Day Trip to Capri

I’m back with another Italy recap!  Today’s post is all about our day trip to Capri.  Luckily, we timed it just right and ended up having our best weather day of the trip.  Clear blue skies and temperatures in the low 60s.

Capri is an island located just off of Naples and the Amalfi Coast with a population of about 12,000 people.  It is a really popular destination for tourists and Italians and can get pretty packed during the summer months.

We ended walking down to Sorrento’s marine at about 9:30 in the morning to catch a jet ferry to the island, which was only about a 25 minute boat ride away.  The boat we took to get there was huge and only had a tiny deck at the back, where you could look out and enjoy the ride.  Unfortunately, even though the weather was really nice and the water seemed relatively calm, a lot of people were getting sick (probably because they were sitting inside).  That part wasn’t so pleasant, but oh well.

Once we arrived at Capri, we took a short ride on the funicular up to the center square.  It was short, but fun!

A view was pretty amazing…

Since we had skipped breakfast, we decided to stop at a cafe in the square to have a quick cappuccino and a quick bite.  Even though it was our most expensive cappuccino of the entire trip (prime real estate = high cover charges and prices), it was worth it.

We also got to try our first sfogiatelle of the trip!  Sfogiatelle are Italian pastries, shaped like shells, and are made up of a ton of layers.

They are traditionally filled with a ricotta mixture and candied orange peel.  They were really good!  And super crunchy.

Naively, at the time, I thought, “hmm…maybe I should attempt to make a batch at home {for the blog}”–but after finding a Youtube video of the process, I’m not sure I’m up to the task and/or capable.

After breakfast, we were planning on heading to the Villa Jovis (a popular site which is a former residence of emperor Tiberius), but learned that it was a temporarily closed for excavation.  So instead, we headed off to check out the Natural Arch.

We pretty much had it to ourselves!

After that, we headed down a million or so stairs (Connor stopped counting at the 500 mark and I nearly fell and killed myself at one point), found a neat cave temple (Grotta di Matermania), and walked along the coastal path…

Is it weird that my initial thought when I saw this house was, “how do they bring their groceries home?”  Or even just “how the heck do you even get there?”

Once we looped back around and arrive back in to the center of Capri Town, we went to find the bus to head up to Anacapri–which is another small town located on the opposite side of the island.

It was only about a 15 minute bus ride, but was along some of steepest roads ever!  Made the Amalfi Coast drive seem like a cake walk.  I’m glad the bus was stuffed with people, because it prevented me from being able to look out the window…

We walked around town a bit, before finding a spot to have lunch (at this point, it was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon).

Pizza for him!  Pasta with zucchini, basil, and parmesan for her (–> a popular pasta on the coast)!  Yum.

After lunch, we decided to take the first bus back to Capri Town, so we could have a chance to go check out the Gardens of Augustus, which are known to have some of the best views on the island (although, in hindsight, great views were everywhere)…

We planned on walking all the way down the Via Krupp (below)–which is a winding path down to the water that was built by Friederich Krupp, a german industrialist and amateur marine biologist, in 1900.  But again, we were met with an unexplained “closed” sign…

Instead, we just spent the rest of the afternoon walking all over town–and again, getting lost…

But funnily enough, one random path led to an even more impressive view!  That little platform is actually where we were standing in the previous photos…

After our little detour, we walked down to the harbor to grab tickets for the 5:15 ferry ride back to Sorrento.  The boat ended up being a bit late (and we sat around for about 45 minutes)…and there were absolutely no directions as to which part of the dock we should go wait at.  Eventually, after a lot of confusion and running back and forth to two different boats to see which one we were supposed to go on, we boarded.

The boat back to Sorrento was much smaller and actually completely open on the top deck, so we were able to sit out and enjoy the views.

Visiting Capri was definitely one of the most memorable days of our entire trip!  We spent our last night in Sorrento with a nice, casual pizza dinner out and some really, really delicious gelato out at a popular spot called Primavera Gelateria.

It was a really funky spot with a weird, candy-smoke machine and pictures pasted all over the walls. But the gelato was amazing–especially the Ferrero Rocher chocolate flavor.  It was chock-full of Ferrero Rocher pieces.  Hmm…

After filling up on pizza and gelato, we fell promptly asleep and woke up the next day to head to our next, and highly anticipated, destination in Positano…

Wishing everyone a great weekend!