Day 15 – Isle of Capri

13th June 2012

On the way up to Anacapri

We were entertained last night at the hotel while we had welcome drinks by our tour guide and the maitre’de singing up a storm. They had good voices but the maitre’de looked like someone out of a mafia movie with his white suit coat and bow tie and our tour guide was hamming it up big time so it really was quite comical. Some of us then adjourned to the rooftop terrace after dinner  where we demolished quite a few bottles of wine and talked and laughed until the wee hours. It was a terrific end to a truly great day – another one!!

The boat trip to the Isle of Capri  was  a bit of an adventure at times. Jan & I were sitting out the front of the boat having a good old chat to another small group of people and we almost all got blown away when we got up to speed. Everyone was hanging to to hats, bags, sunnies and each other for dear life and then the water started spraying in as well – we were absolutely soaked but laughing fit to split. We got some lovely pics of the two of us, all windswept and gorgeous – not really, we looked like a pair of drowned rats – but it was great fun and we dried quickly once the spray stopped.

View from Mt Solaro

The views on the road up to Anacapri, at the top of the island, were simply breathtaking and the village itself was lovely but so crowded it was uncomfortable at times just walking along the streets because of the crush of people. I didn’t have a lot of time in the town as I took the chairlift up Mount Solaro with some of the others. I thought the views earlier were amazing but it just got better and they kept coming. I only walked a short way from the chairlift station and I was at the edge of the lookout, speechless again – it’s all so beautiful. There were also intriguing sights beneath us on the chairlift, I saw some of the wackiest garden ornaments ever, obviously a few people with a quirky sense of humour around.

Back down the hairpin bendy road to Capri where I had a quick window shop at a few boutiques but I’m a bit over shopping at the moment. Jenny, Dorian and I had lunch together at a lovely restaurant overlooking the sea and we then sat with Margaret and Ron people watching until it was time to leave. We must be showing our age I think, being happy to sit and talk instead of running around like mad things shopping and sightseeing. I’ve had so much fun with everyone on the tour it’s going to be hard leaving the group when we get to Rome. Best not to think about that though, we’ve got a few more days yet.

Gardens beneath the chairlift

It was a much more sedate ride back this afternoon, I had my first nanna nap of the trip – all that fresh sea air must have tuckered me out. I could get used to the siesta thing though, I was full of beans again when we got back to Maiori and had a nice wander around this evening. It seems a less touristy place than most others we’ve stayed at, with more Italian families holidaying here than foreigners. All the oldies were out for their afternoon session sitting around together chatting and laughing – I’d love to know what theytalk about every day – but they sure do make great photos.