We sail to Capri

Friday, December 01, 2023
La Musa Bed & Breakfast, Campania, Italy
Friday, December 1, 2023
A day full of action. I’ll stick to the essentials. Cloudy skies when I wake up. But the wind seems less. A small elevator brings us to the dining room on the first floor. It’s rather confusing because we were on the fourth floor, and when I opened the garden doors, I was also on the ground floor. That’s what you get when your hotel is built onto a vertical cliff.
A bengali waiter serves us coffee with our breakfast. Off season really has advantages. Three of the twenty tables are in use.
At some point I leave Sisi and go outside to check if there will be a ferry to Capri today. Outside I step into a pleasant breeze and almost bump into two elderly gentleman: our Floridans from Herculaneum! 
They are somewhat discouraged; their ferry to Napoli is canceled, so they are now going to take the train. But they are desperately looking for the elevator built into the cliff. Otherwise they have to hoist their luggage a couple of hundred meters (yards) up the cliff. 
Fortunately I know where it is, and we say goodbye again.
At the ticket booth is a large group of people. The ferry for Capri leaves in 20 minutes!
I dash back to the hotel, and in no-time we  pack and run to the ticket booth. Still a lot of people there. Among them Bill from Kansas. Retired and celebrating the birthday of a friend with a trip to Europe.
By this time, the lady in the ticket booth shouts that people need to be quicker: the ferry is leaving.
I tell Sisi to already go to the dock with her suitcase. The lady in front of me is aggravatingly slow. She stands with money in her hand but doesn’t give it to the salesperson because- as it turns out- she doesn’t know how much it costs. 
I point it out to her, and at the same time order two one way tickets.
Then I start running to the dock, which isn’t easy with a backpack. Halfway to the ferry I pass Sisi. Finally I reach the gangway where my ticket is torn in half. 
When I do not move, irritated italian voices indicate that I have to go to the deck. I explain that the little woman in the distance is coming too, and fortunately an italian woman indicates more passengers are coming. 
The crew gets angry but the woman starts shouting encouragement to a group of older people in the distance. Finally we all make it - including Bill from Kansas and immediately the large ferry heads for the open water.
And then, as usual, I overlook the water and my mind takes me away as countless memories pop up. The steep coastline with honeycomb houses clinging to vertical rock walls slip away. My thoughts move to other times and other places. I see the blue black water of the Nordic fjords, the light green Philippine waters, but also the rivers in north America seen from our little ‘Old Town’ canoe.
It’s a short trip and before I know it a tiny bus works its hairpin loops to the crest of the mountains of Capri. Kind people tell us where to get off and soon we are in the house of Anapaola who upgrades our room and tells us how to get to the Villa Jovis - emperor Tiberius’ pleasure palace.
The walk there is a joy. Tiny roads, too small for cars, but used by special very small electric carts for public works (I saw one with policemen). Countless luxurious villas, mostly white, with large gardens, many greek columns. Marvelous vistas over the slopes and the wonderful Mediterranean inviting us to the horizon. Beautifully manicured gardens, flowers everywhere, trees full of oranges and lemons.
And basically no foreigners. It’s truly off season and when we reach the remnants of Tiberius’ palace, we are alone. It’s the highest point of east Capri, and a brisk wind makes the temperature pleasant. We have a marvelous view over the Tyrrhenian Sea with in the distance the steep Amalfi Coast with Sorrento.
It’s a view I could enjoy the whole day, and as we are alone (except for a worker who is repairing a wooden railing) we picnic quietly while overlooking the swell hundreds of meters (yards) below.
We finally walk to a park next to the Palace again with amazing views of the water crashing into the rocks with white foam splashing spectacularly.
I especially enjoy seeing the seagulls far, far below us, from above. Knowing that they are still far above the sea.
Strange that a borderline crazy emperor lived here the last ten years of his life. He must have seen the same sights.
On the way back we descend completely to sea level and sunset finds us again alone near a rocky beach where two stone islands bulge up from the sea. The water is spectacular with thunderous sounds and fountains of spray. The sky has light feather clouds that turn pink and then orange.
By the time we walk home, the night has taken possession of Capri…

Comments

Roy
2023-12-01

Prachtige foto's; het is ook een fantastisch gebied.

2025-02-17

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