Today we decided to head off to Capri, a small island a short distance from the mainland. We started early, enjoying yet another nice-but-identical breakfast at the Airbnb. Our first hurdle was getting stuck in traffic. God knows why, but the route we took had 4 roads all merging together to pass through one short single-laned tunnel. I can’t imagine there ever NOT being a traffic jam here, and it’s a main arterial road of the area – it really deserved a second tunnel, which would really only need to be about 30-40 meters long. I imagine some local politics cause this particular stretch of insanity. Italy, ey?
We did eventually make it to Sorrento, even guided to a nice carpark by a local traffic police officer. Sorrento is a beautiful town in its own right, as well as being the main place to take ferries to Capri. Partially on purpose and partially because I can’t read a map, we explored Sorrento a bit before heading to the harbour. The route we took snaked along the edge of the cliff for a few kilometres: The town itself was about 100 meters above where the harbour was at the base of some cliffs. Once there we lined up to get a ticket to the ferry. The Cashiers only question was “Return or no?” I said “Yes”. She said the price, and that we should run because our ferry leaves now. We quickly paid and ran; but made the ferry with about 5 minutes before it took off. We settled in and Manja relayed a story about a horrendous ferry trip she had in the USA, which actually went through a tornado. “Luckily there’s no tornados here” said I. I’m pretty sure that Neptune was listening and smirked.
We took off, and it was a little choppy, and the crew were walking around handing out sick bags. Manja said “Hah, this was exactly how it started, people were laughing at the ferry jumping and feeling a bit like a roller coaster.” she also got a tiny bit pale, obviously remembering that time. It wasn’t 5 minutes later when the ferry was jumping over waves. And I mean jumping. I counted the average “drop” time as being about 2 seconds. I’ve no idea what speed we were going, but if it was a straight drop this calculator tells me the drop distance would have been 19m. Given we were moving pretty fast over uneven waves, I assume it was still about 3-5 meters. Regardless, every drop ended in a resounding “THUMP” and being pressed into the seats as we hit the water again. Within another 5 minutes people were seriously vomiting and the crew was clinging onto posts. It didn’t help that it was humid as hell. Manja did really well at not panicking, and I managed to not get sea sick though I was seriously nauseous. I thanked my lucky stars that the trip was only about 20 minutes, and Manja told me later that her horror trip was “A bit worse than that, for about 4 hours”. I now have a newfound respect for rough ferry rides, and the moment that a crew member opened the front door to let in fresh air was pure relief for everyone.
When we got to Capri, I resisted the urge to kiss the ground, instead focusing on pushing our way through the MASSES of people. Capri is a small island, but it felt overrun by tourists in the way that Ants would overrun a sugar cube. We finally found a bench and sat down to find our land legs, discussing the horror of having to take a ferry back later in the day. Somewhat recovered we decided to walk up the hill rather than fight for a bus (30 minute wait in a line), tram (30minute wait in a line) or taxi (fight to the death) – the only transport options on the island. We had to stop regularly, fighting both heat and exhaustion, but were rewarded by fantastic views.
We got to the hilltop, which is where Capri town centre is. It has the most amazing tiny streets, filled with little stores – the streets are so small you could not walk side-by-side and are laid out with no particular order. You could totally get lost here! Even with the use of google maps we walked a few circles before Manja took me by the hand and navigated the “good old fashion way” by reading street signs. Using this arcane witchcraft she located the path we were looking for, toward a natural arc.
The arc was about a 10 minute walk, and only accessible by the one path, which meant that there was really few tourists. The reduction in number of people allowed us to appreciate how pretty it really is. If I ever come back, I’d definitely try and stay a NIGHT on Capri – at this time it is only accessible to the tourists who stay on the island.
After viewing the Arc and recovering our breath, we stopped for some local lemonade at a cafe with a view. The view was great, but lemon juice with soda water, no matter how local and fresh, is not worth 5 EUR. But such is life, sometimes you pay a “stupid tourist” tax. At least the view was fantastic!
A little hard to see here, but it’s climbing UP a wall….
We realised that our ferry was heading back a bit earlier than we’d have liked – the lady simply booked us on the 4pm ferry without offering any alternative (the ferries run to 8pm…). Given that the weather was going to be WORSE in the evening we decided to just go with it and brave the trip back, giving us some time to recover if needed. So we headed back down the mountain; bumping into some Aussies on the way, including a snake on the wall… Which fascinated Manja who took some photos while I said “Careful… It’s about to slip off the wall…” which it did about 5 seconds later causing everyone to leap away.
Once we were back at the shore, we prepared ourselves for the trip back physically and mentally. And by that I mean we took some sea-sickness tablets ahead of time and planned the trip: We would get on the ferry early to get a place at the CENTRE and BACK, expecting this to be the least turbulent spot. Ideally we’d aim for something outside if possible – the fresh air would keep us (me) feeling better.
We got to the boarding point nice and early. A massive crowd started to gather around us, and a not-so-friendly attendant asked everyone on the ferry to Sorrento to line up around the corner, so we quickly did. When the ferry arrived, however, those who followed instructions were at the back of the line, essentially rewarding those who ignored the labour master. I was dark, and for the first time that I can remember started to push in front of everyone I could in a queue. Turns out I’m effective at queue jumping, and we managed to score a seat on the top deck, at the back in the middle. It was open from behind, so we had sea air as well. We were READY.
And again, Neptune smirked, letting this ferry ride be completely calm the entire way. We were even well enough to move about and take photos.
We arrived back at Sorrento relieved to be feeling well, but faced with a 30+ minute walk uphill to get back to the town centre, we explored the base of the cliff for a bit, only to find an elevator. You had to line up and pay 50c per person, but you arrived at the city centre moments later. Odd but cool! We gladly paid our entry fee and took the 30 second ride up.
With the nervous energy of the day dropping away we suddenly got hungry, but it was a bit early for dinner. So we researched a nice restaurant before looking for some postcards. You would think that a place like this would have nice postcards, but EVERYTHING we could find looked like a photo taken in the 70’s. Still, Sorrento was really nice and they even had orange trees… Too bad the oranges were too high to reach without a ladder 😉
So we skipped the postcard and headed to dinner, where we had a superb vegetarian banquet.
Way too full of food we drove back to our Airbnb in Pompeii but we stopped to take in the spectacular sunset along the way when we noticed an empty lookout point.
Listening to…
Love your writing style! Had to laugh at the google/ old way / witchcraft analogy 🤗
Thanks! Maps are witchcraft! They don’t even turn automatically!