At the port in Sorrento we found more gatti (cats).
There were quite a few of them milling around and lazing on the warm concrete. Food seemed to be their primary focus. No interest at all in being petted.
The weather improved as we headed south but it was still overcast in Naples. Vesuvius had a heavy cap of clouds obscuring the top. You can see one of the two cruise ships anchored off Sorrento in this picture.
The port at Sorrento is mostly used by small yachts, fish boats, the ferries and the lighters ferrying people on and off the cruise ships. It is a small place with 99% of the town located on the plateau at the top of the cliffs.
While we were waiting for our ferry a pretty fierce squall blew through. We ducked under the concrete awning where the cruise ships had their stations to wait it out. It was interesting to watch the procedure for people boarding the lighters. Both boats required picture I.D. that obviously was made when the guests arrived on the ships. We saw a lot of people arrive soaked to the skin.
The squall passed before we boarded our ferry. During the crossing the sun started to come out. In the distance we could see the island of Capri, although the view out the windows was partly obscured by a lot of crusted salt on the windows.
This is a view of Marina Grande on Capri but not a very good one. The island is characterized by steep cliffs with not a lot of buildable area or arable land. Until it became a tourist area (longer ago than you would think!) life must have been difficult.
When we arrived on the island we just missed the bus to Anacapri and had to wait for half an hour. We were not the only ones. The islanders have turned moving tourists around the island into a fine art. Here you can see the covered people channelers for the busses. Italians are not much on queues but on Capri they force you to be in one to get on the bus.
Dom looks happy to be on Capri.
It looks like a church but is actually a fancy villa. Monte Solara, the highest point on the island, is in the background.
We used the busses to get around the island. They are quite small (but then so are the roads) and you can pay as you get on. Each driver has a cash box and a little machine that spits out the tickets. The locals have passes. Most of the time riding the bus was really interesting, possibly one of the most fun things we did on the island. If you have a window seat you can peak past the walls into gardens and storage yards, into the bus barn and grocey store.
The roads are incrediby narrow. Often one vehicle had to back up to a wider spot to allow the bus to pass. Here is a shot of a Caprese taxi going by us. There was never more than a couple of inches between the side of the bus and other vehicles or walls. All of the busses had scraped up sides although we were never in one that hit anything.
Everyone seemed to ride the bus--commuters, shoppers, children, teens, tourists and workers. Here is a street cleaner with his bucket and equipment heading back from Marina Piccola to the town of Capri.
The only part of riding the busses I did not like was a short stretch on the road between Capri and Anacapri. It is difficult to tell from this picture but the drop on the other side of the railing. Dom estimates it was about 400 ft. straight down. In fact the road was cantilevered out from the cliff. It was straight up on the other side. It lasted about 60 seconds. Dom timed it a couple of times while I closed my eyes. This photo (and a few others) was taken by blindly aiming the camera!
It took ALL day to get to Capri but it was an interesting journey. More in the next post.
2 comments:
Glad you didn't sample any car-bus scrapes on the road. If that road was anything like the one between Napoli and Positano, then I know exactly what you were experiencing. Only difference, perhaps, was the bus I was on was a full size bus. Maurizio was one very skilled Sicilian driver!
I loved the pictures and have always dreamt of going to Capri. Thanks for posting them.
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