The Blue Grotto
Another morning of getting up early, this time without waking up Bridget since she's not going with us. She decided to spend the day doing a little retail therapy. I MUST go into therapy!
Had a quick buffet breakfast and are starting to recognize people in the buffet line.
Meet down at the bus at 7:15 to head to Capri. We roll through the streets of Rome and onto the motorway. The countryside is beautiful, spotted with Umbrella trees and lots of flora all around. The Umbrella trees are shaped somewhat like an umbrella, long bare trunk with a covering of pine needles. Strangest pine trees I've ever seen. About an hour and a half into the trip we make a pit stop for the bathrooms and are warned that we will have to tip the toilet lady about 500 lire to get in. I wouldn't mind so much if she at least DID something like hand you a towel or whatever. Basically, she's just a really poor woman that they let charge people to use the bathroom. Anyway, as we make a mad dash for the bathrooms since we saw other buses pulling in as well, we are pushed aside by a group of Japanese or Chinese women who have this down to a science. They are so small that you barely notice them at first until you realize you are no longer next in line for the bathroom. They are all lined up single file outside of all the stalls. I don't know how they did this!
We're off again for the next half of our bus ride. We're going to Naples to get on the boat to Capri. Along the way, we see a few mountains off to the left. Lo and behold--it's Mt. Vesuvius! I don't know why this surprised me. I guess it's because nobody ever mentioned we would see it. Pretty wild that houses are built all around the mountain--I don't think that's where I would want to live in case it erupts again. Finally, we get to Naples--what an ugly, poor town this part is. Apparently, if you see wash hanging out on the lines or from the balconies, this means we're in a bad neighborhood--today was definitely wash day. For some reason, traffic is backed up pretty bad and we are real close to missing our boat. As we get closer, our tour director fills us in on what will be happening. Apparently, she is not "licensed" to be a tour director on Capri so we will have a guy named Carmen be our guide. She can not so much as point at anything or she will be arrested. The Mafia runs the tour guides there and doesn't want anyone infringing on their territory. We finally get close enough and we see Carmen flailing his arms madly as he's yelling at us to quick get off the bus and run for the boat because they are getting ready to take off. So we all go running after Carmen, well, we try but there are some elderly people with us and they do their best to keep up. We all make it with a few minutes to spare. Some people headed up stairs and some for the front of the boat but there aren't many seats left. This is the Jetfoil--a high speed ferry--that takes us over to the island. Well, I had brought Dramamine with me but left it in the hotel.... About 15 minutes into the trip, they started handing out plastic bags. I came close to using mine but held on. Most people weren't so fortunate. The bag men just kept making the rounds. The waters were pretty choppy and even Carmen, who makes the trip quite often, was close to hanging over the edge. Feeling pretty green now....
Finally, we dock the boat and all pile off and meet at our designated spot. Several of us had signed up for the small boat excursion around the island! Quite a few people changed their minds since they were quite queasy. I decided to go for it after Carmen convinced us that we won't get sick, that it will be much better out there. Did I tell you that he's gorgeous? Looks and talks just like Al Pacino! Which is pretty apropos since he's with the mafia! Anyway, he could have convinced me to swim around the island. Our group split up--one group to tour around the gardens and shop, while the rest of us got into our little motorboat. Carmen was right and, in fact, the fresh air helped me to feel better fast. The island doesn't really have much beach that we could see since it's really just this big rock with high cliffs. There are a lot of rock formations that are really cool. We can also see Sorrento, another island, not far from us. Apparently, that is where Sophia Loren is from. We finally get around to the White Grotto. A grotto is a cave and apparently, if the weather is just right there is sort of this phosphorous like glow within the grotto. As the waves splash down, we can see the bright red coral that is attached to the grotto. It's absolutely beautiful and worth the trip. We also go through this huge opening in the middle of this big rock sticking out of the water--it's got to be about 2 stories high. You're supposed to make a wish as you go through the hole.
The Blue Grotto
Nothing else much to see that I can remember right now. Anyway, we get out of the boat and load up into a van to go up to the top of the island for lunch. You have no idea how narrow the roads are! We closed our eyes some of the time--like when another car was coming towards us and there was maybe half an inch between the two vehicles and not much more space on the other sides of both vehicles! Oh my God! The roads were very windy--you have to take 180 turns as you zigzag up the mountain. And there were idiots that were passing us on these roads. Oh my God! The worst part, though most beautiful part is that the right side of our van was just a cliff most of the way. One wrong move....
We arrive at the Hotel Bella Vista and go inside where they have tables waiting for us. It's all prepaid so we don't need to think about how much it will all cost. We all get either a carafe of wine (which I'm getting very fond of having for lunch) or beer and then our choice of pasta, meat, or fish along with salads. The owner claims the pasta sauce is the best around and his own recipe. Well, don't go to Italy for the food! It tasted like he heated up some cans of tomato paste and put it over the pasta. Which is funny because a friend of mine out here is from Italy and it did taste just like her sauce which we chastised her for not being able to cook! Her mother usually comes over and cooks for her and her husband. Anyway, it just felt good to relax for a while. Then we did a little shopping around the corner. Carmen took us to the back of one shop where they showed us the inlaid wood furniture that they make there and how they make it, etc. It was beautiful but our buddy, Jay from the group, hogged the sales guys attention the entire time so I didn't buy anything there. Now I wish I had. Anyway, shopping didn't last long and we boarded the van again to go down to the next level for a little more shopping. Our first stop was to a shop that sells Limoncello. We all got free samples and then bought some to take home with us. They are bottled in the prettiest bottles. Limoncello is that lemon apertif I mentioned the other day. That was the other thing we noticed--lemon trees everywhere with the biggest lemons you ever saw--they were almost the size of footballs. Okay, I said almost. Then we walked down to the center where Carmen was going to take us on a stroll through the gardens. I heard the gardens are beautiful but just didn't have it in me to do that much more walking so we headed back and bought more Limoncello and browsed for a while. Yes, I realize this is still walking but it's at a slower pace and was more relaxing.
Time for the ride back down to the boat--this time we took the funicular down. Basically a funicular is a cable car that takes you up and down the mountain. Very smooth fun ride. Geez, I felt like I was at Disney everywhere we went! We were all a little nervous about the boat ride back to Naples and several of us had stopped at the Farmacia for motion sickness pills. Yes, I bought some though the ride ended up being perfect and didn't really need it. We sat up top for the view this time and a little sun. Got back in the bus and headed back to Rome. We had told Bridget we would be back around 8:00 pm but didn't get there til around 9:00. We found her in the bar hanging out with Bob and Aldo and on her 3rd beer having a great time. We hung out there for a while and then around 10:30 decided it was time for dinner. Kathy stayed behind and was going to go to bed, so Bridget and I went down a few blocks for dinner. We split a bottle of wine and I had what was basically Mac and Cheese, but it was Rigatoni with a Gorgonzola Cheese--it was wonderful. Finally! When we got back to the hotel, Kathy was still at the bar hanging out with Bob and Aldo so we hung out there for a while. Bob bought us some Limoncello and some more wine.
Link to more info: http://www.etrav.com/pathways/html/capri.asp
Recipe for Limoncello: http://www.beveragerecipe.com/AZ/Limncll.asp
Finally went to bed.