The hike to this point was intense, but clearly worth it

OK, not much to add here about Capri. It’s beautiful with great hiking and good food and the clearest, bluest water in the world. We spent one last day hiking around the island and going to the “beach.” Note, of course, that if you’re thinking “sand” for beach you’re on the wrong island. It’s all rocks and ledges. But beautiful. And the swimming is so refreshing.

Now we’re off to Sardinia where we flew in yesterday afternoon. Just in time for a traditional Sardinian meal – a huge appetizer of grilled, marinated vegetables, sliced meats, and mixed cheeses. It was a full meal in itself. But we still had our main course, and since donkey was on the menu, I had donkey. Here’s the surprise: it’s really not very good. Pretty tough. I know, what would you expect from donkey meat? But it was supposed to be good. Horse in Sicily and donkey in Sardinia; we’ll try most anything!

Here are some final pictures from Capri. Final for this year, that is; I suspect we’ll be back before too long!

One more view of those crazy beautiful Faraglioni rocks

A morning view across to the Sorrento peninsula and the Amalfi Coast beyond

What’s Capri without a Caprese Salad?

This was our beach for two days. It’s right by the Faraglioni, so when you’d swim you were as close as you could be without being in a boat.

Sunset over the island of Ischia from our hotel bar

Happy us hiking on Capri

As Mark observed in his last post, we’re crazy about Naples; the intensity and the flavor and the energy create a unique beauty. And then just across the bay is Capri. It has been a favored spot for literally thousands of years. I’ve been enjoying Robert Graves’ books I, Claudius and Claudius the God, the classic 1930s novels about first century Rome, and it’s been great fun to read about Tiberius’s debaucheries out here where he lived for the last 11 years of his reign. Well, we don’t encounter much debauchery, but the beauty is still here.

These bushes with bright yellow flowers were all along our hike. They really brighten up the view!

This island has two towns on it, Capri and Anacapri. They’re both on hills and both heavily touristed – particularly in the daytime when cruise boats disgorge their hordes – but Anacapri is both higher and less heavily touristed. After staying in Capri last time, we’re up in Anacapri now and quite liking the more modest and laid back atmosphere up here.

Octopus has become one of our dietary staples. Seriously, we’ve eaten a ton of it over the last year, but this may have been the best ever. It was grilled to perfection, with juicy fresh tomatoes, black olives, and only-in-Italy arugula. Perfection.

The iconic Faraglioni rocks

So far we’ve been here for two days. We’ve hiked a bit, swam a bit, laid in the sun, rode a chairlift to the highest point on the island, and eaten some surprisingly good food. While our experience was that in the town of Capri the food was expensive and not so great, here we’ve found some much less expensive food that’s notably better.

Oh, and one more thing. We made it to the Blue Grotto. It was late afternoon, we were swimming over on the side of the island where little boats take you through a tiny cave opening into the grotto, and since there was almost no wait we went for it. Spectacularly beautiful. And, as a super-duper extra bonus, since it was late and there were no great crowds, our boatman suggested that for a good tip he’d let us jump out of the boat and swim. Now, there are big signs saying absolutely no swimming in the Blue Grotto; I remember that rule even when I was here in 1975. But we weren’t going to ask questions and just jumped on in. And joined Emperor Tiberius and Jackie Onassis as people who’ve swam in the Blue Grotto. 🙂

The lighthouse on the southern tip of the island, near the start of our trek

It seemed as though every step on this hike offered another stunning new view

More beauty on our hike around the southern part of the island

After the hike we had lunch and then went for a swim. The restaurant was high up on a cliff, with stairs down to a ladder. As you can see, there was nothing between me and Vesuvius!

Inside the Blue Grotto. You have to see it to believe it.

The Blue Grotto, just before we jumped in the water. For the record, the entryway you see behind us is tiny, barely big enough for a rowboat to pass through with the passengers literally lying on the floor.

The view from the top of the island. We were practically giddy the whole time over the spectacular views.

The chairlift from Anacapri to the highest point on the island took 13 minutes. That’s 13 minutes of breathtaking views. We were amused to note that the chairs coming up, late in the day, were filled with cases of beer instead of people…

And one more selfie – here we are at the highest point on Capri