Italy Day 11

After grabbing some more incredible pastries again this morning, I headed off to Capri. It was a short 30 minute boat ride, and I was taken aback as soon as we approached. It is a jagged island with homes and shops built into the side. There is not much to see or do as soon as we docked in Marina Grande, so I bought a ticket for the funicular and headed up the steep slope to Capri town. It is very touristy with lots of high end shops and expensive restaurants. I made my way out of there as soon as I could. There was a nice walkway that led to an overlook, the Belvedere Tragara, which has a breathtaking view of the three limestone rocks known as the Faraglioni. I guess the farthest one is home to bright blue lizards found nowhere else on the planet. I wasnt able to see any, obviously.

After hanging out at the viewpoint for a while, I made my way down the stairs on the opposite side of where I came. They were steep and were never ending it seemed. A random dog wanted to follow me, so I had company on this leg of my journey, which was nice. There were no other people around, so I had no idea who this dog belonged to or where it came from, but I enjoyed its energy and companionship.

Me and my new dog made our way down the couple hundred steps to the bottom, which ended at the sea, just below the start of one of the rocks of Faraglioni. There was not another soul around and made me feel I was the only one on the whole island. I stayed down here for quite a while, watching the waves hit the surrounding rocks and listening to the seagulls overhead. Eventually I made my way back up all of the stairs. Somewhere along the way my new  dog took off, and I never saw him again. I hope he found his owners or made his way back home. When I got to the top of the stairs I turned left and continued on the nature trail. Well, I tried to at least. It wasnt well marked and all the streets looked the same, and I eventually got lost. I had no idea where I was, and all the narrow streets were surrounded by walls so there was no lookout to see if I could figure out my bearings. I kept walking uphill, hoping it would lead to something, but all I found were more streets and no tourists. I finally just turned around, admitting that I was lost. It took over an hour, but I finally found the main piazza again. This island is exhausting! The only way to get from point A to point B is either by steep, narrow walkways or lots and lots of steps.

I grabbed a sandwich at a shop in the piazza and walked a little bit in the other direction. I was starting to feel exhausted and decided that I saw all that I wanted to see, so I headed back to the funicular. It was only about 3pm and my ticket wasnt until the 6:30 boat. I walked along the beach and hung out on some rocks watching crabs eat at the algae. I killed about an hour doing this, but then couldnt take any more. I sucked it up and spent another £14 to get on an earlier boat back to Sorrento. On the ride back I watched a beautiful sunset. The first one I have seen all trip, and it was well worth the wait. They have been doing a lot of burning, so the air was still smokey, which made the sunset even more amazing, letting different shades of orange and red streak across the sky.

The sun was almost completely down by the time we docked. I climbed the many stairs back to the main road, grabbed a bottle of wine and headed back to the hostel. Not too long after I got back, Kate showed up with a couple of friends she met while traveling that she ran into on her outing. The four of us went out to dinner, the same place we went last night. We got pizza this time, and it was tasty! Kates friends are from Tulsa, and they are on about day 54 of their year long travel, and have only been married for a year! They are definitely putting their new marriage to the test! They seemed to be enjoying themselves thus far, and they gave me some good information if I ever wanted to go teach snowboarding in Germany. I might have to at least look into it…

After dinner we parted ways. Kate and I stopped for some gelato on the way back, where we ended up being lazy, just drinking wine and chatting down in the lounge until we were exhausted enough to go to bed.

Advertisement