Capri

I have run out of superlatives! I have never seen such incredible beauty in my whole life. We awake early, and head down to the balcony for breakfast (a cappuccino and a croissant), I know I can hear you saying, but Cate doesn't drink coffee!  Well..... I do now.  The coffee here is different.  In Italy,  there is also a timetable for your coffee drinking!  Only the tourists drink cappuccinos after breakfast! After this, espressos only!

After breakfast we head to the beach.

  Today, Paolo is picking us up and taking us to Capri on his speed boat.

Goodbye Positano!

The trip over takes us about an hour and a half , but we are circumnavigating the island, and taking in all of Capri's breathtaking beauty.

We visit the white grotto,

the green grotto,

and the.... The Blue Grotto!

To get into the Blue Grotto - Grotta  Azzurra  we had to disembark from our jet boat,

and climb, four people per boat onto a row boat.

 To gain access to the grotto we had to lie on the bottom of the boat facing up.  (I have woken up the next morning with a pain in the back of my neck from this.  Imagine this - without laughing, if you can - I am at the back of the boat, I lie down with my head on the bow, Barbara lies between my legs, with her head on my belly, she in turn has some unknown Aussie between her legs, all we know is that they come from Melbourne!)  Into the grotto we go! The entrance to the grotto is only I think about 1 meter high.  First off all our boat driver had to take us to the ticket vendor boat, after this, we have to queue up, and wait for our turn for access to the grotto.  

Each boat load of tourists rakes in 50 euros, there's some serious euros going into this grotto!!  We are guided in by the boat driver pulling us in via a chain secured to the rock wall.

Once inside, there are several of us in there, perhaps five boats in total.  The scene is incredible, blue, blue, blue!!!!

The boat drivers all start to sing, and the sound resonating around the grotto is..... well words cannot describe it.

 After this adventure we head to the port of Capri.  This island is truly "lifestyles of the rich and famous."

Costanzo is waiting for us at the dock, to take us around the island in his convertible.

He drops us in Anacapri, and we take a chairlift to the top of the island, the view from here is incredible.















After a look around, and some photos, we descend back down to Anacapri to explore the town.

We have a little bit of time time on our own to explore, and to have some lunch.  We have pizza and beer at a little trattoria.  Bellisimo!   We also visit a beautiful little church - Remember, we are in Italy!!!!

After lunch Costanzo drove us around showing us the sites.  We see Sophia Loren's house,

Gianni Versace's (now Donatella's) house,

Salvatore Ferragamo's house,

the Mercedes Benz Company Villa



and the icing on the cake -

See - up on top of the hill - the view!!!!!

the Gerber's villa (Gerber baby food) this villa is worth in excess of 30 million!  Real estate is very hard to come by on Capri, only 3-4 houses come on the market per year!  I may have to marry to get a home on Capri! You have no idea how incredibly beautiful this place was.

Oh, and the shopping.......

The tourists, I could live without, and as I have said many times on this trip, I am so glad I am not here in the peak tourist season.

We return home, and finally get to meet our hostess, Maria.  Maria tells us the story of how her father immigrated to the United States, and lived in New York, but always wanted to go to California!  When he came back to Italy and started this hotel, The Hotel California was born!  Maria offers us a proseco (sparkling wine) to celebrate my birthday (this birthday never ends!) - it is also her daughter's birthday, so another drink is produced!  We start talking, and pretty soon she offers us some good advice as to where to go for dinner.  It is her favorite restaurant, and it is 15 minutes up the hill, away from the tourist area!  She calls ahead, and orders us a driver (free).  Francesco arrives, and takes us up the hill to a little place called Montepertuso (this means "hole in the mountain", as it is....  in a hole in the mountain!)

The restaurant's name is Ristorante Scirocco.  The legend to to this restaurant goes like this..... In 1977 Nonno (grandfather) Gennaro Amendola, called "Scirocco" by everyone because of his passion for cooking, his smile and his warm welcome to all, opened the Scirocco restaurant with his wife Maria, and their 10 children..... In 2006 Nonno Scirocco passed away, and today the tradition is carried on by Nonna Maria, her eldest son, Pasquale, and her and grandchildren.  

