I had wanted to see the Amalfi coast, I suppose like a lot of other people, after seeing the movie "The Talented Mr. Ripley" with Matt Damon and Jude law. I imagined myself going to cool jazz bars and meeting beautful Italian women and lounging on the beach with a speedo just like in the movie-actually everything except the speedo part..
Instead, the less romanticized version featured many very wealthy tourists going to this shopping and scenic heaven to spend a lot of money.
I went to join Bainy and her New York friends in Sorrento. Finding out they were staying at the Hilton, I realized that we might have very different ideas in mind for vacationing.
It was great to see Bainy and catch up with her and hear the news from San Francisco. "San Fran" as she calls it, to the constant corrections of her friends, "NOONE calls it that here!!"
Bainy and friends were staying at another nice place in Capri, which I could not afford.
Since Capri is about as ritzy as it gets, I struggled to find a hotel that was under $50 a night since there are not hostels on Capri. I finally found one, and after haggling with the owner, I talked the price down to $43. It actually had an amazing view-all the sunset pictures I took from my window. It was also nice for a change to not share a room with 5-9 other people.
My impression of Capri was that is is very pretty, but somewhat spoiled by all the tourists that come there. They are not only the tourists, but the types of tourists that go there. You have a lot of rich and obnoxious French and Italians that visit, and the locals make a point of gouging every dollar they can out of them. It was especially anti-climactic after Cinque Terra and all its unspoiled charm.
It is also very shopping-driven, especially very expensive shopping. There is Gucci and Prada and Ferragamo and Armani, and just about every other high-end brand you can imagine. I had no interest at all in shopping, so that actually left little other to do in Capri. There is a famous boat ride that you can take to see the "Blue cave", but I didn't get to go since the water was too rough that day. There isn't much of a coastline in Capri, and the town is located far above the water as you take a cable-car line to get up to town.
The girls ideas for a vaction were shopping at Gucci and sunbathing, and these two interests didn't appeal to me. One of the girls was also on the Atkins diet and I was thinking, "what the hell are you doing in Italy!?!" When you come to Italy and don't eat pasta and cheese and pizza, and you shop all day, why not just go to Miami?!?
I knew I needed to get the hell out of Capri when the next morning, I stopped at a cafe to get a crossiant and a coffee, and the bill was 10 bucks. I ran to the ferry, pushing my way past fat and super-stylish french tourists.