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From our hotel room, ominous storm clouds hover over the Castel dell’Ovo and the Santa Lucia harbor

In between our eights days in Capri and our coming five nights in Rome we decided to stop over for just two nights in Naples. While we’ve already seen all the sights in Naples, we felt we needed a couple days just to have the great food you find there.

Can’t get enough pictures of the lively, cavernous streets of central Naples

More of the same

The nasty weather we had during our entire stay in Anacapri followed us here and got even worse. Our first full day started off gloomy but manageable, but later in the day we both, independently and in different places, got caught up in a horrific rainstorm. It seemed like the rain would never stop pouring.

But on day two we woke up to clear skies. We got to enjoy an entire day of perfect weather — sunny, 70s — just the thing we hoped for in southern Italy in October.

We’ve always loved this big bustling city and its gritty nature. But it seemed more lively than ever. And even more affluent than ever. Jim kept observing than when he was here for a couple years back in the 1970s Naples was a truly poor city. And while it’s still got an edginess about it, we were stunned by how many people were out in the streets enjoying themselves and enjoying a seeming prosperity that wasn’t apparent even on our earlier visits 10 or 12 years ago.

Like so many places in Europe, untold thousands of people — locals and tourists alike — stroll the central streets, many of them pedestrianized. These crowds, out enjoying the city, go on for miles. I don’t think anything like it exists in the US. Sure, New York streets are crowded, but that has more to do with lots of people coming and going. But in hundreds of European cities people stroll the city centers in vast numbers. And here is Naples, it was incredible.

We loved these quick two days here. The city was so lively, the food was so great, and the weather was (eventually) perfect. We are almost sorry to leave so soon. But now we are on to Rome to celebrate Jim’s birthday. And our 39th anniversary. And to visit with Jim’s brother Albert and his wife Anita!

A fun lunch at a harbor front restaurant. At the table next to us a family of 30 appeared to be celebrating a birthday. They were a bit loud but fun to watch.

Once the storm really hit, even the umbrella sales guy was hiding underneath an awning

Al fresco dining with weather we’re hoping will break soon

The harbor a day later as a perfect October day was unfolding

Once the skies cleared we also got a stunning view of Capri

Oh yes — Mount Vesuvius, too

We took a gamble and returned to A’ Lucianella Napoli, a humble, inexpensive restaurant we’d stumbled upon years ago and loved. I ordered a Caprese salad of mozzarella and tomatoes for lunch. It was incredible. But they seemed to slip in a bonus little slice of honeydew melon, which you can see a tiny remainder of here on the upper right. When I took I bite it was the most profoundly incredible melon I’d ever tasted. We just marveled over it until it was almost gone and I finally remembered I’d better take a picture.

A square we love with another great restaurant, Il Garum, that we returned to after many years. Again, it seemed like a gamble but totally paid off.

A big doorway, Naples style

Jim stopped into the Gallerie d’Italia Naples, where the pottery reminded him that in ancient times, this part of Italy was really more connected to Greece than to Rome

The dome over the stunning Galleria Umberto I shopping center

The streets

A perfect lunch

Yup, the streets

Mark far above the lighthouse on the southwestern tip of the island

After four nearly perfect days in Capri we took a very quick taxi ride up to Anacapri, the somewhat higher, quieter, more relaxed community a bit west of the main town. It was supposed to be four more days of hiking, beach time, and restaurants. We’ve stayed in both Capri and Anacapri on various visits and like them both in different ways. For this stop we stayed at the Capri Palace Hotel, where we’ve stayed before, because it has both a nice pool (with great pool service in the past) and a private beach club associated with a Michelin-starred restaurant for glorious lunches. We were quite looking forward to the stay.

Alas, we had not factored in four days of rain. Not that tropical stuff you get in Southeast Asia where the weather is fine most of the day, then a big rainstorm rolls through and then it’s fine again. This was just rain and threatening clouds nearly the entire day. For four consecutive days. We could do some walks, but a several hour hike around the western end of the island was out of the question – no way you could escape the rain for that long.

The view from our room. Normally you would see clear skies and fabulous blue water. Not these four days.

So little of the beauty that we love about Capri and essentially none of the pool or beach time we were so eager for. And to be honest, we were kind of bored much of the time; there’s only so much time you can spend researching restaurants for lunch and dinner. Had we been in most any Italian city there are always museums and churches to go to. Even cafés to duck into. Not here though. Shorter walks during breaks in the weather were possible but that was about it.

I did manage one adventure that was worthwhile. On our last afternoon it looked as though there was going to be a couple hours without rain so from Anacapri I walked down to Capri (it’s a lot of steps…), hung out there for a while, and climbed back up again. And since I had already hiked from Capri to the northeastern tip of the island (and back) and from Anacapri to the southwestern tip of the island (and back), that meant that during the eight days we were there I hiked from one tip to the other – and back again. Not bad for an old man.

