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.
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 -
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.......
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.......
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