Voglio stare nel Capri per sempre!

First view of Capri from the ferry

Ciao tutti! I just returned from the absolute best weekend of my life.  I went to Capri with 7 other girls from the study abroad program.  While words (and pictures) cannot accurately capture the absolute beauty and uniqueness of the island, I will attempt to give you loyal readers a glimpse into life on the island.

Capri! from the taxi on the way to the hotel

We left our campus around 7 am on Friday morning.  We had previously gone to Rome's Termini Station to purchase our tickets to Naples, so we took the metro to termini and grabbed our train.  The train to Naples took about 2.5 hours or so.  Once in Naples, we didn't exactly know where we were supposed to go.  Also, Naples is really not a safe place to be, and it's one of the dirtiest cities I've ever seen.  We ended up eating in McDonalds and asking for directions on how to get to the ferry at the port.  We took a bus from the train station to the port, and purchased tickets for the next ferry.  We got on the ferry and sat outside on the top so we'd be able to see everything.  The ferry ride took about an hour and 20 minutes or so, and while the forecast said it was going to rain all day, during our ferry ride, the clouds broke and the sun came out! I fell in love with Capri at first sight.  As we approached the city we could all tell that it was the most beautiful place in the world.  Seriously, there isn't a single place on the whole island lacking something absolutely beautiful (even the flowers are bigger and brighter in Capri!!).

A street in Capri (note how narrow it is!)

When we got off the ferry, we grabbed two taxis to take all 8 of us to our hotel.  Our hotel was in Anacapri, which is one of the two towns on the island (the other being Capri...).  The drive took about 25 minutes, and it was absolutely terrifying.  The roads are really narrow and the people drive really fast.  The roads wind up and around the mountains and cliffs, and it constantly looks like you're going to fall out of the car and into the water a million feet below.  In addition to it being terrifying, it gave us some of the best views of the islands and the Mediterranean Sea.  The taxis dropped us off about a 10-minute walk from the hotel (the taxis couldn't fit down the narrow streets).  We learned pretty quickly that despite how narrow the streets are, cars and motorbikes of all shapes and sizes still try to squeeze down them, and if you're not pressed up against the wall (there's no sidewalks!), you will get run over.

Our hotel

We stayed at the Hotel Bussola in Anacapri.  It's in a quiet area, with a sheep farm next door.  The people who own the hotel were super nice to us.  They gave us a discounted rate, and helped us find our way around town and showed us what we should do and what we shouldn't.  We got two rooms, one for 5 people with 3 single beds and one double bed, and the other for 3 people with three single beds.  The room for 5 people had more amenities and was 5 euro more expensive.  That was the room I stayed in.  The rooms were fairly simple but very functional, and it fit our visit perfectly.  They gave us breakfast each morning, and the staff could not have been any more helpful.

Capri!

After we got in and got settled a little, we decided to hit the beach! We got directions to Faro, which is a beach in Anacapri.  We had to take a 15 minute bus ride to get there, and the buses on the island are always full to the brim (there is NO personal space).  Once we got to Faro, we had to walk down to the beach.  It was a short walk, and once we got there we were somewhat surprised at what we found.  The "beach" was a concrete slab that people swam off of.  Normally, this would be very disappointing to me, but we knew going in that they didn't have sandy beaches, and its surrounded by cliffs, so a traditional beach is not easily created.  We picked a spot near the water and went in immediately.  I swam in the Mediterranean Sea!!! The water is really deep once you jump off the concrete slab (not sure how deep, I was far from the bottom and didn't attempt to check it out).  The water was so nice.  It had been a cloudy and rainy all morning, so the water was a little chilly, but it felt really nice.  The biggest difference is that the Mediterranean is much, much saltier than the ocean back home, but it felt nice.  The sea was relatively still, and we stayed in for awhile just treading water and relaxing.  We laid out on the concrete for a while and got some sun, too.  Somehow I sliced my toe open on a rock or something there and bled all over the place without even knowing I was injured.  That made things a little more interesting.  We stayed there for a few hours and then took the bus back to the hotel.

Faro, where we swam

Once back at the hotel we started discussing dinner options.  We settled on a restaurant recommended by a travel guide one of the girls had, called Aum Aum.  We went in relatively early, before most of the locals eat dinner (6 or 7 pm!), and so we got seated immediately.  I ordered a prosciutto pizza.  It came out in a heart shape (they make all their pizzas hearts!) and with big chunks of real ham instead of the bacon-like prosciutto that I've been stuck with in Rome.  The pizza was delicious.  Everyone else liked their meals too, and it wasn't very expensive, so definitely somewhere I would recommend.  After dinner we returned to the hotel to shower and get ready to go out.  

Most of the girls at the bus stop en route to Faro!

That night we decided to go to a bar/club named RED.  It's in the middle of "downtown" Anacapri.  When we got there, there was a private 18th birthday party going on, so we talked to the bartender and he got us some seats in the corner.  Besides the birthday guests (and a dog... the italians bring their dogs EVERYWHERE!), we were the only ones there.  Once the cake was cut and distributed, birthday goers left pretty quickly and a group of older twenty-somethings from England arrived.  Our group started dancing, and the brits followed suit.  It ended up being a really fun night, and the bartender was great.  He liked us, so we got special treatment, haha. They played American music, too, just for us! 

Me at Faro!

