Tuesday, 12 July
Today we had our excursion to the Isle of Capri ... we boarded our little minibus and once at the meeting point met our Tour Guide. Her name was Irene. She was roughly in her 70s. Before we made our way to the dock she explained on the bus that the Blue Grotto at Capri was open but we could be waiting quite a while to enter it if we did not beat the Japanese boat there first. She told us (deadpan) that we would need to run faster than them off the ferry boat because they always ran! That just reduced the 4 Australians in the bus to hysterics. So there Bobbie & I, Roulf & Elisha were shrieking with laughter. We were already primed for mischief as Irene's face from the top lip up did not move and Roulf declared that she must have had Botox... in excess. We stood in line for the ferry making quite a racket laughing and coming up with a code name for Irene ... when Roulf mentioned that she reminded him of a Thunderbird puppet ... hilarity ensued and her new name was born B.T. (Botox Thunderbird) .... which developed into Betty.
Betty was actually lovely. We were good little tourists and obeyed Betty's every command.
We visited a cameo factory which was fabulous - one of the masters was sitting there carving a beautiful muse into the seashell. Then of course we are 'invited' into the showroom where you can make a purchase. I had thought of buying one for someone special who loves cameos but the prices were ridiculous ... but then the really good ones were ridiculously amazing. The ones I could afford were obviously by students and I didn't like them.
Onto the ferry where we waited at the exit, ready to run. Gathered up our Lebanese & Argentinian tour companions when it was time to disembark and the 9 of us beat the Japanese!! Betty was very happy with us. Just quietly I'm pretty sure she thought the Australians had partaken of a little too much morning beverages (coffee/champagne). Off the ferry, onto the motorboat and zipped away to the Blue Grotto. We really only waited about 30-45mins for our turn to transfer, 4 at a time, into the little row boats. The entrance to the cave is very low and poor Rolph had not only his wife but me lying over him as well. The rowers butt was extremely close to my face ... awkward. Inside it's stunning .... the sunlight reflects off the white sand and turns the water an irridescent blue that glimmers and sparkles against the cave wall. Apparently the Romans use to come here and bath. It was so hot and the water looked sooo good, it was highly tempting to just 'fall' out of the boat. Alas, no such luck there was a 2000 Euro fine for such folly.
Had lunch at a restaurant up at the highest village on the island - Anacapri which was owned by Betty's son. Everybody ordered Spaghetti Bolognese ... expecting some meat. When it came, it was difficult to find it amongst the tomato sauce (not that I'm complaining because it was delicious). I did find a 3mm piece right in the last mouthful though. We then had a bit of free time so Bobbie & I took the funicular up to the highest point on the island. It was a little .. um ... scary for me on the way up. The 'safety' features of our single person chairlift was a mental bar that sat across your lap ... with no latch. I looked at the ground in a couple of places and said to myself 'if I fall here, it's ok ... I'll just break a leg' .... in another 'if I fall here ... I'm dead'. Oh cheery thought. Good news, I didn't fall and the view was indescribable. Photos will never do it justice. Simply breaktaking. Ate my delicious strawberry, chocolate & lemon flavoured gelato at the top overlooking the Bay of Naples. Back onto the chairlift and the ride down was not nearly as nerve racking. The view was spectacular. Well worth the random 'I'm going to die' thoughts.
A visit to a parquetry factory/showroom was included in the visit as well and again .. while the craftsmanship was impressive ... the bank balance would not have allowed for such impressiveness to be exported home to Australia. In fact, we decided that you really needed a house built around some of the lovely pieces of furniture.
Onto the bus to go back to our wonderful hotel it was. We were talking to Betty on the way back and she said that if she had a group like us everyday it would be wonderful. She had really enjoyed being with us. Our group was lovely and we had a wonderful day. We were however extremely hot and sweaty and even though the hotel pool 'closed' at 6.00pm, you've never seen three women run so fast to get into a pool. Stupid grins of contentment were plastered on our faces as we lowered our body temperatures.
We joined Roulf & Elisha for dinner (partly because we were hoping to avoid another date request but mostly because they were great company!) and we were by far the noisest table there ... we were also the last table there :) Our waiters particularly enjoyed us and were playing along and having fun as well. One particular waiter was really fun and was quite obviously enjoying the atmosphere we had going in our little corner.
*sigh* Another great day on the Amalfi Coast.
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