, we had to go check it out. Luckily there was a little harbor with a morning ferry to Capri right out our front door in Piano di Sorrento.

After so much travel without a car this year, we consider ourselves rather adept at figuring out transportation options as we have taken any number of trains, buses, trams, and metros. But for some reason the Sorrentine peninsula was a challenge. We missed a local train because we were on the wrong side of the tracks! Oops! The train going the other direction had passed on one side, so we assumed that the train going our way would be on the other side. But, in the little Piano di Sorrento station, the train can use either track to go either direction! It was an easily solved problem; only it required an expensive cab ride. Ouch! And, as you may have read, we had a bus issue on our trip to Amalfi as well.

Well, heading to Capri, we walked down to the harbor and confirmed with the local fisherman that there was an 8:30 a.m. ferry and that we were in the right place. We waited where they pointed and sure enough the ferry pulled up right on time. Unfortunately, we learned that the boat captain does not accept money, only tickets. And, the location to purchase tickets was back at the entry to the harbor -- without any sign or booth indicating its existence. We did not have time to walk back and purchase tickets, but luckily for us there were 5 Brits waiting with us who also did not have tickets. Since there were seven of us, and only about 10 other people on the ferry with tickets, we figured there was little chance that the ferry was going to pass up taking us. So, after several minutes of back-and-forth with a lot of hand gestures, the “agent” who had brought the ticketed customers to the boat got the other “ticket agent” to come to the boat and sell us tickets. We bought round trip tickets to avoid any further issues or confusion, and we were on our way.

We had booked a separate boat tour to go around the entire island and see the Blue Grotto if the sea conditions permitted. So, when we arrived, we headed straight up to the top of the island, first via local bus to the village of Anacapri, and then via chairlift:

As you can imagine, the views were tremendous from up top:

We hiked back down to Anacapri, which sits in the middle of the island, and enjoyed the little town center. Several restaurants looked lovely for lunch, but we knew we had to be back at the harbor for our boat cruise. While on the bus back down we got a call that the tour had been cancelled because the seas were too rough. Huge bummer. I really was looking forward to circling the island and seeing it from all sides. Now we needed a Plan B.

We decided to walk up to the main Capri town and find a place for lunch, perhaps a bit off the beaten path. We found Le Palette and enjoyed this view, good food and a bottle of local white wine:

Afterwards we walked out to the Arco Natural, which is the remains of a collapsed grotto:

We then continued our walk but were disappointed that the road to the Marina Piccola and Via Krupp were blocked off. So, we continued wandering slowly taking it all in as we headed back to the main harbor, arriving with just enough time for an Aperol Spritz before our departure:

The ride back was quite rough. Still, we enjoyed talking with the Brits, who happened to be staying on a boat in our little harbor, as we bounced up and down on the waves.

Our day on Capri shows that sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and go where the day takes you, and in the end it all works out.

Ciao,

Shana & Jeff