Capri (Tuesday 17th October 2017)

With plenty of Roman experiences under our belt we thought we’d go on an unplanned adventure to the island of Capri, just off the coast from Naples in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius.

Last night we worked out the schedule to get the most out of the day. It involved a fast train to Naples, a taxi to the port, a ferry across to Capri and a scooter to get around the island. Then it was all organised in the reverse order to get up back to Rome at a reasonable hour. I booked things backwards, starting with the thing that would present the greatest time restriction – the scooter. That one was easy. We made a reservation at a firm called Oasi Motor, down on the dock. Then the ferry trips arranging it so we would arrived at Capri by midday and leave at 18:10, giving us the maximum allowable time on the scooter (6hrs). Then the fast train from Rome to Naples with enough time to get to the port to catch the 11:10 ferry for the 50 minute cruise to Capri. So we ended up leaving Rome at 9:15am.

The train took an hour to complete the 220km journey to Naples, spending most of the time travelling at 300kph. A cab took us to the ferry terminal at Napoli Beverello, where all the ferries leave from. I was meant to have received by email a PDF document which could be exchanged for our tickets but it never arrived. Understandably, the chap at the SNAV ticket office wouldn’t accept the screen shot of the confirmed booking I’d made so we had to buy four more tickets. I’ll updated you on my refund attempts later, but so far so good.
The ferry arrived at Marina Grande on Capri at midday as expected. We found Oasi Motor and took possession of a crappy, rattling, yellow bucket of bolts otherwise known as a Kymco scooter – a 50cc two-stroke that just screamed whenever it was moving forward and stalled whenever it came to a halt or had to go slowly around a tight, downhill hairpin (of which there are numerous on Capri). But it was only EUR 40.00 and it got us around the island without anything falling off – I think.

Well, what an introduction to Capri we had! The road from the marina just goes up and up and up. It’s very narrow and very busy. Twenty-seater buses service the island for those who don’t have a car or a scooter and take up most of the road. One one part of the ascension to top of Capri we stopped and witnessed two buses passing each other with no more than a couple of centimetres between them. I “dips me lid” to the bus drivers. Kerry was very brave riding pillion in that scary environment while I got to know what the scooter could and couldn’t do amongst the steep, narrow roads and continuous traffic.
We stopped at the first opportunity we could at the village of Anacapri, parked the scooter and went for some lunch – simple plate of pasta and an amber beverage to calm the nerves.

A chairlift leaves Anacapri for the highest point of the island. At 580 metres above sea-level Monte Solaro offers unbelievably beautiful vistas over Capri, Sorrento and Mt. Vesuvius on the mainland and the Tyrrhenian Sea all aound. The sky was blue, the sun was bright and the sea was dead calm. Add in all the boats plying their trade all around the island and it made for a magical view. Worth every bit of the EUR 11.00 each. In fact the ride up the mountain was worth the cost in itself.

Back off the mountain we picked up “The Yellow Peril” and headed for the lighthouse protecting shipping from the western end of the island at Faso. There we found a quite little rocky inlet with a bar, a few dozen sun-lovers and the most magnificent deep, clear, turquoise water. After sitting on the rock for five minutes gazing at the water I couldn’t resist any more, stripped down to my shorts and dived in. It was magic! Kerry couldn’t because she had no bathers. One of the benefits of being a bloke, I guess! No bathers needed for for me. After a short swim and a beer we jumped back on the scooter to find the famous Blue Grotto. Well, we found it, but only because a young couple from Germany pointed out that it was the tiny cavern entrance they’d just swum out of. There is a steel plaform right next to the grotto one can jump off and there you are! If you ever come to Capri don’t catch a “Blue Grotto” sight-seeing boat, just jump on the bus and it will take you straight to this spot. Then go for a swim in thee grotto. Most of the tour boats just sail past without even stopping. Literally, directly above the grotto is the world’s narrowest bar. We sat at a bench on ledge one metre wide and sipped our coffee and at our pistachio chocolate cake and watched the tour boats go by. What a place for a coffee!

Back on the Yellow Peril we started our 30 minute ride back to the marina. It was past 5:00pm when we handed back the scooter, paid our EUR 40.00 and walked down to wait for the 6:10pm ferry. With 45 minutes to spare we still had time for a vino rosso and a coke. On the ferry we realised that we’d not left enough time to get from the Naples terminal to the Napoli Centrale to catch the 7:18pm train to Rome. :( . We thought we’d give it a shot anyway.

The ferry got in two minutes early (a good start), we disembarked quickly and found a taxi immediately (getting better), another passenger bound for the same destination joined us (lost some precious seconds) and told the drier we had to catch the 7:18pm train. Well, off he went! We raced out of the taxi rank like the start of an F1 race. Down the main street we went with the driver grabbing every second he could. The road rules were just thrown out the window – although I suspect hat’s the norm for Naples taxi drivers, well all drivers really. We swung off the main road down into the little, crowded streets, horn tooting, lights flashing encouraging drivers and pedestrians alike to move on quickly. Boy does he know his car! So many times we were so close to other vehicles, cutting off buses included. A mere mortal would be at the panel beaters right now. All the while he was negotiating the fare with the other passenger and exchanging and counting money. He took us to a place where we could dash through a book shop straight onto the main station concourse. I slapped EUR 20.00 in his hand. We thanked each other for the service and the fare and bolted through the bookshop. I looked at the Departure board as I ran and my eye immediately saw our train and the platform. We found the platform jumped in our carriage, sat down and the train pulled away from the platform. Wow! What a ride. That anonymous taxi driver and that ride will forever live in our memories. He is a credit to his profession and his city.

As luck would have it our seats were in first class so we enjoyed our very comfortable seat and the other trappings that come with first-class. After a hour we were back in Rome and decided to walk home through the city’s lit streets and monuments. It was a very pleasant and easy (downhill all the way) 3km walk. Back at our piazza we sat and shard a pizza while we talked about the great day we’d had.