Capri and Naples

I’ve known about the Island of Love for quite some time (shoutout to Pao who bought me a lovely cross from Capri!!) and have always been eager to visit. The first two days in Italy all I heard back on the ship were wonderful remarks about Capri, so I was more excited than ever. We purchased tickets around 7:45 and got on the boat at 8:10. It took a little less than an hour to arrive at Marina Grande. Upon finding out the Blue Grotto was currently closed, we decided to get on a bus to Anacapri, the smaller town on the island. Once again, twists and turns up a mountain to Anacapri. At every turn, bus drivers have to honk because they can’t tell if cars are coming down and there is only room for one car one direction. It’s a little intense. We were dropped off at Piazza Vittoria, from where I grabbed a Herald Tribune (my LIFESAVER..oh to read newspapers again). The first thing we did was hit the Seggiovia del Monte Solaro, the 12 minute chairlift up Monte Solaro, Capri’s highest point of
July 251,932 ft. Wow…going up was the most tranquil 12 minutes of my life (well, perhaps a certain sunday morning). I had never done anything like this (besides like a charlift at kennywood, lol). Charlifts are now at the top of my list of favorite things to do. To my right was the Mediterranean Sea and we were able to see amazing views of Capri and the Bay of Naples in general. My barefeet hung loose over lemon groves beneath me…the landscape was massaging my eyes…and then when we got to the top, it was probably the best view of this entire trip. There is something about mountains that invigorate me and seeing the bright blue sea below made it all the more perfect. This was the Italy I came for.

Once we had taken the chairlift down, we found a place called Sciue Sciue to get a quick lunch. After, our main priority was seeing the Blue Grotto. The Grotta Azzurra is a famous cave that has a distinct blue glow to the water and is the most popular tourist destination in Capri. From Anacapri, we took a bus to the Grotto and waited in line for about twenty five minutes. Then, we got on a small rowboat that only fit five of us (including the guy who rowed us in) and went in line with the other dozen rowboats to pay the admission fee. Then we waited for about five minutes in the boat for other rowboats to come out of the cave. It’s really funny to watch people because in order to get into the cave, people have to awkwardly lie all the way down in the rowboat because there is such a small opening (1.3m high). Once we were inside, I was like, “where is the blue???” Everything seemed dark, I could barely see anything. But then I turned my head back to the right and towards where we had entered, and the water was the most beautiful blue color I have ever seen in my life (when I get internet access, I’ll put up a video…I was taking a video when we had just gotten in so my first view will be yours as well :) ). The men who row the boats are called “singing captains” because they sing while in the cave. We were in there for all but two minutes and honestly…I don’t know if its worth it (costs like 18 euros overall). There are other grottos on the island of Capri, and when we first got to the Marina Grande, there was an Italian man offering to take us to four other grottos and a tour around the island for 25 euros. The three other people with me wanted only to go to the Blue Grotto, but I really wanted to go on this other tour…we would have been able to swim in the grottos, ah…oh well.

After seeing the grotto, we got on a bus back to Anacapri and then waited about ½ hour for another bus to get to Capri town. Then, we took the funicular down to the Marina Grande and got our ticket back to Naples. Afterwards, we went to the beach right next to the Marina and ran into the sea…felt so refreshing. We were only in for about 15 minutes but it was so worth it…and free!

We got back to Naples around 430ish and once again, took a mini siesta. I later went out with some other friends to have dinner and we found this place that had been recommended to us, called Osteria Pizzeria? Naturally, I ordered a Margherita pizza which was very good and we enjoyed a local wine called Falanghina Beneventano. Later, we went to get gelato at Caffe Gambrinus, perhaps the most well known café in the city. It’s right near the Piazza Trieste e Trento and Oscar Wilde was known to hang out here. Mussolini even shut down rooms there because left wing intellectuals met there. The gelato was alright but what we really loved were these frozen lemons filled with lemon sorbet. So delicious!! After relaxing for awhile, we headed back to the ship.

July 26

Today I awoke up early enough for breakfast and headed out to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, which took me about twenty to twenty five minutes to walk to. Luckily, it was a pretty direct route, straight up Via Toledo. I had been hearing that this was the best archaeological museum in Europe and that the artifacts found in Pompeii and Herculaneum were all there. It’s a large, pink and green building…definitely an interesting choice of colors. Anyhow, I was actually really happy to get inside…my walk wasn’t as pleasant as I hoped…I’ll write more about that later…but the museum was a little disorganized I felt…perhaps it was the time I went (early in the morning) but it seemed understaffed as well. However, it was nice seeing the variety of artifacts, including paintings, sculptures, and mosaics. The classic Fighting the Persians mosaic was there, as well as some really interesting sculptures, including Farnese Bull, which is the largest sculpture survived from the classic period. The best part was seeing models of the town of Pompeii…so cool to see everything laid out. After the museum, I spent the next hour or so walking around parts of Naples…exploring what I hadn’t seen, getting the Herald Tribune, buying a phone card and getting very excited about making phone calls only to find out it didn’t work at the phones near the ship…sigh…

I went back to the ship a little early and took a swim in our pool and took it easy. I’m still sick so I didn’t want to push myself, even on the last day. I should be writing field reports and we have another important paper due in Global studies in two days….ah….work. And only two days until Istanbul…unbelievable. I’m so happy we’re here in the Mediterranean and the weather has been such an improvement!

It’s about 9:30 right now and I’m about to do some other writing and then go to bed. I have a lot of work for classes and I should get as much sleep as possible. I'll try to write tommorrow more about my impressions. Ciao!