To say that this meal was the best Italian meal I have ever had, is probably still not doing it justice!  The flavours were "bellisimo", we plan on going back, and taking our new friends with us.  Dinner over, and Francesco comes back to pick us up and bring us home. The stories I have to tell of this trip.......

Napoli to Positano

It's my Birthday.

I look like a big bumble bee!!

Barb greets me at my door this morning with a birthday bade (which I must wear all day - and balloons that I must carry all day!!!)

We start the day with breakfast in the piazza that was featured in The Grissowlds European Vacation movie!  As we sit and sip our cappuccino, and eat our cornetto (the Italian staple for breakfast - similar to a croissant, but not so buttery, but with a sweet glaze!), a group comes and sits next to us. After they have themselves sorted, their cappuccinos ordered, they get out some sheet music and they start singing.  It is like we have sat next to a table of angels!  The music that comes from this table is saintly!  They are obviously practicing their hymns, they sit there and sing unselfconsciously, it is only when we applaud them as they leave, that they become embarrassed!

Breakfast over, and we head to the train station.  Barb tried her hardest to embarrass me on my birthday. Not only did I have to wear a badge saying birthday girl, but I had four balloons tied to my suitcase for the day!

We got lots of sideways glances and chuckles as we wove our way through the streets of Rome to the station, and many more aboard the train! After an hour's long train trip from Rome, we arrive in Naples.


They say Napoli (Naples) is the birthplace of pizza.  When they make a claim like that you are expecting something pretty special. Once we arrive at Napoli station we decide to stow our bags, and investigate what we can in the couple of hours until we are picked up.


We head straight up the street that we can see from the station.

Along the way we encounter the local markets.

Here we find a mix of everything, there's the flea market type stuff, the fresh fruit and vegetables, the fish mongers, even the local Ripperia - here they specialize in tripe, and all other kinds of offal!

Onto the pizzeria!  In Napoli you can have a pizza, and four beers for 16 euro!  I must say though, that the pizza was not as good as I had anticipated!  I actually think I can make better!  One thing I have learned though is to go easy on the cheese!

Back to the station to pick up our transfer to Positano.  We look and, and look, no suspects!  Barb did sus out a couple she thought would be on our tour, and as it turns out they were.!  They innfact have turned into our surrogate mum and dad - Marti and Scott, Marti is 73, and Scott is 72 (we joke later on during the trip that she has a toy boy!!).  Both their partners had died, and they found love again, and married 4 years ago!!  They are from Philadelphia, and really, good fun! We will spend much time with them over the week!

We travel along what we later learn is called the "snake road" - twisty, turny, and oh so close to the edge!!!

 .....Her mind is Tiffany twisted, she's got the Mercedes Benz, she's got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, she calls friends.......Welcome to the Hotel California.... You can check, out any time you like, but you (I) can never leave! Here we are, our home for the week!

 OMG!  I have died and gone to heaven!  This place is so beautiful!

We learn later on that this hotel is the hotel that was featured in the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.


My room is the one where Francesca calls out to Marcello on the balcony.

Marcello, where are you?

Barb's room is the one where they first made love!

We have a shower, gussy ourselves up (I wear my white and floral dress, a la Francesca)

and we head off for dinner at at a local restaurant Le tres sorelle. The three sisters!

We are treated to a chef's tasting dinner, seafood, seafood, seafood! Oh, so good! We sit with all our new friends, two ladies from South Africa (on a trip to celebrate 50 years of friendship) Marti and Scott (on a trip Marti's  son gave them to celebrate Marti's retirement from nursing), and Mary from Washington D.C (who has her own catering company), and of course our hosts Lauren and her husband (our driver) Rino! We had a truly wonderful evening, I even had a serenade for my birthday, complete with a cake and a candle!   My birthday could not have been better!