Thursday, June 7, 2012

Undeterred after yesterday’s adventure we were up and ready to go at eight o’clock this morning. We had booked a boat tour of the island of Capri. We were picked up at the hotel and, after a half hour of winding streets, we reached Marina del Cantone.

I was only on the boat a few minutes before I had to pull out the Gravol, but once we got ourselves settled I was able to look out over the back of the boat and all was well. It was a hot day – even on the water with a bit of a breeze.

As soon as we reached Capri we headed out to find the local bus. We waited a few minutes and, by the time it arrived, there were enough people wanting on that we were packed in pretty tight. We arrived at the center of Capri, made a quick stop at the bank machine, and then we were packed onto another local bus headed to Anacapri.

When we arrived I needed to sit and collect myself a bit so we found a restaurant in the shade. I ordered an iced coffee and Pat asked about their lemon soda. The waiter mentioned he had fresh lemon slushies and when Pat declined he said he also had fresh lemon juice. Pat ordered one and so did I. By the time I drank my iced coffee Pat had decided he wanted one too. We could have sat there all day, but we had exploring to do.

First up was the chairlift to Mount Solaro, which is a 12 minute ride (straight up) that takes you to the highest point on Capri. I wasn’t looking forward to the ride but I knew Pat would handle all the mechanics involved. I nearly chickened out when I saw that it was one person per chair! Up I went, hanging on for dear life all the way to the top. What made it tolerable was that it was very quiet – no clanking or screeching of gears – and although we climbed a long way, we were never very far from the ground (usually going above somebody’s garden).

The view at the top was spectacular. We wandered around taking photos from all the viewpoints. I wasn’t as nervous coming down, although I was still hanging on pretty tight. I did let go long enough to snap a couple of photos.

When we got safely back on land we headed off to find the Axel Munthe Gardens. We wanted to visit some Italian gardens on our trip but ones open to the public and within town limits have been few and far between. This one was recommended in our guide book, as well as by one of our tour guides in Rome (she is trained as a gardener). We will be coming home with lots of ideas for our concrete carport.

After a little shopping we took the two buses back to the harbour. We sat in a water-side restaurant for lunch and enjoyed the view.

The return boat trip took us along the other side if Capri where we stopped at the Aqua Grotto and the famous Blue Grotto. The day was calm and there were boats going in, but it wasn’t included in our tour. We could have booked another tour but it is very expensive and would have taken up most of the time we had available on Capri. Maybe next time.

I wasn’t sorry to have my feet back on dry land, but we still had a half hour shuttle trip back to the hotel. I will never again consider the straight roads of Saskatchewan to be boring!

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