Stairs down, down, down from Anacapri to Capri

And that was enough. Even under clouds the island has its charms, though I can only imagine what the experience was like for the many MANY day trippers who’d heard about the beauty of Capri and seen the pictures and all that, and then come for a day in the rain. Probably not as much in love with the island as I have been for 50 years.

Next stop, Naples!

A horde of day trippers on a rain-soaked tour of Anacapri

An amazing variation on a Caprese salad at Da Emilia, a great new find for us that we went to a couple of times. And my excellent steak tartare in the background.

The empty, rain-soaked main square of Anacapri

There were occasional glimpses of blue sky, but they weren’t common and didn’t last long. This tree, quite near our hotel, has featured in many of our photos from Anacapri over the years.

Dinner at Il Solitario, another new find for us that was worth going back to

Out on the southwestern corner of the island is an odd park. It’s called the Philosopher’s Park, endowed by an old Swedish academic who loved Capri and left this land to be studded with glazed plaques and quotes from great philosophers over the last few millennia. It was surprisingly serene and I would have stayed for a good while here except it was obvious a big rainstorm was brewing.

From the edge of the Philosopher’s Park you get this view up island over the famous Fraglioni rocks

The town cemetery, another serene spot

Our beautiful and almost completely unused pool

On a walk

The view from Anacapri across the island and over to the mainland, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast

There are a lot of mediocre restaurant serving the tourist hordes in Capri, but Da Tonino, a 20-minute walk from town, is perfection

From Palermo we took an overnight ferry to Naples, where we would catch a morning ferry to the island of Capri, one of our favorite places in the world. But first let’s talk about that overnight ferry.

We did the same ferry in reverse 13 years ago, setting out from Naples for our first ever visit to Sicily. We didn’t really know what to expect, but it was a really fun experience. Soon after we settled into our modest private cabin we went looking for dinner. First we checked out the “cafeteria,” a huge space teeming with tons of people filling plates with sloppy looking, seemingly low budget food selections. Then we looked for the “restaurant” and found a shockingly elegant space with white tablecloths, white-jacketed waiters, a lovely menu, and hardly another soul dining there. There we had one of our most memorable meals ever.

As we prepared for this repeat journey I was wondering if that amazing, improbable dining experience was still an option. I asked ChatGPT about it, and they confirmed that yes, this route still has both a crowded cafeteria and an “elegant” sit-down à la carte restaurant. Yay, another fun travel experience to look forward to!

Now, it turns out that ChatGPT is sometimes just wrong. And while there was still technically a table-service restaurant, it had been seriously downgraded. No tablecloths. Surly waiters. Not a great menu at all. And just to really rub it in, they had put the boat’s children’s play area immediately across from this restaurant so diners could enjoy the screaming and squealing of the ship’s loudest and most boisterous passengers. Our dinner was a shadow of the faded glamour we’d hope to recapture.

But we survived and made it to this beautiful island for the first time in nine years. We are nearing the end of the summer season, and we got four days of the perfect weather we hoped for. Sunny. In the 70s. A little breezy. And the sea water warm and bright blue.

What do we do in Capri? Most days we head to one of the beach clubs. The island has no actual sandy “beaches,” but these elegant clubs have grown around rocky outcrops where you can jump into the sea and climb out by a ladder. Or you can walk over uncomfortable pebbles until you are relieved to fall into the soothing water. And then you have an elegant Italian lunch overlooking the stunning land and seascape.

La Fontelina is a popular beach club that we’ve been coming to for years. The views from here are among the absolute best. But I was a bit annoyed at how outrageous the prices were this time!

Lunch at La Fontelina

Lunch at our hotel’s own beach club near Marina Piccola. They are newer and don’t charge nearly the prices that La Fontelina does, yet the service and food were way better.

Enjoying the warm blue October water

What you don’t do is walk through the cute town during the day because it is completely overrun by hordes of day trippers. I don’t know how many thousands of people are dumped off here by the ferries and cruise ships, but they are really a menace. They crowd the central streets, form huge lines at the gelato shops, and make it a chore to get around. From about 11 am to 5 pm they are jammed into the central square, sporting their wrist bands, ID stickers, and lanyards around the neck. Big clusters wear headphones as they follow their flag-bearing guides.

And then as evening comes on they all go away and peace descends again.

From here we’ll travel up the island to spend another four days in the charming town of Anacapri. But as we look at the weather forecast, we fear the summer season is abruptly coming to an end!

The iconic Faraglioni attract yachts of all types and a gazillion photos

The narrow lanes that snake all over the island

The hordes of day trippers that jam the center of town during the day; note the skinny little trucks that carry luggage, food, and supplies through all the narrow roads all over the island

A peaceful aperitif in town after the day tripping hordes have cleared out

Lunch at Da Tonino

The comfort of Al Grottino, a reliable restaurant we’ve returned to numerous times over the years