Isle of Capri
Monday 11th September 2006
We all got up at 0730 to ensure that we were down at the beach front at 0900 to take the private boat that Adam had hired to take us to the Isle of Capri.
The first illustrious residents in Capri were the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius. For the last decade of his life, Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire from Capri and the ruins of his luxurious villa, Villa Jovis, can still be seen today. When one considers the time it must have taken for communications to get to and from the island. As one approached the island from the east by sea a large ‘cave’ may be seen, this is called ‘Tiberius’s drop’, from which people he wished to dispose of were supposedly thrown into the sea.
After the fall of the Roma Empire, despite its noble history, the island was largely ignored until the19th century, when a poet named August Kopisch made the Grotta Azzurra, (Blue Grotto) well known to travellers on the Grand Tour. The Blue Grotto is so called because of the vivid blue colour of the water in the grotto, (sea cave), a result of the light refraction. Tourism flourished as a result of the Grand Tours of Europe including Capri on its itinerary, and Capri became the haunt of foreign politicians, artists and intellectuals, Alexander Dumas and Oscar Wilde among them. The singer Gracie Fields and the writer Norman Douglas, author of Siren land, made the island their home. Gracie Fields was a very popular music hall singer in England, but lost much of her popularity in England when she went to live in Capri during World War II. Sheila tells me that Gracie Fields had an Italian husband so that might be the reason why she sought exile there. However I can remember when I was in the Royal Navy and one of the squadron of ships I was with in the Mediterranean called into Capri and Gracie Fields invited sailors from the ship to go ashore and use her swimming pool. A few took up her kind offer and then were dismayed to find that she wanted to charge them thirty shillings each to use her pool.
We left Positano on time and were pleased that Adam had hired a private boat when we saw how packed the normal tourist boats were. The views of Positano from the boat were excellent and as we went west along the coast the villas and old watchtowers on the hilltops were spectacular.
It took us about 40 mins to near the east coast of Capri and pass close to the rocky outcrop near the south eastern corner, the most imposing of which is ‘I Faraglioni’whose top is 109 metres above sea level. About midway along the coast we stopped at an archway inside of which is the ‘Green Grotto’. The captain of our boat urged us all to jump in for a swim while he took the boat around to the other side of the passageway and picked us up at the other side. Sheila found the water a little cold, nah Sheila found the water a lot cold. I guess that as it never gets the sun on it the water in the grotto is always colder than the surrounding sea. However having taken the plunge we all had no choice but to swim through the passage and climb back on board when the captain met us at the other end. We did pas some swimmers coming through from the other direction but they were all a bit wimpy as they all had life jackets on.
After getting back on board the captain drove around to the north weest corner of the island and stopped outside the blue grotto. However we saw the hordes of other tourists disembarking from their cruisers into little dinghies to be ferried through the grotto we decided to give that a miss and keep going to the main town of Capri that gives the island its name.
We were put ashore on a jetty in the Marina Grande, where all the large boats and ferries tie up.
From there we took the five minute ride on the funicular railway that lifts you from the harbour up to the town of Capri. It was a very hot and sunny day and FULL of other tourists and by then we were also feeling very hungry. Adam led the hunt for a suitable place for lunch and as we neared the outskirts of Capri it was clear that we would have been hard pressed to find one that was not overrun by other tourists. In Adam’s search for a more private lunch spot he decided that we might as well keep walking and see what was available in the town of Anacapri, that he remembered from the guidebook we had left behind in the villa. What Adam had not recalled however was that Anacapri is quite a bit higher than Capri and that top of Monte Solaro at 589 metres is only a little higher than Anacapri. Sheila and her knees were the first to rebel and flatly refused to join the hike up the hill, Rosalind and I quickly joined the rebel forces and retreated while Adam forged ahead up hill. The ladies and I hailed a stretched cabriolet and negotiated a fifteen Euro price for the trip for four to take us the four kilometres to Anacapri. We soon caught up with Adam and I think he was relieved to join us in the taxi ride to Anacapri, especially when we passed other hardy walkers struggling up the hill dispensing much perspiration in their wake.
