A great day
- Early start - out the hotel by at least 10am
- Grotta Azzurra
- Lunch in Capri
- Hire a boat and go around the island
- Swim and explore Grotta Bianca, coast of Capri
- Stroll Anacapri
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| Most signs on Capri on on tiles like this |
So the "big prop" of Capri is "Grotta Azzurra" known to Australians as "the bloooo groddo". I guess a Grotto is a cave with entrance to the sea?
The blue one is famous because its water colour is, well, the same as water everywhere. The reflection of the white limestone floor gives the water an eery blue colour that gets more eery the clearer the sky.
Mornings are when to go as day trippers only get in to town about 10. As the days go on, so the lines get longer, then longer, then longer.
Grotto waiting
Surprisingly there is a sign near the stairway down to the Grotto with an arrow pointing in the direction you should go. You head down the stairs and join the line. There is no mention of cost or how it works, so follow the leader it is.
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| Not the tour boats already coming in |
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| On the stair line. You can see the entrance to the Grotto. Not big. |
In the water near the entrance to the Grotto are lil row boats with oarsmen. They sort of row around a bit, havea beer, have a cigarette then maybe another beer then row toward where the stairway line is. You get onto a boat and get taken into the Grotto......well almost.
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| Oarsmen having a beer. "Our" guy is the one in the white shirt |
Onto the boat
It's only once you get into the boat that the oarsman tells you the price. There's a price - who knew? No rowing yet baby. Papa hands over the 50 Euro and instead of thanks, the oarsman says, "and when we finish you will give me a big tip OK". I didn't respond so he said it again. A nod from Lozza and off we go into the Grotto..........well almost.
First we row around past a boat with the men on. The oarsman pays them and they give us a ticket. It's quite surreal. The guys on the boat who take the cash all look like they are directly from the Godfather. All money changes hands in silence.
Heading in
Had this song in my head all day. happens after you hear "grotto" again and again. few listening choices to follow.....As though by Elvis (from 1969) or someone else (the song) or the real video (makes me laugh). On a cold and grey Chicago morn, another little baby child is born.......in the Grotto.......in the grotto
The singing you can hear is from our oarsman who bellowed out opera into my face as though this would somehow improve the experience. It did not. He then takes your camera, takes a pic of the three that he has his back to then one of me. Phone handed back and out we go.
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| Oarsman takes a picture |
Out the boat, up the stairs, bus to Anacapri, bus to Capri. It's Capri so each 10 minute ride is about 10AUD.
Quick lunch at a small deli like thing then strolled through Capri where we discovered expensive shops, well dressed Italians, teeny strawberries and the natural enemy of the radish.
The ordering and paying system in Italy is a bit different. You order from, the counter. They give you ticket which you take somewhere else to a cashier. Once paid, you return to the counter and await your food. When the food is ready, you trade the new ticket you received from the cashier after you have paid, for your meal.
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| Cashier at the door |
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| Teeny Strawberries |
Next adventure: Boat hire
This was Zoe and Drew's idea. They saw a pamphlet on the ferry and got excited about hiring a boat for a few hours to go around the island. In Good weather, you can get all the way around including a 40 minute swim in about 2 hours.
Most people take out boats with a skipper then lie on the front of the boat tanning and fawning. Skipper shmipper say the Dembo's and after a quick boat tutorial we are off on our lil 25HP outboard boat.
Drew found a bit of foam in the shape of a boat and worked on it for a while to make it seaworthy.
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| Zoe edited a map to show our journey |
First stop - Grotta Bianca (the woyt groddo)
The boys check it out
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| Catch the glare off Drew's melanin free integument |
Time for a snorkel so after carefully finding a relatively clear area of water (no rocks) to drop anchor, the girls headed off for a swim, snorkel and explore. The key word in the sentence above is "relatively".
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| Venetians arrived, saw a cliff, built a fortification wall |
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| She used to be so little |
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| One way to keep him quiet |
Zoe dives in.
Not surprisingly, when we tried to get the anchor up it was VERY stuck under rocks. Zoe dived down deep (really deep) a lot of times to work out how it was stuck - 2 prongs under a rock ledge. Not good!
So we tried and tried but no movement. I dived down but didn't get as far as Zoe and couldn't see the bottom even with clear swim goggles. Not Good!
Even with the help of General Drew coordinating the troops, Colonel Ree on ship anchor duty, Zoe on Navy Seal and Private Lozza diving down and dragging on the anchor rope in different positions and from different angles. No luck. Not good!
Eventually we moved the boat so the anchor tension was in a different direction and tried one last time while a nearby boat of Italians had one of their guys suiting up with big flippers to see if he could help. Just then I managed to slip the anchor out from under the ledge and we were free. Good!
It was a very exhausting exercise. Underwater and full tension pulling the anchor rope. Took a good while to recover to normal breathing. Drew thought that this would be an excellent time for a post match interview.
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| Swimming back with the anchor |
The waves were getting quite choppy by now so Ree accelerated as we headed right into them. We were flung about quite a lot much to the whoops and yells of excitement from Drew and the progressively whiter face of Zoe. Very bumpy but we got back in time, having had (as both the kids voted) the "best day of our lives" which we realize they have mentioned before but ........lets just say their nickname could be "Dory"
No time to go back out on the walking trails now, but booked in with the kids for tomorrow morning before we leave Anacapri.
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