Panting on Capri

This morning, after a bloody phone call from the British girl at the B&B where I stayed in Naples who charged me an extra 240 Euros because she didn’t think it went through on my ATM card and charged it on my credit card, I caught the 10:00 a.m. ferry to the Isle of Capri. At a cost of 27 Euros round trip, it certainly is not a cheap venture but I had to get out of town and do something different. The ferry ride was really beautiful with a wonderful breeze and we passed several ancient, small castles (probably Saracen) and a couple of smaller towns than Positano on the way to Capri.

The trip is about 55 minutes in length and when we pulled up to dock, I could see how packed with tourists the Porto Marina Grande is and walked around for fifteen minutes before buying four tickets so that I could ride the funiculare up to the city of Capri and back with a trip to Ana Capri in between. The funiculare was crowded, of course, but when we reached the top ten minutes later, I walked around and shot a few pictures and then found a tiny tourist place where I bought a map and asked for directions on how to walk to Monte Tiberius. The walk was strenuous, to say the least, totally uphill, and I had to backtrack when I discovered that I had inadvertently taken a wrong turn ten minutes earlier. I must give myself some credit here, because I have been walking since I left San Francisco in August and my legs are primed and in condition. However, I still pant like crazy going up steep inclines! The ruins of the palace, which is apparently one of twelve built on the island during Tiberius’ reign and that of Augustus, is called Villa Iovis, or Jupiter’s Villa, and he came to live here at nearly age 70 in the year 27 A.D. According to legend, he had his victims thrown from an impressive cliff called Salto di Tiberio. The views from here are completely stunning.

After my descent, it was 15:00 in the afternoon, and after eating some yogurt and a banana, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to use those two extra tickets and decided to go back down by funiculare to the port as my ferry left at 16:25. Well, the blasted lift took about 40 minutes of waiting just to get on, the crowds were so bad, and it was already 15:15. And, once it got down to port, there was a huge line waiting for the ferry which pulled in and started boarding immediately! Apparently, they send a larger ferry for the trip back, which also shuttles to Amalfi…

Today, Celeste, Michel and Laura went mountain climbing and returned with a bag full of olives and spent time smashing them to remove the pits and get them ready to pack in water and salt. Did I mention that when I arrived Celeste was making marmalade from grapes? Got a chance to see a little news on Italian tv but not enough for a news junkie like me.

Wonder what those loud noises were outside… fireworks??