The next morning we got up around 9 and had our complimentary croissants and strawberry juice (which is super popular in Capri, though I'm not sure why-- I've never seen it anywhere else).  That morning we decided to go into Capri and look at the shops.  We took the bus (which was also terrifying... narrow roads with two way traffic... ahhhh!) and it took 20 minutes or so.  Once in Capri, we looked at a few shops and then decided to walk to the nice beach in the area, Marina Piccola.  It was about an hour long walk, down curvy pathways and stairs and around cliffs and mountainsides.  By the time we finally got to the beach we were sweaty and tired, so we very happily got right into the water.  Marina Piccola is one of the really nice beaches on the island because its almost like a sandy beach, it just has stones instead of sand.  There were a LOT of people there, so we camped out in a tiny spot in the shade next to one of the restaurants.  We went into the water almost immediately and swam around the rocks and into the open water.  It was beautiful.  The water is so clear and SO blue.  We stayed until we got tired and then went back onto the beach to lay out for awhile.  After awhile we were starving, so we went to one of the restaurants on the beach and had pizza (yes, again!).  I split a salami pizza with Ligia, and it was, once again, delicious.  After we ate, we left the beach and headed back to Anacapri.  

View of/from downtown Capri

From Anacapri, we wanted to go and check out the Blue Grotto.  People who have been here in the past (as well as the guidebook we were using) said that after 5 pm, when the rowboats stop going in, you can swim in on your own.  We went there with the intention of swimming in and seeing it on our own (and saving ourselves some money!), but when we got there, a local came up to me and told me we really shouldn't go in because the water was so rough that even the boats had to stop running.  We considered going anyways, but once we got down next to the opening and stairs where you get in the water, we saw that the water was really high, and it looked really dangerous, so we didn't go in.  We looked at it from outside! We found out later that some fellow tourists that we had run into a couple of times did in fact swim in, just an hour or so after we left.  

view on the walk to Marina Piccola 

When we got back to Anacapri, we decided to check out some of the shops in the area.  In case you weren't already aware, Capri is famous for handmade leather sandals. We went immediately into a sandal shop and almost all of us ended up buying a pair.  They were a little pricey (mine were 55 euro), but SO worth it.  The woman selling them adjusted them to fit our feet and they are really comfortable.  Mine are like t-strap sandals in a brown/black color.  They are adorable and I really love them.  After the shops, 4 of us decided to go to Faro to watch the sunset, while the rest of the girls went back to the hotel.  We took the bus out to Faro and got there around 6 or 6:30, just as the sun was beginning its descent.

Sunset from Faro

We staked out a spot on the concrete and hung out waiting for the sun to set.  No one was swimming, presumably because the water was so rough, so we didn't think we should go in, even though we really wanted to.  But then a family of locals came and all three of them jumped right in, so me and Alex deemed it safe, and went and jumped in ourselves.  Somehow the water was even nicer than it had been the day before.  The sea was really rough and the waves were probably 6 feet, but it wasn't overly hard to swim, and the water was actually warmer than it had been the day before! We actually had an easier time getting in and out of the water, too, which was quite unexpected.  We only stayed in for a little while because we got tired, and treading water while tired in rough seas isn't the best idea.  When we got out the sun was starting to get really low, so we went up the hill and found a spot where we would be able to see best.  The sunset was absolutely GORGEOUS.  So amazing.  Words cannot describe it! We stayed until the sun left, and then headed back to the hotel.  

Me, near the Marina Piccola

When we got back to the hotel, we rested for awhile, and ordered pizzas for take-away (thats what they call take out... lol) from the same place we had eaten last night.  It took forever for the pizzas to be ready (like, after 10 pm... ugh!) so we hung out for a long time and got ready to go out again.  The pizza was, once again, delicious and heart-shaped.  We decided to go back to RED again, partly because we had such a good time, partly because we had promised the bartender, and partly because there weren't really any other options! It was midnight before we were ready to go.  There was no private parties that night, and there were more people.  A bunch of 16 year old locals were there, and the Brits from the night before.  A good time was had by all, once again.  Thats where we ran into the people who swam into the grotto, and a local we met offered to bring us in, if we would get up really early the next morning.  

THE BLUE GROTTO

The next morning, we didn't wake up early enough to swim into the grotto, so we had to wait and take a boat.    Little row boats come and take people inside. Theres always a huge line outside waiting to go in, and inside there's a line waiting to come back out.  The passage to get in and out is tiny, and if the tide is high, it can shut completely.  There's a lifeguard-ish person on a boat right in front of the entrance to monitor the water.  We got into two boats (4 on each) and went in at the same time.  I was alone in the front on my boat.  You have to lay flat to get through the passageway, which was pretty interesting.  The boat paddlers pull on a chain to get in and out, and they have to time it perfectly for it to work.  But once inside it is absolutely beautiful.  The color is unlike anything I've seen before.  The bluest blue.  Even the pictures can't capture the real color.  The water was so clear that you could see the fishes swimming under the boats.  Inside the cave is actually pretty big (7 or 8 rowboats were inside at once with plenty of room to spare) and apparently it gets shallow enough to stand up in some places.  I'd say if you're ever given the chance to see it, definitely do it.  It was definitely worth it.  

La Grotta Azzura! 

After the grotto, we sadly had to leave Capri.  We went back to the hotel and got our stuff and then began the long journey home to Rome.  We took a shuttle to the port, the ferry to Naples, the train to Rome Termini station, and then the metro to campus.  It was a long and tiring day of traveling, but we eventually all made it home safe.  Overall the trip was one of the best experiences of my life.  I can't wait to be able to go back to Capri on a vacation and stay longer and really experience everything it has to offer.  It's such a unique place compared to the rest of Italy, and by far the most beautiful place I've ever been.  The trip ended up being somewhat expensive, but it was honestly worth every euro cent we had to pay.

Boats waiting to get into the grotto

Well, thats the entire trip.  It was amazing, and thats the end of that.  Tomorrow I'm probably going to spend a lot of time being lazy, and I may have to do homework (!!!) but I'll keep you all posted on my life.  Feel free to leave some comments! Ciao! 

The Sea through the trees