Day Fifteen: Capri

What an amazing day!! I was up at around 3am this morning, and when I woke up I saw a brilliant flash outside the window. I at first wondered if I had dreamed it, but then I heard the rumble of thunder, and soon the patter of rain on our window. I was concerned about the status of our boat trip, but went back to sleep.

When I woke up, the rain was still hanging on the window pane but it appeared to no longer be actively raining. I groaned when I pulled up weather.com and saw that the forecast said rain and thunderstorms all day, precipitation 90%. We packed all of our things and went down to breakfast at around 9am. I asked if the Capri trip was still on, and was surprised and relieved to hear that it was. We had time for a last breakfast snack at Mami Camilla's, and then the van was there to pick us up.

We finished collecting all the people for the tour, and we went to a different marina near the hotel. We dragged all our luggage on the boardwalk, the sand, and finally the dock before we arrived at our boat for the day. The boat was a beautiful vessel, with a gorgeous teak deck and shiny teak railings and a very comfortable layout for a boat without a flybridge. We left the port and set off for Capri. I noted to Joel in amusement that I don't generally make a habit of going TOWARDS storm clouds in a boat, but as we coasted down the backs of the waves, the skipper made me feel very safe.

We missed a fireworks show last night, apparently! 

My handsome husband with Vesuvius 

Little hole of blue sky over Capri, just for us

The clouds seemed to give us a corridor of sun as we arrived at Capri. There were blue skies over the island and angry gray storm clouds to either side of us. We cruised slowly around the coast of the island, past the main harbor, and we soon arrived at the famous Grotta Azzura. The man who runs the rowboat was moored nearby despite the fact that it was too rough to enter the cave. My heart sank a little, because my main motivation to return to Capri was to get to go into the Blue Grotto, but I stayed optimistic. The captain Francesco told us that we may return later, and if the boat man was no longer there, we might have the opportunity to swim inside.

That tiny itty bitty hole on the right is the Blue Grotto

We continued our journey around the island and stopped nearby what is called the White Grotto. Much less impressive, since it really is just a gorge in the rock and not the same as the Blue Grotto at all, but it was our first swimming destination. The water was calm, so they encouraged everyone to jump in. At first we weren't going to, because we didn't have towels and the wind had a bit of a bite to it. The people who were jumping in also were having that look of frigid terror on their faces after they surfaced, which made me nervous that the water was frightfully cold. I was pleasantly surprised that the water was much the same temperature as the water in the bay at home: not nearly as cold as Newport, but perhaps a bit colder than Potter's Cove. We swam for a short time and dried in the sun and wind. A lot of the boats, our own included, seemed to be having anchor trouble, but our skillful captains solved the issue before we coasted backwards too close to the rocks.

We befriended an Australian family of four who have relatives in Italy. The man's parents were from a small (population 450) town just outside of Siracusa, which is where I studied abroad, and the mother's family was also from somewhere in Italy. We had a great chat with them and their incredibly charming son. He was only ten years old, but he was a really great kid. Their daughter looked to us to be about fourteen, but was in fact eighteen. I opted not to comment about how young she looked, having been (and continuing to be) the recipient of many comments like that myself… though now, I certainly don't mind them so much as I did when I was as young as her.

After everyone was done swimming, we went to continue our course around the island. As we got close to one of the points of the island, the sea became very rough with at least six foot swells. The captain chose to turn the boat around since every wave drenched everyone on the front of the boat. We turned back towards the port, and on the way we stopped again at the Blue Grotto. With just our luck, the boat man was gone, and after a few brief instructions to swim strong and not put our feet down in the opening, they told us to jump on in and swim inside.

This picture really doesn't do the waves justice. It was insane.

What an amazingly incredibly beautiful place. We both are so thankful that we got to swim inside, instead of taking the boat. While the surface of the water was amazing, with everything inside glowing a brilliant shade of blue, it was underneath the water that the true magic was apparent. Under the water, you could see the deeper openings in the cliffside that really allowed the light of the outside to shine in and illuminate the cave. Joel got some magnificent video of some schools of fish and the silhouettes of our fellow swimmers in the dazzling blue light. Soon enough, we were the only ones in the cave, and I wanted us to get out quickly in case the boat left without us. We climbed back on board, and the boat set off for the main port of Capri.

We arrived in the port and had about three hours to explore the island. We started out our exploration with our new friends, the Australian family, and made our way via funicular to the center of the town of Capri. I led us to the Gardens because I knew about the beautiful views there, but I was surprised to find that they charged us a euro each to get in. I don't remember having to pay money the last time I was here, but Joel pointed out that I was there before in November, which is not prime tourist season. Either way, we didn't mind paying the money because the gardens were immaculately groomed. Joel noticed that their magnificent marigold beds had not a single dead bloom on any of the plants. We found the view points and took some pictures, and speculated with Mark (the ten year old boy) about how long it would take to walk down the walkway beneath us in the cliff.

Marina Grande

Up in the funicular

I have no idea what is going on in this picture.

