Sorrento; Monday, 03 October, 2011

Another early start, this time down to the harbour to get a relatively early boat out to one of the islands in the Bay of Naples, perhaps the best known of them – Capri.

A smooth crossing and straight off the boat into the hordes of touts trying to sell you taxi tours, car rental, scooter rental, restaurants (even before 10am!), boat hire and boat trips. I had already done my research so I knew I wanted to go on one of the boat trips out to the blue grotto, and before I’d left England I’d checked on line so I knew the name of the company that was offering the best deal. Unfortunately for them, it was their tout who got to me first and desperate to make a sale (I don’t think very many punters were biting) gave me a discount on the rate (only 50 cents, but I let him believe it was enough to persuade me!)

The tour set out from the harbour round to the blue grotto where an interesting in-sea boat transfer takes place from the motor launch into the very small row boats that fit through the tiny gap into the cave. You only get a couple of minutes in the cave (which for the price they charge makes it incredibly expensive), but it is stunning.

The boat dropped us back in the harbour as another ship from the mainland was landing at a different jetty; consequently our landing stage was devoid of touts so I was able to wander out of the harbour unmolested.

I popped to the transport kiosk and brought a day ticket for the bus and then joined the quite long queue for the bus to Anacapri. The queue may have been long, and the bus tiny, but it possessed Tardidic qualities to swallow up passengers. It meant I didn’t have the most comfortable of journeys standing on the exit door steps, but it did mean I had a first class view of the journey up the mountain to Anacapri, the stunning switchback roads and at times the sensation that you were actually flying over the island rather than still being connected to it.

In Anacapri I had a quick look around the town, and then caught the chairlift up to the highest point on the island the summit of Monte Solero. It took about 15 minutes to make the journey up and with all the noise of the town fading away, and just the squeak of the wheels on the support columns it was incredibly peaceful. From the summit the views over the island and across the bay of Naples were simply stunning.

Having descended I caught the bus out to the far end of the island at Faro to have a quick look around, there wasn’t much to see other than a lighthouse that’s still in use and therefore closed to the public, and a beach. I headed back to Anacapri and then caught the bus into the main town of Capri to have a look around there. Compared to Anacapri, Capri is incredibly busy, very expensive and defiantly more a place where people come to be seen. I had a short wander around the centre, but after the pleasantness of Anacapri and the quietness of Faro I couldn’t warm to the place so, with a boat back to Sorrento leaving within 30 minutes, I caught a bus back down to the harbour and made my way back to Sorrento.

I had a quick stop for a late afternoon snack in a café on the beach near the harbour and then went for a wander around the town centre for a short while, before heading back to the flat to freshen up and then back out for dinner in a little restaurant just round the corner form the apartment block.