The Isle of Capri

A 30 minute ferry ride from Sorrento is the Isle of Capri. This is a mecca for the rich and famous and us! On arrival, once again in the heat we had a plan to follow. The island is almost divided geographically into three parts. There is a higher plateau where Anacapri is situated and large rocky steep cliffs that overlook the lower section of the island where the town of Capri is situated. On the other side of Capri  the land rises again. The Marina Grande is where the boats come in. In order to get to Anacapri we took a bus and once again rode the sardine special with death defying Italian drivers! The roads are extremely narrow but the drivers manage to manoeuvre the buses around hairpin bends and between walls and other cars.  If the road trip on the Amalfi coastline was scary, then the bus trip up to Anacapri was terrifying! The road is never wider than a footpath in the botanic gardens but nevertheless is 2 way. At times a sheer drop of 400 meters or more is only the width of a hand railing from the edge of the road. The buses themselves are about a half length shortened version of a standard bus with steering that can turn inside its own length. They seem made for the hairpin bends and steep climbing they need to do.

Anacapri is small and mountainous with magnificent views overlooking the island and the Mediterranean. While we were there we went on the Mount Salaro chairlift which is 429 m but the mount is actually 600 m above sea level. It is the highest point on the island and you can see the entire island from the terrace at the top. Over a granita we looked at probably the loveliest views in Italy.

Capri beckoned so we took another death defying bus trip down that God-awful road to the central hub of the island. Here they have up market shops for the well heeled tourists such as Salvatore Ferrano, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Swarovski and others. The fashions, shoes and bags were beautiful but a tad out of our league.

Unfortunately we didn't manage to see Villa Jovis which is the remains of the Emperor Tiberius' villa. This is situated high up at the other end of the island. There is no transport to it and it can only be reached on foot and only after some serious climbing. We were told it would take around 90 minutes to reach it and best tackled in the early morning. We had a ferry to catch so unfortunately it was out of the question. 

Various ways of getting around on the island are by bus (shudder) by open topped taxi, motorbikes and the famous funicular. This is a great way to get from Capri to the Marina Grande. It only takes 3 minutes and travels in a straight line between the two,   so its steep. In fact it's so steep each little compartment in the cable tram are individually tilted just so you can stand up in them. Great fun.

The ferry ride back to Sorrento was smooth with most of the passengers falling asleep. That could well have something to do with the climbing required on any visit to the island though.

Click here for pictures of the Isle of Capri.