Unfortunately, we had a minor setback. The private tour I had booked us on (no downpayment) insisted I had cancelled my reservation (as if!). We took it in stride, secretly glad we didn’t have to sit in a van full of old fuddy-duddies anyhow. The problem was the Amalfi Coast is a good 2-3 hour drive from Naples and hiring a taxi driver to take us there would be very expensive. In the end, we looked into taking a train to nearby Sorrento but then opted instead to take a hydrofoil over to the island of Capri. The marina to take the hydrofoils is literally right next to the port so it was a 2 minute walk over to buy tickets. The ticket was on the pricey side - €17 per person, one way.
I didn’t know much about Capri, other than it is a resort destination for the rich and fabulous. We met a few other cruisers in line at the ticketbooth who also had no idea what was in Capri. No worries, we boarded the hydrofoil anyway. Unfortunately, the weather that morning was slightly rainy and the ride over was very rough. By the end of the trip, crewmembers were walking the aisles handing out plastic bags. We were VERY glad to set foot on Capri when we got there about 45 minutes later.
The main marina in Capri is cute and small. To the right of the town is a funicular that went up into the hills, but we didn’t explore where it took you to. We saw several tours boarding buses to head to other areas of the island but we decided to roam about on foot. There wasn’t much to see and we were nearing disappointment when we saw a sign for “Capri Centro” off of a side street. We followed the sign up through a winding, steep street that seemed to keep going up and up. Our legs were getting a really good workout! On the way up, we passed under the funicular and thought – huh, should have taken that instead!
The walk was well worth it because it ended up taking us up to the main square in downtown Capri. The square had lovely views of the coast looking out towards Naples. After taking a few pictures, we walked through the streets of the town and discovered many expensive shops and restaurants and hotels. They weren’t kidding when they said this was the place for jet-setters. We couldn’t afford any of the wares in the stores we passed by, but it was fun to window shop.
At the other edge of town were signs pointing to lookout spots so we went in that direction. The walk ended up hugging the cliff and had so many dramatic views of the island that we were stopping to take pictures every 5 minutes. We detoured down a path that took us to a beach (they called it a beach, but it wasn’t sandy at all… more like big tide pools) and a charming beachside café. Because of the cloudy weather, there was only one other guy at the beach so we had the place almost entirely to ourselves!
We could have kept walking along the path but we were too hungry so turned back around to get some grub in town. We stopped at a cute restaurant and ordered some pizza. Naples is known as the birthplace of pizza and we figured Capri was close enough that they should know how to do tomato pie right. We were correct – the pizza was fantastic! Definitely the best pizza we’ve ever had in Italy (including our last trip to the country).After lunch, we walked back down to the marina to head back to Naples. We made it just in time to catch the next hydrofoil that was leaving. The ride back was even worse than the ride coming in, but thankfully we both were able to nap for a short period of time.
Back in Naples, we decided to walk around the city since we still had about 2 hours before our ship was to set sail. Armed with only a small shopping map we got from the ship’s excursion desk, we walked with no real idea of what we wanted to see. We went down a few streets that were lovely and had grand buildings and pretty fountains, but for the most part, we found Naples to be on the ugly side. The majority of the streets were dark (the buildings were on the tall side and blocked out the sun) and everywhere you look had graffiti. There weren’t the charming outdoor cafes you see all over Rome or Florence.
We were really happy with how we spent our last day on the cruise even if it started poorly with my cancelled reservations and stormy weather. Capri is a gorgeous island and we definitely want to go back and explore more of it. The town of Capri is probably too posh for us, but staying in one of the little pensions on the outskirt of town overlooking the water would be just fine for us! Naples wasn’t so great, but I wonder if we just didn’t see the right parts of town. I watched a Samantha Brown episode on the travel channel the other day (Samantha Brown’s First Cruise!) and she loved Naples and made it look like a fun, un-spoiled part of Italy. I wish I had seen the episode prior to our trip to know what parts of Naples to go to. Oh well - just means we have an excuse to go back! Next time too, we will finally make it to the Amalfi Coast!
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