Ah Capri, you are one heck of an island! I think Capri is definitely one of my favourite places in all of Italy (and that’s saying something)! Capri is a dream, literally like being on the set of a glamorous movie. The minute you approach the island on the ferry, the colour of the water hits you in all its turquoise glory. It’s unreal.
The island is easily accessible via ferry from most places on the Amalfi coast as well as directly from Naples. As expected, Capri isn’t a cheap day out but trust me, you can’t leave this off the itinerary! I really regretted not staying there for a night or two as I think you need a bit more time to truly appreciate the island but, having said that, a day trip is also doable.
As we had a packed itinerary, on arrival, we headed to the Blue Grotto ticket booth straight away. The ticket is for the boat that takes you to the Grotto after which you need to pay an additional entrance fee (the whole experience cost around 30 euros in total). Once we got our ticket, we headed to the boat and were whisked away, along the rough and dramatic cliff sides to the Blue Grotto. Be prepared for queues! Basically, you need to wait for people to transfer to smaller row boats to enter the grotto (keep reading, it will make sense!) – we had to wait for around half an hour before it was our turn.
Now, for those of you wondering what the heck the Blue Grotto is, let me fill you in! It is a natural sea cave where the water is a bright azzure colour due to the way the sunlight enters the cavern through an underwater opening. The cave mouth is two meters wide but only a meter high, so to enter, you need to board small rowboats and lay flat on your back while the boat is guided through the opening. Exciting stuff! Once inside, you have about 5 minutes to soak up everything, including the atmospheric singing of the men rowing the boats. The colour of the water is really stunning – unbelievable that it’s all natural! I did however find that the experience was a bit rushed and my expectations were extremely high so I didn’t feel as awed as I thought I would – having said that, I don’t regret doing it!
To get to the Grotto, you have two options: you can either take a boat tour from the Marina Grande which stops off at the Grotto OR you can make your way to the Grotto via bus from Anacapri (a lot cheaper) and then just pay for the entrance fee rather than the whole shabang!
After the Grotto, we took a bus to Anacapri, one of the island’s two towns, high up on the slopes of Mount Solaro. The bus was jam packed (felt like I was on a chicken truck!) but the views were breathtaking. The town itself is quite small but charming with lots of cafes and restaurants – you can even take a chair lift to the top of Mount Solaro – we didn’t have time to do this but it looked amazing.
After a wander around town, we headed to Villa San Michele. The house is built on the site of ruins of a Roman villa and has beautiful, tranquil gardens dotted with interesting Roman sculptures. The views from the villa are also stunning and a real highlight. If you do one thing in Anacapri, make sure it’s visiting this!
After exploring Anacapri, we headed to Capri Town by bus. Capri Town is a lot more happening than Anacapri. The streets are lined with glamorous cafes and designer shops. As we didn’t take the full boat tour around the island, we headed to the Garden of Augustus which offers stunning view of the famous Faraglioni rocks. On the way, be sure to stop at Buonocore for some gelato. The waffle cones are made right in front of you and are delicious!
Hope this post gave you some travel inspiration to visit Capri – I can’t wait to go back!
Zohra's Rose: Lifestyle & Travel 