Capri

Capri (pronounced CA-pree) is an island off the coast of Sorrento. I didn't realize how close it really was to Sorrento until I was standing on the top of Capri and saw it for myself. Wow! It's close! hehe

Anyway, Pete, Denise, Peter, and I went to Capri to see the Blue Grotto, a cave famous for almost florescent blue water.

It was Peter's birthday present, that is why he got to tag along and none of his siblings did. It is a pricey little island. It is cute but very commercialized. I think next time I go to Italy I am going to go to the island Proscida instead because it isn't as popular with the tourists and it is just fun to walk around (and much less expesive).

The weather was a little bit....not so good. It was kinda rainy. And when we got there, the Blue Grotto was closed because of the swells. The opening to the cave is really small and you have to take a little boat inside to get in and it closes when the swells get to high because it is too dangerous to get in. Alas, what were we to do! We were approached for a tour around the island that would visit several other grottos and would cost the same ammount for us as it would have to go into the Blue Grotto, so we took it. I must say, it was totally worth the cost. And it is probably a better deal than the Blue Grotto because you get to see more. And the whole island is made from limestone, so all the water around it is really blue....blue grotto blue! It's beautiful!

There was this one grotto that was called the red grotto because it had red coral growing around the edge of it.

There was a grotto that had stones that looked like a bunch of people hanging out.

There is also this cliff on the east side of the island. The Roman Emperor Tiberius was apparently a ruthless guy. He had his castle at the top of this cliff and would throw people off as a punishment. Eeek! In general, the Ancient Romans sound like a viscious people!

This one is called the Green Grotto.

On the south side of the island is a castle that was once the home of none other than Moussolini!

All this stuff we wouldn't have seen or learned if we didn't take this tour around the island. It was super cool!

After the trip around the island we went to this church with the scene from the expulsion from the garden of eden painted on tiles on the floor. It was really pretty!

Then we took a tram to the top of the island. I hate trams! I am terrified of heights! The whole time I think the cable will snap and I will fall to my horribly painful death! Oi! And going up is not as bad as coming down. But I am most anxious about getting on and off. In general, I hate it all.

But the view at the top was spectacular! hehe

After spending about 20 minutes looking at the great view we were walking down some steps to the tram and Aunt Denise lost her footing and fell forward totally scraping her leg! oi! It looked so painful!


When leaving the island the med was sooo choppy! The waves were hitting the windows which were at least 30-40 feet above water level. There was even 2-3 times when the boat did a hard left and I thought for a minute that we were going to tip to the side (which says a lot as this ferry was wide enough to have 12-14 seats across with 2 aisles and probably 50 rows of seats). But fortunately, we made it home mostly intact.

When we got back home we went up to the NATO base to pick up the car and I took some pictures...don't know if it was legal or not, but I did it!

The moon was full that night and I used my 300mm lens to snap a shot! It's super cool I think!