(written 16/4/2006, in Ohrid, Macedonia, by
Liz)
We woke early and walked down to the ferry port where we bought two tickets to Capri on the ferry. Our boat didn't leave for a while so we found a cafe to have a coffee to while away the time.
The ferry trip was a little rough, and the views along the Bay of Naples and across to Vesuvius weren't too good due to smog. The ferry trip took about 40 minutes before we arrived at the main port on
Capri (tourism:
link).
Capri is really touristy - it's main income seems to be solely from tourism, so we weren't the only ones there. But instead of jumping on the bus up to the main square, or the boat to the Blue Grotto (a sea cave) with everyone else, we climbed up many flights of stairs to get to the main square in Piazza Umberto. Even though it was a fair way to go up, I am still a bit surprised that we were the only people that bothered to take the stairs. But we got to see the island itself, and it felt like we had it all to ourselves.
The main square was busy with cafés touting for tourist business, but after a quick look around, we walked through and continued uphill towards the Villa Jovis, ruins of an old Roman fortress. The only way up here was on foot, so we did actually see a few other people making the journey, but not many.
We walked along narrow little streets, past lots of homes and the Capri people going about their daily lives. At one point we were a bit unsure of which way to go, but a friendly old local pointed us in the right direction.
At the top, we spent a while looking around the ruins, stopping for a snack of biscuits and water, admired the views looking all the way back down to the harbour we had arrived at, and below us to the clear blue sea before beginning our journey back downhill.
We had intended to catch a ferry to Naples to have a look at the city before going back to Sorrento where our tent and car was by train or ferry, but we decided at this point that we didn't really spend the rest of the day rushing to things. So when we made it back down to the main square, we rewarded our walking efforts with a beer while sitting on the busy square.
Then we made our way down the rest of the flights of stairs, again being the only ones going this way, before we made it back down to the harbour.
We bought ferry tickets to take us back to Sorrento, but the boat didn't leave for quite a while, so we walked along the coast a little way and spent an hour sitting on the (very pebbly) beach. A few people were swimming, but the water felt really cold (aside from that, our swimmers were some of the things stolen from the car, and we haven't replaced them yet), but Tim amused himself with trying to throw my shoes into the water instead :)
A very rough ferry trip later, and we were back in Sorrento.
It was late afternoon, and we hadn't eaten much all day, so we settled on The English Inn where we had fish and chips - our first 'English-style' meal in ages.
Back at the camp ground, we sat in the car reading until the light faded from the sky before going to bed.