Capri

Today was a beautiful day! Today was a free day for us, as our tour officially starts this evening at a dinner at the hotel with our fellow tour travelers. The weather was really stunning. Dad and I took a large ferry boat to the Isle of Capri. After we got off the boat a guy asked us if we wanted to take a taxi ride all over Capri. We had a bit of a conversation, finally convincing him we only wanted to go to AnaCapri. The town of AnaCapri is at the top of this very steep island. From there we took a chairlift up the mountain further to Mount Solaro. The chair lift was a series of wooden chairs - one chair per person. They come down and you basically have to hop on it, pull the metal bar across and up you go. Getting off was even a bit more tricky as they don't stop the lift you have to get off fast. But it was so beautiful (wish I had more adjectives as it's hard to describe). It was steep, but not scary and the views were panoramic. Once you get up there, the views are spectacular as well, but after a bit of walking around and picture taking, we went back down the mountain on the chair lift. Dad and I did great!

Next, we decided that the taxi's are a bit pricey and managed to find a bus to the Blue Grotto. Once we got there, there were many, many steps down to the beach and from there you would have to get into a big boat with lots of people. Dad struck up a conversation with some people from Canada on the bus, and the guys weren't too excited about going, but were following their wives (such good guys). Well, we headed back to AnaCapri and ate lunch at this lovely little Trattorria we saw while walking around. The pizza was homemade, thin and really delicious. We had Margharita pizza with artichokes and lemon water. It was quite, peaceful and the garden where we ate was full of flowers.

Blue Grotto boat

Trattoria where we ate lunch

So, we ambled back to the square with the buses and ran into the same people back from the Grotto. As the gentlemen put it , the Blue Grotto was a rip off, expensive, and took only about 8 minutes total. I think Dad and I had the better day by far! Our next transportation adventure was taking a public bus to the middle of the mountain and then another bus to the Marina to catch our ferry ride back to Sorrento. Those buses are all scratched up on the sides for a reason! Wow, you are right up against the cliffs of the hills, with equally large buses passing the other way. It seems like there won't be room for both, and then you add a few pedestrians and motorcycles and it's a wonder that people aren't killed more often over here.

Gotta run as we are all dressed up and ready to meet people.