Breakfast at the hotel is your choice of some cold ham and cheese, some fruit, some sweet buns, croissants, fruit, yogurt and these two cereals – one of them appears to be small circular corn flakes, and the other appears to be some sort of puffed rice. The coffee was excellent – coming in two pitchers – one of some very strong coffee, the other of heated frothy milk … mix to your pleasure (half and half seemed to be good for me).
After breakfast, we walked down to the marina piccolo – to catch the ferry. And “down” meant down a long staircase that ran between two vertical walls. The walls reminded me of the gaps in the rock up at the pictograph site at Lake Superior Provincial Park; only the gap was much wider and there were businesses (a barber shop, a discotheque, a restaurant) built into the face of the gap. At the bottom of the stairs, we continued down a cobblestone road and on down to the dock at the marina.
There were a number of little shops down at the dock and we all got the opportunity to look around a bit while we waited for the ferry. The ferry to Capri (that we took) was a big ship that carried passengers and vehicles. The dockside leading out to the ferry is very narrow and the first off the arriving ferry were the foot passengers – followed by vehicles. It’s a pretty tight squeeze to get pedestrians and vehicles on the same narrow piece of asphalt – but everyone co-operates and there are no problems; pedestrians move aside for the vehicles, the vehicles move slowly and give the people the chance to get out of the way. No big deal, everyone takes it in stride. Once the passengers and vehicles are offloaded, it’s time to load up for the return trip and it kind of goes in reverse. First the foot traffic, followed by the vehicles. There was another school group – from southeastern Tennessee that boarded the ferry with us.
Ferry rides … what can I say about a ferry ride … hmmm …
It was smooth. They make good cappuccino. They have two slot machines. OK … so for the last two, you know that you’re not on the Che-che-maun. I saw one guy playing a slot machine – and I thought “man, is he ever lucky” because he was winning every time. But then one of the students pointed out to me that it was just a change machine. Drats … I was looking forward to getting a chance to try MY luck.
We arrived in Capri, and our guide Flavio went and got us tickets to the Funicularo that goes up from the dock area to the town of Capri. We got off at the top and were in the middle of a picture postcard. It didn’t matter that it was a gloomy, rather cool and damp day – it was still beautiful. Buildings and shops are all crammed into one another – every inch of space is used for something. We started with a bit of free time to explore – with an agreed-upon return time. Our large group of 43 fractured into several smaller groups and the wandering began. Every once in a while, we would come upon others from our group – some had been shopping, some had just been enjoying the sights. Me? I had been enjoying the gelato.
After we re-formed the group, Flavio led us to a garden that looks out over the bay. Again, the scenery is spectacular. The pictures here don’t do it justice. He took us further down to a monastery, but they were not open to the public today so we went back up the central square and then over to the bus terminal for a ride up to Anacapri.
I’m not sure whether or not the buses in Capri have a load limit, but we were certainly close to it on the drive up. There were 43 of us, Flavio, the driver and a helpless local who had the misfortune to board a bus as just the wrong time. To top it off, today is Zandy’s birthday, and the whole bus but for the driver and the local woman) broke into a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday”. I’m sure that the people we drove by on the street were wondering what the heck was going on – and how they were going to try and charter their own “birthday bus”.
I’m hoping this works … I’m going to try and post links (or the files themselves) to some files that can be opened in Google Earth. I’m not going to try and explain how it would work … but if the files are here, you can just open them in Google Earth and you’ll see some tracking of our movements in Capri.
The one I suggest you look at is the one that tracks the bus ride up to Anacapri.
I take back what I said earlier about the bus ride into Sorrento from Rome. I have never … repeat never … been on a bus ride quite like the ride up to Anacapri; the road climbs and climbs and climbs. There are switchbacks and switchbacks and more switchbacks. And more climbing. I mentioned how full the bus was – but what I didn’t mention was how I was standing facing the door and getting the full right-hand side view over the cliff to the water below. Man oh man, we went a long way up that road; some of the others standing started looked out and started to get weak in the knees (and had trouble standing up – I won’t mention any names).
Anacapri is another very picturesque town. It appeared to me that there was only one main street and then a bunch of sidewalks running off in all directions … with more walkways leading down in between houses and houses sandwiched between schools and churches. I could have spent hours looking around there – but – remember how I said that it was a rather cool-ish and damp day? Well up at Anacapri, it was even cooler … and a bit breezier. We saw children coming out of school wearing coats that would not be out of place in Sault Ste. Marie in the winter.
We stayed in Anacapri for a couple of hours and then went back down (although the bus ride wasn’t quite as harrowing on the way down) to Capri and then, after a little bit more time to walk around, back down the Funicularo to the harbor, onto the ferry and eventually back to the hotel.
We were originally planning to see a Tarentella show this evening, but the show’s organizer cancelled at the last minute – so instead, there was a short visit to a local “student-friendly” disco.
Now … I’m the last one awake, telling the story. I’ve had no luck logging in to the hotel’s internet … but I hope that I can get on-line sometime tomorrow (Saturday).
Saturday promises to be a very busy day. The wake-up call comes at 0600, breakfast is at 0700 and the plan is to be packed and ready in the lobby by 0720 for a 0730 bus departure. We’re going to try and get in the visit to Pompei that we had to pass up on due to our late arrival – and then carry on to Rome later in the day.
Ciao … a domani.
Sorrento
Marina Piccolo - Sorrento
Capri
Capri
Anacapri
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