We have been waiting all week to go to Capri…early sailings have been cancelled because of the weather, plus we were trying to juggle the best day to go on, as a few sights Rosie and The Operater wanted to see are dependent on the weather to be open. Swell map vs weather forecast has said today, Sunday, is the optimum day to take the ferry to The Isle of Capri, lucky, it is our last day in the area. We have bought a ticket bright and early for the 9.25 sailing…first, beach side fortification, Rosie cant sail on an empty stomach.
Positano to Capri – Thirty mins on the fast Cat, we pulled into the dock at 10.00 am….the island was heaving with people at the marina arriving from Naples, Sorrento, Salerno, Amalfi, private charters and tour companies….you could see the wakes of all the boats converging to the port.
We have a map of the island, we have highlighted, the things we want to do and see in advance, we have 5 hours before our return trip home again, we are organised and off. First we need to buy internal transport tickets. On the island there are only residents cars, taxis, scooters and internal buses.
The Operator has calculated how many tickets we need vs how many stops we have planned. Easy Peasy, then we see the ticket line….there is only one guy on the counter and 100 people in the line….OK. We have our tickets, now to the bus stop….round the corner we go, a bus is just pulling out and people are packed in like sardines, and the line has another 50 people waiting….Rosie and The Operator look at each other…NO WAY.
Rosie spies a scooter rental place across the road, nudges the Operator and he is off to inquire, he waves Rosie over. Yep, this is us said the Operator I will sign up for the bike you try and resell your bus tickets…ooookkkkaaaayyyy. Rosie is a super scalper legend, she went to the back of the ticket line. Blessed with a good loud voice Rosie broadcast that she had 10 tickets for sale, just bought, look how long the que is, will resell them to you right here right now. Rosie was surprised how quick people stepped forward…then an American voice piped up…sounds like a scam to me….No scams here said Rosie, flourishing her tickets, I just bought the tickets 10 mins ago and then decided to hire a scooter instead. Not everyone was as organised as Rosie and The Operator when it came to buying tickets, why do you want only two, do you want to walk back down the hill again? I was selling and then telling them where to go to catch the bus with their newly purchased tickets and also giving info out on scooter hire….Rosie has a new calling! That was fun. The tickets were gone in under 4 mins…off to the scooter hire place…..and the bus I was queueing for hadn’t even arrived yet.
The scooter was a 50cc two stroke, it only had one wing mirror, the speedo didn’t work or the fuel gauge, which read empty, The Operator checked the tyres, satisfactory, the indicators and brake lights did work and we were off. We hauled out of the rental yard in a cloud of blue two stroke smoke and headed for the hills. That little scooter was hauling it hard on the switchback inclines pulling 180kgs of human….it sounded like a swarm of angry bees were following us everywhere…ooops, The Operator never got to test the brakes until we started to go down hill…..there wasn’t alot of them.
We pulled out of the rental yard just as the bus pulled into be loaded. Thank goodness we didn’t have to wait around all day for buses….Rosie totally would have got her grump on in no time flat. We were speeding…well, it felt like it, up the narrow winding roads heading to the Blue Grotto. The wind was in Rosies face, bugs were bouncing off it as well, the day was mild and the smell of wickedly fragrant jasmine was in the air, man it felt good not to be crammed on that bus. Pull over The Operator, I need to take a photo from this great high spot, Rosie doesn’t even need to hop off the bike.
The road was quiet when we got to the Blue Grotto, the car park was devoid of buses and pretty empty, could we be that lucky? We park the scooter, do we need to pay and display Rosie asked The Operator….how the hell are we going to do that with a scooter….no, free parking. We have parked on the cliff top and take the stone stairs down to the entrance to the grotto, there is only a line of about 30 people waiting. Then Rosie looks out to sea and there are about ten boatloads of tourists waiting, each with approximately 15 – 50 people on them.
