Capri

Today we arose early to have a good breakfast in anticipation of the tour of the day, a cruise to Capri, former playground of the rich and famous. This place is generally so full of tourists now that no celebrity is going to ever show up here. Our cruise ship, the Nautica, was one of three in port right now with the other one in front of us, easily three times as large.

Since we are now at dock in Naples, we noted several prominent buildings at the end of the pier this morning. In this photo, the buildings are from the bottom, Castel Nuovo - now half economics university and half museum; Certoso, once a monastery; and Castelo Sant'Elmo at the top.

We met our guide for the day, Francesco who led us to our jet boat.

If things had gone as planned, we would have done this excursion from Sorrento which is a short 10 minute boat ride from Capri. Now in Naples, however, it became a 50 minute trip. Francesco cautioned us that the seas were a bit rough. That was an understatement! This boat trip was one wild ride and both Jackie and Dawn had a pretty bad time. By the time we got to Capri, almost half of the passengers were puking. That coupled with a large contingent of Asians who we're screaming and laughing - out of terror I think, every time we hit a big roller coaster wave - made this "The boat ride from hell or to hell." Take your pick. None of them are pleasant.

Francesco gave everyone some time to settle their stomachs before we boarded minivans and made our way on narrow switchbacks to the highest town on the island, Anacapri. Nothing settles a stomach quite like switchbacks! In good weather we might have taken a chair lift from Anacapri to the summit, but it was closed today due to high wind.

Instead, we visited one of the historic villas, called Villa San Michele. This place was owned once by a doctor/ornitholigist. It had interesting buildings and fabulous grounds overlooking Capri and the Med.

Then we were bused back to Capri where we were set loose to have some lunch.

Appetites weren't high. After lunch, we took a funicular ride back down to the port.

For the much dreaded return boat trip, Francesco opted to put us on the ferry, a much larger, but slower ship, thinking it would give us a better ride. She appeared to be right. We had some glimmers of sunshine today, but by enlarge it was a cooler overcast day.

Through no fault of Capri, we were not as enamoured by this island visit as we had hoped we would be. After our rugged boat trip this morning, we were pretty happy to cash it in early this evening after a fabulous dinner in the Grand Dining Room.