Anacapri was a lot less crowded and as it was siesta time many of the quaint streets were deserted. Luckily we found a very pleasant restaurant and enjoyed a great alfresco lunch followed by a pedestrian exploration of Anacapri, which I found more to my liking than Capri. After a walk around we took a similar cab back to Capri and wandered along many narrow streets that were hosts to lots of very up market shops, much to the delight of the ladies. It was almost and hour before I found out that our meandering around these shops also had a specific purpose and that was to find the shoe shop that provide shoes for Her Most Serene Highness Grace Kelly (I forget her married name); and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Despite a diligent search by the ladies they were unable to find the shop and Adam and I keenly guided them back to the funicular railway for the trip back down to the Marina Grande. The crush of people to get on the funicular railway was particularly hot and crowded and when we were pressed into the sides of the stairway trying to keep up with the press of people all pushing to get into the small platform we all wished that we had taken the taxi all the way down to the harbour. But there was no way we could turn back and just had to go with the flow, or I should say sweaty trickle and occasionally block the way of very determined Nonas who had mastered the art of pushing through any mass of people queuing. Two in particular were experts and as they breezed past us I indicated to Sheila that we would be best riding along in their wake and it worked very well.
When we approached the harbour all I could see was a mass of boats and had no idea where ours was moored or when I thought about it I had no clear idea of what it looked like. However Adam soon spotted him and waved him into the jetty and we all clambered aboard and relaxed on the quick trip back to Positano.
That night we walked just two minutes up the hill to a more ‘local’ restaurant and in fact enjoyed the cheapest and one of the best dinners in Positano.
When we got back to the villa after dinner I decided to delete the ‘bad’ photos that I had taken of our trip to Capri.
With our digital camera it is quite easy to select from the menu to delete the current photo you are looking at or delete all the photos that you have currently in your memory card. Yup, I deleted ALL the photos that I had taken that day so all the photos are ones that Adam took with his camera or ones that I took using his camera.
We all got up at 0730 to ensure that we were down at the beach front at 0900 to take the private boat that Adam had hired to take us to the Isle of Capri.
The first illustrious residents in Capri were the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius. For the last decade of his life, Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire from Capri and the ruins of his luxurious villa, Villa Jovis, can still be seen today. When one considers the time it must have taken for communications to get to and from the island. As one approached the island from the east by sea a large ‘cave’ may be seen, this is called ‘Tiberius’s drop’, from which people he wished to dispose of were supposedly thrown into the sea.
After the fall of the Roma Empire, despite its noble history, the island was largely ignored until the19th century, when a poet named August Kopisch made the Grotta Azzurra, (Blue Grotto) well known to travellers on the Grand Tour. The Blue Grotto is so called because of the vivid blue colour of the water in the grotto, (sea cave), a result of the light refraction. Tourism flourished as a result of the Grand Tours of Europe including Capri on its itinerary, and Capri became the haunt of foreign politicians, artists and intellectuals, Alexander Dumas and Oscar Wilde among them. The singer Gracie Fields and the writer Norman Douglas, author of Siren land, made the island their home. Gracie Fields was a very popular music hall singer in England, but lost much of her popularity in England when she went to live in Capri during World War II. Sheila tells me that Gracie Fields had an Italian husband so that might be the reason why she sought exile there. However I can remember when I was in the Royal Navy and one of the squadron of ships I was with in the Mediterranean called into Capri and Gracie Fields invited sailors from the ship to go ashore and use her swimming pool. A few took up her kind offer and then were dismayed to find that she wanted to charge them thirty shillings each to use her pool.
We left Positano on time and were pleased that Adam had hired a private boat when we saw how packed the normal tourist boats were. The views of Positano from the boat were excellent and as we went west along the coast the villas and old watchtowers on the hilltops were spectacular.
