Many years ago, Carinn visited Capri with a few girlfriends during a torrential downpour. They managed to make it to a pizzeria for dinner but were otherwise trapped in their hotel for the weekend. Carinn couldn’t remember much about the island but knew that she had to give it another chance. In her memory, Capri was a speck of an island with a couple of restaurants and some fancy hotels next to the port.
In reality, the island has two totally separate towns, several ports and an intricate system of roads and narrow pathways that link everything together. In our two days on the island, we managed to cover the majority of the island by foot, boat and occasionally by bus. We also had some of the best weather of our entire trip and spent most of our time soaking in the spectacular views from various vantage points. In fact, most of the restaurants are perched right in the side of the steep hillside, with their dining rooms looking out on expansive vistas. We had fantastic seafood everywhere we ate, but a couple of our favorites were La Panorama and Ristorante Verginiello. The hand-made tube-shaped pasta with tomatoes and white-fish (we never were able to surmise what kind of fish it was, other than “it swims deep” and was “si, delicioso!”) pictured below was the manifestation of everything Elliott had been dreaming about Italian food before our trip – simple, fresh and incredibly tasty.
If you go, we strongly recommend that you explore the ‘roads’ surrounding the main town of Capri – Via Del Pizzolungo and Via Tiberius were two of the most romantic paths we’ve ever walked, and besides a few narrow delivery trucks, they are essentially car-free.
When we asked our friendly hotel concierge about walking to Anacapri, she encouraged us to take a bus to the top and walk down the 750 steps that connect the two towns, because going up would be far too strenuous; she obviously hadn’t met Elliott before. The challenge thus presented, we set out after breakfast in our running gear and climbed the well-maintained staircase and even opted out of the chairlift to the very top of Monte Solare, peaking at 589 meters (~1800 feet) above the sea. At the top, we got three “mamma mias!” from some Italian locals when they learned we had walked “a piedi” from the Marina.
In the afternoon, we headed back to the port for a private boat tour around the island with an entertaining local named Paolo. As we lounged in the open-water gondola, we explored the various grottos, churches, ruins and sculptures, much of which are only accessible by boat. We did drive by the famous “Grotto Azzurro,” however it was closed due to a swell hitting that side of the island.
When Elliott asked if it was okay to swim in “The Fisherman’s Grotto,” Paolo flashed a mischievous grin and said “This is Italy, you can swim anywhere!” We jumped into the stereotypically blue mediterranean water and had a lovely swim through the cave to our own private beach.
Later on, Elliott mentioned that he had gone salmon fishing the week before our trip with Carinn’s brother. Paolo’s eyes lit up with excitement and he exclaimed “You want catch fish?” He reached into a hidden compartment beneath the deck and pulled out a weathered 3/4” piece of plywood with fishing line wrapped around it and tossed a 50 year-old lure into the sea behind the boat. Though the 3’ swells made Carinn a bit nervous, Paolo managed to help us reel in two tunas, catch a call on his cellphone (because it was his girlfriend after all) and steer the boat with his knees as if it were a glassy still day on the sea.
All in all, our trip to Capri was one of our highlights so far!
awinkandapinch 