Vico Equense & Capri

Based ourselves in Vico Equense to be close to Herculaneum, Capri and the Amalfi Coast. Finally hit the jackpot with Airbnb – lovely little unit with proper aircon that works and the loveliest host that booked our Capri cruise for us, ordered pizzas to be delivered for dinner one night and recommended restaurants, ice-cream place etc.

Spent our first day taking a walk (trek) down to the “beach” – 250+ steps down, and yes … we were going to have to come back up which nearly had the heart in overdrive. Practically vertical up the cliff.

Decided against the beach at 20 Euros each as they weren’t particularly nice (one was a concrete slab next to the sea) and very small and crowded. Opted instead for a drink under the shade on a deck over the sea with a lovely cool breeze off the sea.

Angela (the hostess with the mostest) had recommended a seafood restaurant down at the coast. I had linguini with lobster – as you can see I got half a lobster, which was delish! Jarrah ordered a starter and “main” because in Italy, the “second courses” are often small because they assume you’ll be having a small plate of pasta first … as you can see – huge portions here. Those are prawns on a sea of mayo and huge portion of gnocchi.

Next day we were up at sparrow’s fart for a day trip to Capri. Went on a small motor boat with only 12 of us. The guide on the boat is quite a character, in a nutshell – he can’t stand the people on Capri, says they are all a bunch of criminals trying to rip tourists off. They even gave us panini to take with us for lunch, so that we didn’t have to spend money on Capri 🙂

Took us 40 mins to get to Capri. There we signed up for a bus “tour” that basically drops you off at Anacapri for 2 hours and then picks you up and drops you off in Capri town for 2 hours. From Anacapri, we took a chair lift up to the very top of the island, where there were amazing views of Capri and the surrounding bays.

Left Jarrah alone for 5 mins at an outdoor restaurant, where we were having a drink, in order to go to the men’s loo (more about that later), only to find the waiter chatting her up on my return! Quite funny though, he fully admitted it, told me to go away and give him 5 more minutes 🙂

Anacapri is very quaint, with white-washed buildings and bougainvilleas, lovely shops selling linen clothing (a lot like Noosa actually 🙂 ) but by the time we got down to Capri – it was boiling hot and so crowded! Mostly Italians taking their summer holidays. There were really stunning views from Giardina di Augusto of the gorgeous water/coast where there are hundreds of boats of all sizes, leaving zig-zag trails across the ocean.

At 3pm we were back on the boat for a trip around Capri, stopping in at the Green and White Grottos. This tour doesn’t go to the Blue Grotto, for reasons we had read in some reviews … you have to transfer to smaller boats, there is usually about a 45 min wait bobbing on the water (during COVID wait time has escalated to 2 – 3 hours as only 2 people are allowed in the small cave at a time), and even though you’ve paid around 15 Euros for 2 mins in the cave, there were several reports of the boat guys intimidating people into giving them a tip of 10 Euros per person or more (won’t let you off their boat until you’ve paid them).

As you can see from the pics, the “green” and “white” grottos are just stunning, in fact even the open sea around Capri has the most unusual, amazing colour – a glowing deep royal blue that neither of us have ever seen before.

They anchored the boat near to the Natural Arch (Faraglioni) of Capri and the tour guide took us into a cave via a tiny entrance (not the pic below – that entrance is about a hundred times bigger than what we went through). Water was a lovely temp and so salty that Jarrah finally managed to float on her back without sinking for the first time in her life.

Tour guide told us that you will return to Capri if you kiss someone as you go through the natural arch, given that Jarrah and I were the only single people on the boat, the tour guide (in his 50s) kissed us both on the cheek as we went through 🙂 Talk about service beyond the call of duty 🙂

Then it was back to port, finishing off with an ice-cold Limoncello which is mainly produced here in the region around the gulf of Naples.

Pic above left gives an idea of the deep royal blue water colour.

Daily Giggle:

Being so pre-occupied with figuring out the turnstile at the entrance to the loo that I failed to take notice of which one I was entering. Only realised when I left! Trying to balance on the bowl mounted on the wall should have been a dead giveaway 🙂

MM