We discuss with Mark (the young Australian voice) the merits of the long walk below us.

After viewing the gardens, we parted ways with our new friends and took a bus up to Anacapri. Joel and I were both excited to take a chairlift to the highest viewpoint on the island, but the chairlift was closed because of the wind and weather. Undeterred, I led Joel to the stairs on the cliffs of the island that I knew would give us some stunning views and pictures. We walked down many of the stairs before I realized that they just met up with the road, and while both of us were interested in walking back to the marina (even with my foot), neither of us were remotely interested in walking on the road with the crazy drivers.

A hilarious man from Chicago took our picture while perched on top of a park bench.

As we walked back to the center of Anacapri, I noticed that the clouds overhead were looking ominously gray and I knew that rain was approaching. We stood in line for the bus back to the Marina… and waited… and waited… and when the bus finally came, all of the people in front of us squeezed on and by the time it was our turn, the bus was too full and drove away. A man behind Joel rudely asked him if we were planning on getting on the bus, at which point Joel incredulously gestured at the fact that the bus was overflowing, and there was no way for us to possibly fit, let alone for him to fit too.

It seemed like an impossibly long time while we were waiting for the next bus. Two other buses for the town of Capri showed up and still no bus for the Marina. It had started to drizzle, so I was freezing and my foot was killing me from standing in line. A man with a thick accent came up to us and asked us if we were trying to get to the Marina. I thought he was some kind of scam artist, or cab driver, and it didn't help his case when his next question was to ask if we wanted to take a cab… but when he finished his question, what he really was asking was if we wanted to take a cab WITH HIM. The bus would cost us each 2€, and the cab would cost us each 5€, but we would be able to actually sit down in the cab and leave right away, so we went with them and it ended up being a fantastic decision.

We got down to the marina and had a little less than an hour to kill before we needed to be back to the boat. We were both very cold, so we decided to sit at one of the snack bars and each get a hot beverage. I asked the waiter in Italian if they had anything hot, and when he listed hot chocolate, my entire face lit up so I ordered one of those for me and a cappuccino for Joel. Man did I miss Italian hot chocolate. Best ever.

We weren't under the tent for five minutes before the sky opened up and the torrential downpour started. It was raining so hard that mist was swirling around inside the canopy, and rain drops were falling in between the gaps in the canvas. We still got wet, but it wasn't nearly as horrendous as it would have been if we had been caught outside in that mess. We finished our beverages right as the squall blew through and suddenly the sun burst through the clouds again. We had a nice sunny walk down the pier to get onto the boat.

A creative solution.

We were the last to re-board and I was greatly looking forward to putting on my black fleece. Everyone was crowded in the back of the boat, since the bow was wet from the rain. I chose to sit in the cabin, even though it meant sitting alone, because I was cold and I probably was the only one on the boat who wouldn't get sea sick. As we pulled out of the harbor, I debated getting changed into dry clothes, but decided that since I might get wet again, I'd rather wait until we were safe and dry in the train station in Sorrento.

The rain started back up as we left the safety of the harbor and started cruising towards Sorrento. The sky became much darker, and there were even rumbles of thunder. The visibility was very poor and the waves very large. Everyone on board started to get a little frightened, with a group of three girls in their early twenties bordering on panic. Joel and I were rather relaxed about the entire thing, having lived through the Car Carrier Incident of 2009. I tried to reassure people that everything was going to be fine, but the three people I had the misfortune of sitting near (the aforementioned obnoxious girls) wanted to hear none of it.

The captain made the decision to turn back to Capri to either wait out the storm, or put the passengers on a hydrofoil back to the mainland. Everyone began to clamber about wanting to go on the ferry and wanting nothing to with being on the boat. The captain told me and Joel that we would be the last to get off the boat, since we had so much luggage, so we sat patiently while they shelled out 20€ to each passenger on board to pay for the hydrofoil. They have been running this trip every day for the past six years, and it was the very first time they had ever had to send the passengers back on the ferry.

By the time everyone had gone, the rain had dissipated, which pleased me because I really didn't want all of our luggage to get soaked. The boat circled around to return to the dock, and Joel made idle chitchat with the guys. The captain said that they actually were going straight back to Sorrento instead of waiting, since the storm had passed, so Joel asked if we could just ride with them. After making sure we were serious, and returning our ferry money to them, we set off for Sorrento.

The ride back was excellent. It was just the four of us on board, so there were no scared people crowding around. The guys joked about having lost about 300€ for nothing, since the storm was over, but even they seemed to relish being on board only with people who didn't find being on a boat stressful.

Goodbye, Capri! 

Hello again, Sorrento! 

The water has turned a murky brown from the rain 

We made it back to Sorrento before the hydrofoil would have even left Capri. We met up with the same guy who was the chef at dinner the night before, and he gave us a ride in his fancy Mercedes to the train station. We bought our tickets and we were on our way to Naples for our overnight train. Next stop, Sicily!!