We were up early this morning so that we could take an aliscafo (hydrofoil) to Capri. We were planning on going to Procida, but we heard so much about Capri that we figured we should go there. By 8:30AM, there was a large group of people standing on the porto (harbor/port) to board the aliscafo. As soon as they were ready for us to board, everyone pushed forward and tried to get on as quickly as possible. I got pushed ahead of Alessandro and sat down as soon as I could to wait for him.
After an hour on the Mediterranean Sea, we arrived in Capri. They had mentioned many different options for touring Capri: by bus or by sea. We decided that we would take a boat around the island. Unfortunately, many of the tours that go around the island stopped at the Grotta Azurra (Blue Grotto) and you had to pay extra to tour the inside of the grotta in a small boat. We weren't particularly interested, so we didn't want to spend an extra hour on the boat waiting for the others to tour.
Because we missed the last morning boat that toured the island without stopping at the Grotta Azurra, we took the funicolare (funicular) to the piazzetta in the center of town, which is above the porto where we arrived.
We walked around Capri where there were many of the same shops we have in Florence. We decided to visit the Certosa (Charterhouse) where Pino Daniele had a concert the previous night instead. We walked to the edge of the garden and looked out at the sea.
After we walked back to the piazzetta, we took a city bus to Anacapri where we visited the Chiesa di S. Michele. We decided to have lunch in front of another church because almost everything else was closed.
After lunch, we walked back to the bus stop in Anacapri and squeezed ourselves onto the bus that took us down to the porto. We thought that we had missed the bus as it was rather late. When we got on, luckily, the bus driver didn't pick up any other passengers because we were standing on the steps and had to push people just to get the doors to close. They wanted one of us to get off, but I couldn't leave him and he couldn't leave me behind.
We arrived at the porto and quickly walked to the biglietteria (ticket office) to buy tickets for the boat trip around Capri. The boat was just about to leave when we arrived, so we jumped on, and after they let on two more people, we took off.
The trip around the island was beautiful. I was surprised to find out that that there aren't any sandy beaches on Capri. And the rocky beaches that do exist are extremely small. I think we only saw one from afar. Most people swim in the sea from a boat or yacht.
The picture I took here was taken on our boat trip around the island. When we went past the Grotta Azurra, we were happy that we weren't stopping. There were at least 10 boats loading and unloading people to take them on a tour in the Grotta Azurra. Because there is no artificial light inside, we were told that you can't see that much.
After we got back to the porto, we had some sorbetto al limone (lemon sorbet) while we waited for our aliscafo, which was leaving at 5:40PM.
I was happy that we visited Capri and even happier that we were staying in Ischia. I only wished that we did have time to visit Procida as I heard it was very different from Ischia and Capri.
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