After 3 days in Rome, we headed to Capri via Pompeii. Why Capri? We wanted to see the beach, and I looked at lots of places around Italy, and it seemed like Capri was a fun little spot; not because it has beach (the only beach is tiny, just like everything else on the island). But, the views and the beach vibe are second to none.

But first we visited Pompeii, and it just happened to be on the “free entry” day for the whole country- which meant the line was insane. As we got close, the first words that came to mind were, “this is like the Myrtle Beach of Italy.” Definitely touristy on the outside.

It was gigantic- way larger than we expected it to be. Lots of fun, the only drawback was that “there weren’t enough dead bodies.” Tay was on a mission to see the pictures as described in her high school history book on the subject. She was devastated to learn that her text was not 100% accurate.

Lets talk about Capri:

Its fancy.

Its an island right near the Amalfi Coast, a 45 minute ferry from Naples, and its pretty darn small. When planning this trip from home in North Carolina, it is kinda hard to know exactly what constitutes a “good idea.” But, it was important to have dinner reservations so we didn’t end up hungry at dinner time with no good options. Luckily, there was a great option that was a 20 minute walk from our room, and it was beautiful:

The walk to dinner was also more treacherous than we expected:

Capri is a tourist town; not only that, it is a seasonal town too; when we were there, it was early May and a few weeks before this hot-weather destination got busy.
This explains the three phone calls I got from an Italian phone number on our walk to dinner. Each time I answered the phone, I asked if the person spoke English, and they hung up. The phone call was from the restaurant we were heading to, and they wanted to confirm our reservation.

Was it odd to confirm the reservation? I thought so. But, the reason why they were confirming was because the restaurant was opening for the first time that season that night, and the only reservation was ours.

The meal was delightful:

Also worth pointing out: this was the fanciest little restroom I have ever used in my life:

After the meal, and some delicious wine we had a photo shoot with the chef/owner and his family. His two young, and exceptionally well behaved children were there too.

On the shuttle from the restaurant back to our hotel, I was fishing through my fanny pack to find the exact right number of Euros to hail a ride, and the person waiting noticed I was one euro short, and loaned me the difference. We got to chatting on the shuttle, and he said he was from Ecuador and travels the world, but never goes to the same place twice. The next day I got to wondering, the average income in Ecuador is about $6000 a year- so, who on earth were we sitting beside on that shuttle? What kind of person from Ecuador can afford to travel the world?

Our only plan for Capri was to see the Blue Grottoes. What are the blue grottoes? It is an underground cavern- it was used by Caesar Augustus for his bath house- they found marble statues of him on the seabed when the caverns were rediscovered.

The location was lost over time, but rediscovered about 100 years ago (we learned this on our treacherous walk to dinner, with signs explaining history of the island). Now, it is open only 1 out of every 3 days or so because even slightly choppy seas make it too challenging to enter. And when planning this trip from Greensboro, it was really hard to figure out what tour group to use, and whether the caverns would even be open the day we wanted to go. I made it a point to ask the people from our hotel, and they said that the decision for whether the caverns would be open is made at 9am.

As luck would have it, they were, and it was even more beautiful than we expected. Highly recommend:

Once you get there, you have to jump from the boat you rode in, to the tiny boats that are small enough to fit through the entrance to the cavern.

It was so, so spectacular. Somewhere it was listed as one of the 7 wonders of the ocean world, and we were not disappointed. I can’t imagine how crowded it would be during the high season.

What else is there to do? Each day so far, we went from “Oh, thats the prettiest thing I have ever seen in my life” to another, “No that is the prettiest thing I have ever seen in my life.” The art in Rome, the beautiful city alleys, to the natural things in Capri. I say this because just wondering around the “roads” of the island was a beautiful way to spend time. This clip is our walk through “The Garden of the Gods”:

There was a small hike near our hotel that we went and explored: just two miles or so. Again, planning this trip from North Carolina is a challenge for details like this, but we had enough gas in the tank to get in a few more steps for the day, and we werent disappointed:

What was the food like in Capri? While I was on a mission to eat as much pasta as possible in Rome, Taylor wanted to eat as many Caprese salads as she could during our time in Capri. We also took advantage of our free hotel breakfast, and tried to eat at the cheaper places we could in such a famous and beautiful location. They are known for their lemons in Capri, so two things really stood out: Lemon pizza, and Limoncello:

Finally, one thing that was really bizarre to me was life on the island: the cars. Some of the roads on the island are small, the rest of the roads are tiny. The road signs are handpainted porcelain, and the vehicles they use are smaller than golf carts.

Another caveat about Capri if you are mulling over a visit: its a lot of walking, and tons of hills! My legs were so tired, and I finally looked at my watch, and it said I was averaging 24k steps, and 34 flights of stairs each day.