Capri Diem

Two posts in one day but it was a busy weekend!  Some friends and I went to the island of Capri on Saturday, having taken a train from Rome to Naples on Friday night.  We took the sunrise ferry, which meant waking up at 4:45 but was absolutely worth it.  Although it was completely dark when we left, in the hour that passed on the water we saw the sun rise behind the other islands we passed, lighting up the wine-dark sea and everything else this fiery orange color.

 

We hiked up from the Marina Grande to the main town of Capri for breakfast.  Cappuccinos and croissants on a terrace, looking out at the green mountains and cliffs hanging out over the Tyrrhenian Sea.  Hard to imagine a better place for coffee.

 

Then we took a boat tour around the island!  Rick Steves listed this as a “Must-Do” in his Italy book, and we have to agree.  On our route we saw arches and cliffs and caves and grottoes and resorts and medieval forts and Roman ruins and blue, blue waters on all sides, all with Mount Vesuvius faintly watching from the distance.

 

Then we took the bus up to Anacapri, along the Mamma Mia Road.  Tragically, this has no association with The Best jukebox-musical of all time, but it’s called that because you say “Mamma Mia!” when you drive on it and see how high up (and close to the edge!) you are over the steep cliffs.  When the queasiness from the switchbacks of the drive had passed, we got lunch at this delicious little place right in the main area of town.

 

We wandered a little after lunch, admiring the beautiful ceramics for sale at every shop, window-shopping for the teal and coral linen dresses we’ll wear when we’re famous, and trying to pretend like we are any better than all the other tourists crushing through this unbelievable place.  Then up the single-seater chairlift to the top of Monte Solaro, the highest peak on the island.

 

When we got to the top it was misty from clouds, making it feel like we had stepped off into another world, something from Avatar or the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  I can’t properly describe the beauty of the view; the greenery clinging to the craggy limestone, the cliffs dropping down around the gleaming white buildings of the towns below, and everywhere, everywhere, the perfect sea stretching out and blending seamlessly into the equally-perfect sky.  Maggie and I decided that this is where we’re each somehow, sometime going to get married (to someone??), chairlift and all.  Additionally, we are officially never vacationing anywhere else because I truly don’t see the point of it.  And and and, I found the perfect falling-down old villa to buy, move to, and convert into a hotel à la Donna Sheridan.  Wow.

 

Bittersweet to leave this wonderful day in the past, but also looking forward to being “home,” we made our way out.  Chairlift down the mountain, bus back to Capri, a quick sunbathe on the rocky beach, then ferry to Naples and metro to the train station.  Even the mildly terrifying train ride to Rome (with no conductor and a large group of people openly doing cocaine in our car; think Lord of the Flies) could not damper the fullness of my heart leaving this exquisite place.

The oft-quoted Giuseppe Verdi line runs through my head regularly this semester, but it fits this day, in this place, with these people even more than usual. “You may have the universe if I may have Italy.”