Day 21 started early once again. We wanted to get an early start in Sorrento in order to maximize our time in Capri. The ferry back from the island only ran until 5:30, so we had limited time.
The train from Vico Equense to Sorrento was far more civilized than our train from Naples, which was well appreciated. The ride was only about 5 minutes long and when we walked out we were in downtown Sorrento.
The signage was good and before we knew it we had water in sight. A little sign sent us down a rather sheer cliffside path to get to water level.
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| Road from upper Sorrento to coastline Sorrento |
Originally, we had no plans for Capri apart from maybe hiking up the mountain and spending some time on the beach. On the way, we joked about the possibility of chartering a boat or renting one ourselves but we never believed that either would be possible. To our amazement, when we walked onto the ferry we were all handed pamphlets for "Capri Boat". For a very fair price, you could rent 5- or 9-person boats for the day with included gas, enabling you to anchor off the coast, swim, and dine anywhere you wanted with ease. We decided on the ferry that we would check it out after we got off.
The views of the island were stunning. The sky was blue and the water was clear. A perfect summer day.
We pulled in on the ferry at the main dock and made a B-line for the boat rentals. We spoke with the proprietor of the stand and discovered that, yes, in fact, we could rent a boat for as long as we wanted and could pay afterwards. We had 6 people so we had to rent the larger boat, but we did the math and realized that, per person, a full day on the water was only 35 euros each. This was an opportunity that we could not refuse. I handed over my driver's license and wrote down some emergency contact info and before we knew it a man drove over in our little boat.
The boat was a little 10 or 12 foot center console boat, a glorified dinghy really. In the end, we didn't need anything more. The engine had plenty of horsepower to zip along the coastline or push out into the Mediterranean. A cooler and ice was also provided in the price, so some of the girls went to one of the local stores and picked up some drinks to have on the water. I was more than happy to resurrect my boating skills and finally put my boater's license to good use after many years in retirement.
We had a BLAST. We were given a map of the island and were told where we could and couldn't go. For the most part, this little boat was allowed access to anywhere on the island so long as we didn't drive into any of the swimming grottos or get in the way of the bigger ships coming in or out. We drove up near the coast, out into the sea, and close to the grottos. We were told that anywhere that the water looked light blue would mean a sandy bottom shallow enough to anchor on and close enough to shore to swim near.
A common tourist destination at Capri is the "Blue Grotto", aptly named because the little water cave is illuminated by the sun bouncing off the bottom sand of the grotto and coming up into the hollow area. We were told by not only both priests in our trip not to go, but also by the guy at the Capri Boat stand. Apparently, it costs about 15 euros to get on a boat on land to get out there and another 10 euro to actually go inside. With our boat, we had access to every other grotto around the island, some of which you couldn't even pay a guide to get to. The Green Grotto was essentially a cave that you could anchor outside of and swim all the way through and come out the other side. Goggles and snorkels were provided with the boat, and looking down into the waters of the grotto gave you an awesome look at the sea life below. Before long, we knew we had made an awesome decision for a free day.
The downside was also an upside, I suppose. The sky was clear and the sun was shining, making it quite hot. We were baking. The issue was, however, that, because we were zipping along the coast on a boat, the breeze took the edge off the heat and we didn't notice. After an hour, we realized that we were roasting. After that hour, we finally applied sunscreen. Most of the girls got out unscathed, but because I was standing up driving the boat, I had the full brute force of the direct sunlight. Needless to say, my back turned several shades darker - a red that was almost purple. I would come to regret this later in the trip.
One of the plus-sides to the boat rental was our ability to tie up to buoys in the coves. After the morning time spent on the boat, we had already circled the island one entire time. We were told, then, that if you tied up to one and flagged down a guy on shore, he'd come and pick you up and bring you to one of the restaurants. We ended up doing this for lunch. The food prices were somewhat outrageous, but we didn't expect anything less. We also decided to simply open up the floodgates for our last weekend in Italy. If there was ever a time to splurge on money, it was this weekend.
We returned to the water after our lunch. At one point, we pulled into a small cove and anchored to have a bit to drink. The girls had some beers, but I stuck to Coke - I didn't need to have issues with the Italian coast guard before leaving Italy. The girls received a number of compliments from boatloads of Italian men. I of course was ignored for the most part (something I suppose to be thankful for) but then again we didn't really come across boatloads of Italian women...
Our final destination before returning the boat was the White Grotto. This grotto was more of a dip into the side of the rocks than a grotto, but the fun part of this one had nothing to do with the waters below.
Looking up was impressive, but we were told about a small staircase just next to the grotto and to keep our eyes open for it. As I described it, the staircase was very similar to the staircase that Gollum shows Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings - a hidden stair that you can't really see unless you're looking for it. In the picture below, the staircase is right above the bow of our boat, with the main grotto on the left.
The issue with this staircase, however, is the fact that the platform near the water is really only accessible at high tide. We were there sometime in between tides. The platform was reachable, but only just. I ended up being the only one able to wrestle my way onto this thing, but I totally cut myself up on the rocks and was somewhat bloody for the rest of the day. I was then able to pull everyone else up and we all made our way into the grotto.
The first thing we came across was a little window looking down into the grotto. This was neat. The path continued into the darkness to the right. This part was less neat. The path was completely dark, a darkness like I'd never witnessed before. That, coupled with my lack of glasses, made the experience interesting. I was afraid I'd fall into the grotto and never being found again. We formed a single-file line and chanted some Hail Marys, but all was fine. When we emerged, we found ourselves at the top of the grotto looking down in. Turning around, however, we could look up into the grotto, which continued way up into the mountain. It was very impressive to behold. We were mad that we didn't have a waterproof camera to document any of this. I ended up running back down the stairs, jumping in the water, and swimming back to the boat to move close to the grotto and snap at least some quick pictures of the girls.
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| Looking up into the grotto to the girls |
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| The girls on the inside |
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| The winding stair up to the grotto |
After returning the boat and getting my license back, we decided to climb to the center of the actual town of Capri. The place near the shore was not actually "Capri" but just a little section of the larger town. The actual town was part of the way up one of the mountains. This was a 20 minute ordeal of shear inclines, which was well received after 5 hours of baking in the sun on a boat with little water. The views were amazing, though.
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| The crew at Capri |
Tomorrow, who knows?
Thus ends the 21st day.
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