Travel: CAPRI & ANACAPRI, ITALY

 

*check out my last Italy adventures - The Tuscany Diaries - here first!*

For this trip, we'd chosen to base ourselves in Sorrento, but that didn't mean we'd be staying there the whole time. Our first sejourn out of Sorrento was to Capri, which took about forty minutes by ferry. However, as soon as we arrived, we headed the opposite way to everyone else - away from the main town. Instead, we were headed to Anacapri, another of the towns on the island. The way there isn't for the faint of heart, with hundreds of steps and again, not great pavements, if at all. The route was pretty much devoid of tourists as those going to Anacapri tended to take the bus or taxis, but we enjoyed soaking up the views on the way. 

An hour later, we were in Anacapri. Little white shops lined the windy streets, and we walked down to Capri Cakes for coffee and, you guessed it, cake. I decided to get a cioccolata calda (hot chocolate), knowing that in Italy, they're usually better than most - so thick they're more like a dessert than a drink. Sadly, this was more a standard hot chocolate than what I'd wanted, but the caramel flavour was very pleasant. Being in Capri, of course we had to try the Caprese cakes, and got one chocolate, one lemon, both of which were very nice. 

Fully satiated, we decided we would hike up to Monte Solaro. Google Maps told us it would only take a little over half an hour, but that ended up only being to the start of the trail. We'd made it this far, so it seemed a shame to stop there, so we continued on, even though we were definitely not on anything you could call a real 'route', instead probably one carved by the mountain goats that made this area their home... We did eventually make it to the top, and it was definitely worth it. I felt a great sense of achievement looking down at how far we'd come, and there was an even better way of getting back down, at least to Anacapri - a single person chairlift! I don't think I'd even seen one of those before, but it was great fun to be scooped up in the chair and then float over the hills for a solid ten or so minutes. Super fun. 

Back in Anacapri, we could've taken the bus back to the harbour, but where would the fun in that have been. Instead, we walked via Capri to see what all the hype was about. In comparison to Anacapri, I didn't like Capri at all - so crowded, and basically just somewhere to shop. We didn't stay long, and walked down to the harbour to catch the boat back. We'd been told when buying our tickets that morning that the time printed on our ticket didn't really matter, and we could get on any of the boats leaving. The guys at the port disagreed. Well, they disagreed with those whose tickets they checked, which was probably only about half of the people heading to the boats. We watched numerous people with tickets after ours walk onto the earlier boat without being checked, but we just happened to be one of the unlucky ones so had to wait an hour in the sun before we could get on our alloted boat. A bit annoying, but thankfully we didn't have anything we were rushing back for except dinner back in Sorrento - yum! 

I loved being a tourist in Capri and Anacapri, and particularly the unexpected ride on the chairlift - something I'd definitely recommend for any visitors to the beautiful island. Have you visited Southern Italy? Where else should I go? Let me know on Twitter @CiarasCountry, where you'll also be the first to know when my next blog is posted - thanks for reading!