Mediterranean — 2010

View from Monte Solara

Although we’ve been in Sorrento for three nights, we haven’t had a chance to wander around this pretty town, so we did that today before and after our visit to Capri.  We started for the marina after breakfast and had gone about two blocks when it started to rain hard.  We went back for jackets and umbrellas, so of course the rain stopped shortly and the weather was great the rest of the day.  We bought tickets for the ferry to Capri that left about 10:15.  While we were waiting, a tour guide named Jerry approached us and offered to take us around the island for 20 Euros each.  He got a group of around 25 together and it worked out very well.  It was a very rough ferry ride into the waves and some passengers had to use sickness bags.  It was a much larger ferry than the one we took from Amalfi to Sorrento and had bus/plane sort of seats, so we didn’t have to worry about hitting the deck! The trip only took about 25 minutes.  There was no decision to make about seeing the Blue Grotto, as the rough seas prevented any boats from going there.  Jerry put us on two little buses and took us up to the town of Anacapri (means above Capri).  From there we took the chairlift up to Monte Solaro, the highest point on the island.  The views were fantastic.  We went back down to Anacapri and had a nice lunch at a restaurant that Jerry was familiar with (he’s lived in Capri for 30 years).  We shared a table with an interesting couple from Orange County CA who will also be on the first half of our cruise out of Rome.  After lunch we went by bus down to Capri Town, which is very crowded (but no cars) and has many expensive shops.  We walked around the main piazza and looked at the shops before we took the funicular back down to the marina.  Capri has an interesting history.  It was the vacation hideaway of Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius.  Until 1874 the only way to get from Capri Town to Anacapri was a walkway of 900 steps (of course the emperors were carried up).  We got on the 3:20 ferry and had a much smoother ride back to Sorrento.  We spent some time wandering around town and found the restaurant we plan to dine at tonight.  Then it was back to the B & B to work on the blog.  We had the best meal yet in Sorrento at the Ristorante Pizzeria da Gigino near the Piazza Tasso.  We consumed another liter of wine at dinner.  Now we will cut back, as Rome and the cruise ship won’t have the good house wines that we bought cheaply in Sorrento.

© Jay 2020