Small rowboats that take 4 people at a time ply the water between the boats and those waiting on the stairs, to ferry people into the grotto to show them the wonder. We wait about an hour, there is so much to watch and see the time does go very quickly. Next minute Rosie is folding herself into a bobbing rowboat, sitting so close to the water. We row over to the floating ticket booth and make our payment, then we are in the que to enter the cave.
We have to completely lie flat in the rowboat, the entrance to the Blue Grotto is a small hole in the cliff about 1 metre high, the boatman steadies himself with a chain that is attached to the wall, then on the next wave surge he too is lying flat on top of Rosie and we are in the cave, it is pitch black, we cannot see a thing. What! Flashed through Rosies mind, have we been ripped off….then the boatman, who has been silently gliding forward in the dark says, turn around….
….and it is magic, you can see the circle of white light from the small hole in the cave and the water in front of it is the most luminescent moving liquid blue. The boat weaves around the cave, it is still dark in the cave and the only light is from the water, shadows of other boats glide around you, the boatman are singing opera, the acoustics are perfect.
The height in the cave seems to be really cavernous, the boatman are standing up, this cave apparently used to be a sacred place of worship to the Romans as statues of nymphs have been removed from there and are in the museum on the island. So what makes the water shimmer such a vibrant azure in the cave?
A combination of the size of the cave entrance hole and the amount of light it lets in, plus the depth of the water and the white sand on the bottom of the cave, is the perfect combination for the eerie colour. All in all we were inside the cave for about 5 mins and it is an experience I will never forget, and certainly recommend.
It was lunchtime and just down the road was a restaurant with a fantastic view over the bay and out to Naples and Vesuvius. When on Capri one has to have a Caprese Salad with their famous Mozzarella….it was delicious. Followed by a plate of pasta and within the hour we were on our way again.
The island is relatively small and compact, from the Marina Grande where we landed to the highest point which is Mount Solaro where we were headed after lunch the elevation rises from sea level to mountain top is 589 metres.
The small town of Ana Capri is at the foot of the mountain, and Rosie wasn’t trekking up the hill, we jumped on the chairlift, which was ace, it was a single seat lift that went straight up the mountain. It was so quiet and peaceful, slowly gliding up the mountain, below you look into back yards, all have huge home gardens, heaps of fennel. basil tomatoes and fruiting trees including huge old lemon trees.
The ride was ten mins each way and at the top you had a commanding view of the island and the rough terrain below leading to the small villages and sea.
Another loud smoky blast on the scooter had us at the Marina Piccolo, Small Marina….believe me it was small, there was a tiny church on a promontory, two restaurants, a bus stop and a beach club on the small pebbly beach which was already closed for the season, a few rental scooters were cruising down for a look just like us…turning around and going back up the hill
Rosie did take a few snaps, there were a couple of hardy swimmers lying on the beach and a que so long for the bus it was crazy, considering there was nothing down there…a British woman was demanding quite loudly to a bus driver that she wanted a ferry ticket to Salerno, she was at a marina….she couldn’t get the fact that no boats leave from here and she had to go back to the big marina.
We zoomed off to have a scout around Capri town, it was unremarkable and where most of the day trippers had camped out for the day, just up hill from the marina. We left, we had 30 mins to catch the ferry back to Positano. We dropped the bike back to the most cheery rental man you could ever come across, went and bought a gelato and scouted abit around the marina, which was still jam packed with people, now waiting to exit the island.
Everyone visiting this area has been to Capri, everyone says you should go to Capri….everyone Rosie has spoken to has really loved Capri….Rosie is a little mixed on that one, she feels there is alot of tourist hype about this island, did it live up to expectations? It did, only because we could do our own thing in our own time.
Rosie really did enjoy being here because of that, she can say Rosie and The Operator have been to Capri! Rosie even had a small kip on the way home in a comfy seat inside the ferry.
Tomorrow we leave Positano and head into uncharted territory, we are heading towards the Puglia region, into the stiletto of the boot of Italy. Matera here we come.
