Cuh-pri

Aint not GFC in Capri

• First thoughts
• Lost on the seaside hill trails
• Singing in the Grotta Azzurra
• Banana boat - the Grotta, the anchor and James Bond?

To the tune of "Aint no sunshine when she's gone" (No idea why he is sweating so much in the linked video)

Aint no GFC in Capri
Lots of money, more each day
As the cruise ships enter port
They drop the suckers off
And their money goes away

Its a 20 minute fast ferry trip from Sorrento to Capri which is just a bit longer but analogous to the trip from Rockingham to Peppermint Grove.

Capri (pronounced Cuh-pri (with a short "i" like Italian not a long 'i" like Austalians say "ee") is a rocky island which is now built on tourism but, other than the main drag of Capri itself, is done in a tasteful, calm way that leaves you wanting more. This is just like Sorrento and Amalfi but the opposite.

"Capri" is really two towns on the island of Capri. There is the town above the port called Capri and then about a 20 minute drive along skinny switchback roads and up a higher mountain to Anacapri which is where we stayed.
Capri gets many day trippers from around the Naples area as well squillions of cruise ship passengers who pop in for the day. It becomes much quieter at night unless you are a Capri nightclub / bar type and enjoy paying a LOT to hang out with the rich, famous and beautiful. This is, surprisingly, not us!

Waiting for the boat

A few people getting off the boat at Capri. THere are 3 more boats arriving from locales various just behind them

Thataway to Capri. Most of it is up and to the right.

Really like the guys brown leather bag!

In Italy, it is a God given right to walk wherever and at whatever speed you want. If the road is narrow and a car or bus is coming at you or from behind you, then that is 100% their problem. As we drove past these pedestrians below, not one even moved as our side windows brushed by them as though the newest of Gillette razors. The driver, by the way, didn't slow down, just kinda weaved through at a speed that I would drive on say the freeway.

I know this looks bad but imagine doing it at 60 or more km/hr. the weird thing about this photo though is that the boy on the scooter with hid dad is wearing a helmet AND atbhisndad is texting on his mobile phone.

Still not sure how we fitted through.

Standard poker face whilst in car / bus on roads of Capri, or Amalfi

Great view of Capri. To the right of the fence is a sheer drop.

Our hotel is just lovely. Quiet on a hillside and far enough from any streets that you dont hear the buzz of the scooters, cute lil three wheeler cars, motorbikes (quite a lot) and cars. THere are birds chirping in the morning but Capri birds (soft and gentle happy birds) not Sorrento birds (get up now). The smell is fresh like I imagined the south of Italy to be with lemons, herbs and "niceness". Again, this is in contradistinction to Sorrento.

Strange creature in the window

We only have 2 nights in Anacapri which we are already regretting. Wish it was more. We didn't appreciate the closeness and easy access between Capri, Naples, Sorrento and Amalfi.

Anacapri pretty much looks like this in every direction

The mall leading into Anacapri

The long walk
We set off on a mission to walk the trail on the North of the island which goes along the old walls along the coastline. Its called " i Fortini Borbonici" which sounds better in Italian than the "walk of the bourbon blockhouses".
The walls forts were initially Venetian then British then French. I know Hadrian gets a bit of kudos for his wall but man, every time the Venetians saw a bit of land, up went some fortifications, a lookout or two and usually a fort.
For reasons hard to fathom for those who know me, I went out without a phone. Sadly, this was the same moment Ree left her phone behind so we have no pictorial evidence of our own to share as to the splendour. We also, it turns out, had no GPS so when we got woefully lost we were..... woefully lost!
Most confusing was when we came to a fork in the path that had a sign showing four different directions. Wha?
It was hot and humid and getting dark. It was also steeply uphill near the end. Drew didn't complain once. more like about 6.7 complaints per minute until he realized nobody was listening so upped the rate to 11.4 cpms. Then he gave up and got on with it. Zozo is not a complainer.
For Drew, the good news is that the only time he got lost on Capri was when he was with the rest of his family.
After a good shower we took the hotel shuttle (aka the small minivan) to the the sister hotel which has a big pool and a nice place to eat.
It was a bit late so we decided not to go swimming even though the internet pictures looked lovely. Maybe tomorrow?

In the background you can see the hose which was probably turned on about an hour before we arrived. No swimming for you.

Early start tomorrow so kids to bed well before midnight!