It took us about 40 mins to near the east coast of Capri and pass close to the rocky outcrop near the south eastern corner, the most imposing of which is ‘I Faraglioni’whose top is 109 metres above sea level. About midway along the coast we stopped at an archway inside of which is the ‘Green Grotto’. The captain of our boat urged us all to jump in for a swim while he took the boat around to the other side of the passageway and picked us up at the other side. Sheila found the water a little cold, nah Sheila found the water a lot cold. I guess that as it never gets the sun on it the water in the grotto is always colder than the surrounding sea. However having taken the plunge we all had no choice but to swim through the passage and climb back on board when the captain met us at the other end. We did pas some swimmers coming through from the other direction but they were all a bit wimpy as they all had life jackets on.
After getting back on board the captain drove around to the north weest corner of the island and stopped outside the blue grotto. However we saw the hordes of other tourists disembarking from their cruisers into little dinghies to be ferried through the grotto we decided to give that a miss and keep going to the main town of Capri that gives the island its name.
We were put ashore on a jetty in the Marina Grande, where all the large boats and ferries tie up.
From there we took the five minute ride on the funicular railway that lifts you from the harbour up to the town of Capri. It was a very hot and sunny day and FULL of other tourists and by then we were also feeling very hungry. Adam led the hunt for a suitable place for lunch and as we neared the outskirts of Capri it was clear that we would have been hard pressed to find one that was not overrun by other tourists. In Adam’s search for a more private lunch spot he decided that we might as well keep walking and see what was available in the town of Anacapri, that he remembered from the guidebook we had left behind in the villa. What Adam had not recalled however was that Anacapri is quite a bit higher than Capri and that top of Monte Solaro at 589 metres is only a little higher than Anacapri. Sheila and her knees were the first to rebel and flatly refused to join the hike up the hill, Rosalind and I quickly joined the rebel forces and retreated while Adam forged ahead up hill. The ladies and I hailed a stretched cabriolet and negotiated a fifteen Euro price for the trip for four to take us the four kilometres to Anacapri. We soon caught up with Adam and I think he was relieved to join us in the taxi ride to Anacapri, especially when we passed other hardy walkers struggling up the hill dispensing much perspiration in their wake.
Anacapri was a lot less crowded and as it was siesta time many of the quaint streets were deserted. Luckily we found a very pleasant restaurant and enjoyed a great alfresco lunch followed by a pedestrian exploration of Anacapri, which I found more to my liking than Capri. After a walk around we took a similar cab back to Capri and wandered along many narrow streets that were hosts to lots of very up market shops, much to the delight of the ladies. It was almost and hour before I found out that our meandering around these shops also had a specific purpose and that was to find the shoe shop that provide shoes for Her Most Serene Highness Grace Kelly (I forget her married name); and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Despite a diligent search by the ladies they were unable to find the shop and Adam and I keenly guided them back to the funicular railway for the trip back down to the Marina Grande. The crush of people to get on the funicular railway was particularly hot and crowded and when we were pressed into the sides of the stairway trying to keep up with the press of people all pushing to get into the small platform we all wished that we had taken the taxi all the way down to the harbour. But there was no way we could turn back and just had to go with the flow, or I should say sweaty trickle and occasionally block the way of very determined Nonas who had mastered the art of pushing through any mass of people queuing. Two in particular were experts and as they breezed past us I indicated to Sheila that we would be best riding along in their wake and it worked very well.
When we approached the harbour all I could see was a mass of boats and had no idea where ours was moored or when I thought about it I had no clear idea of what it looked like. However Adam soon spotted him and waved him into the jetty and we all clambered aboard and relaxed on the quick trip back to Positano.
That night we walked just two minutes up the hill to a more ‘local’ restaurant and in fact enjoyed the cheapest and one of the best dinners in Positano.
When we got back to the villa after dinner I decided to delete the ‘bad’ photos that I had taken of our trip to Capri.
With our digital camera it is quite easy to select from the menu to delete the current photo you are looking at or delete all the photos that you have currently in your memory card. Yup, I deleted ALL the photos that I had taken that day so all the photos are ones that Adam took with his camera or ones that I took using his camera.
posted by John Lunn at 12:36 AM
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