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Up early this morning to catch the ferry to Capri. It’s about a 2 hour boat ride across the Bay of Napoli. We enjoyed the great views of the harbor and the crater of Mount Vesuvius.

Capri is a good size island with two main towns, Anacapri and Capri. The island is very mountainous, but does have several good beaches that are swarmed in the summer by vacationing Europeans. Upon our arrival, we found out that the bus and funicular tram drivers were on strike until 4:30 PM today. ?!? Our original plan involved taking the tram straight up the first mountain into Capri, walking down to the coast on the other side, and then taking a bus back to the port in the afternoon.

So, we walked around the lower neighborhoods near the port for a while, trying to figure out how to walk our way to Anacapri. It’s the less touristy and pricey of the two cities and was recommended to us by fellow travelers. After some wrong turns, we ended up walking uphill into downtown Capri instead. It worked out well since we passed a market on the way and bought provisions for lunch: bread, cheese, juice, and water.

Capri has lots of ritzy shops, restaurants, and hotels. It was quite a sight!

In the main plaza of the town, tuxedo-clad waiters stood next to expensive cafés and $300 shoes stared at us from shop windows as we walked by (and those were the cheapest of plain loafer-type shoes). If I was to pay that much for a pair of shoes I would expect them to cook dinner, do laundry and feed the cat! In one of the restaurants we glimpsed photos of the owner with Catherine Zeta Jones, Sylvester Stallone and Mariah Carey, obviously we could not afford to eat there!

We wandered the narrow streets past the trendy shops, then worked our way down into the residential area checking out houses, hotels, and churches along the way. All the streets are narrow and cobblestoned so that only pedestrians and delivery trolleys are allowed (no cars or scooters, yeah!). We passed a house where Pablo Neruda stayed, one of our favorite poets!

From Capri we walked down towards the ocean on the south side of the island where a famous walkway, Via Krupp, serpintines down to the sea. The road was closed, but we did enjoy the gardens and the marvelous view overlooking the ocean from the cliff-side terraces. We noticed the agaves and prickly pears clinging to the cliff-side with amusement. Where would Italy be without important imports from the New World? Tomatoes, cochineal, prickly pear, beans, squash, chocolate and coffee and tobacco to name a few. We lunched in a small nook in the gardens; it rained off and on and eventually settled into a cool, partly cloudy day.

More exploration as we took a long and narrow set of stairs down from the main plaza towards the harbor. They ran right next to the funicular tracks, and wound down the mountain between cute houses, lemon orchards, and vineyards. We saw a couple cats (gatta), ranging from mangy strays to well-cared for house pets.

One of Capri’s trademarks is mosaic tile artwork. Each house and business had its name and street number embossed in a colorful tile. The electric and sewer utilities were marked on the main streets with a tile as well. We have both always liked art with a purpose!

We breezed back to Napoli on the faster boat, the hydrofoil. It was hot waiting in the sun, but once under way the breeze had us donning jackets again! We weren’t the only tourists. One group of Spaniards, was interesting to listen to as they switched from Castilian Spanish (standard) to their dialect. I don’t know what region they were from in Spain, but I could get a few words here and there as they chatted.

Back in Napoli (traffic Hell, all bad drivers must end up here as part of their punishment) we stopped at our hostel for a snack and rest, then headed out to MANN (Museo d’Archeologie Nazionale di Napoli). The local, and highly recommended, archaeology museum. Of course, it started pouring as soon as we hit the streets for the 15 minute walk. I tucked our small bag of valuables under my jacket to keep it dry, and our clothes dried quickly after arrival since they are mostly quick-dry materials.

The museum was neat but failed miserably to live up to its reputation: lots of Roman artifacts from Pompeii and other surrounding sites poorly displayed and explained. After the museum we tried to find an Internet café to check email. No luck, so we sloshed back to the hostel in the rain after a brief stop at a market for food. Erin cooked us up a great spaghetti with pesto in the hostel kitchen, which we ‘manged’ (ate) with bread and wine. We chatted a bit with fellow travelers both British (who’ve never seen Coupling!) and American then hit the sack around 10 PM. Tomorrow we head to Firenze…