On Saturday we had reservations to go back to Pompeii and see some "by reservation only" sites. After thinking about it, Jay and I decided that he should go alone. The girls had been really tolerant of being drug around lots of piles of ancient ruins and we knew that we would all be happier in the end if we split up. Karissa and I kind of wanted to go back to Pompeii (it is so huge and amazing) but we also thought it would be fun to head out to the island of Capri. Unfortunately for us, Jay managed to "bump into" Mattia Bulindano who works for the site and is THE official Italian government guy who tours dignitaries (e.g. Bill Clinton) through the site. Jay was able to spend about 3 hours with him and a small group he was leading. He saw some pretty amazing and "private" areas of the site which I'll share in the next posting. To say the least he was thrilled - a true blessing from God that we never expected to happen.
Alas, we missed that incredible tour but the beauty of Capri more than made up for it. We thought the Amalfi Coast was cool - Capri even silenced my chatty girls. We caught a 30 minute ferry from the nearby port out to the island. From there, we caught a 15 foot bus (big buses can't navigate the roads) up to the not so touristy town of Anacapri on the other side of the
island. A little Italian Grandma helped us figure out the bus. She must have said "Mamma Mia" twenty times to us while we were waiting for the bus-hilarious - and they really do use their hands to talk! She was especially aghast when she saw the girls smearing lipstick all over their faces (stick sunscreen which she had never seen before!).
Anacapri was a quaint little town that had a chairlift to the highest point on the island, Monte Solaro at 1900 feet above sea level. The views were the most beautiful I have ever seen. The water was a beautiful color and there were thousands of seagulls swarming around the rocky cliffs below. We took a million pictures, ate our lunch on some rocks overlooking the ocean (Karissa chose to eat hers in a tree she had climbed), swung in a swing, watched a bride and groom get their wedding pictures taken, picked wildflowers and just savored the view. Dayna did not want to leave. She fell in love with the place - who wouldn't?
After the trip down the lift we wandered over to an old villa called Villa San Michele. It was built around 1900, by Axel Munthe, a Swedish doctor and author, before Capri was such a tourist destination. The views were fabulous and it made us all want an island retreat. His gardens were fabulous, with millions of flowers and a bird sanctuary. After that we took a bus down to the city of Capri. It was totally touristy and was a real turn off. A huge shopping destination with all of the famous designers from Ferragamo to Versace and others I've never heard of. Needless to say, when we stopped for our gelato they asked us to leave the outdoor seating since it wasn't for "gelato only " customers! We bolted and headed for a hiking trail - not our scene at all!
The trail took us over to Arco Naturale. An incredible natural arch with a killer view down to the sea. We blew back down to the harbor (again, through narrow pedestrian streets and stairs - don't know how these people would ever get a mattress delivered!) in order to catch our ferry. As we ran up to the departing ferry we begged the crew to put the gangplank back down as the Coast Guard officer had told the wrong info about our ferry location. I guess we looked pathetic and so they reluctantly backed up this huge ferry and put the plank down for us!! What was I thinking???? Stuck on Capri overnight, not so bad.....suppose Jay would have been worried?? One day was not enough for Capri! Dayna especially dreams of going back someday - maybe she'll have her wedding pictures taken on Monte Solaro??
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