8/3 -- Sorrento/Capri

August 28, 2022

I woke up this morning to a text message telling me the sad news that my dear friend Amy had died. It was not unexpected as she’s been fighting ovarian cancer for a few years and went on hospice a couple of weeks ago, and it was a blessing as she was in pain at the end. But still super sad.

It was somewhat fitting, then, that we were headed out to sea today, to the island of Capri. On our boat ride over, I thought about how Amy and I met my freshman year of high school when we shared a math class, and how we clicked instantly. We were close friends until she graduated three years later, and then lost touch somewhat when we were both in college. She planned to study marine biology so couldn’t wait to get out of Montana to get to the beach, and went to college in Florida. (Hence the sea making me think of her, although she remained a marine biology major for exactly one semester.) We reconnected in 2001 when we were both living in Washington DC, and stayed close ever since. I most recently saw her in May when she had taken a trip home to Billings to see her parents, and we chatted for an afternoon while our daughters (6 months apart in age) played together like they’d known each other their whole lives. She had the most infectious smile and the world is a little dimmer now without her in it.

Capri is . . . an experience. It is absolutely gorgeous. But SO many people. About 12,000 people live there and there are about 20,000 tourists that visit every day. It seemed like they were all arriving at the same time we did. After our boat docked, we got tickets for a boat trip around the island, which was to stop at the blue grotto, a sea cave where we could purchase an additional ticket to go inside it from there. But when we arrived, the wait to go inside was about 2 hours, so our boat just briefly stopped and then kept going.

After docking for the second time, we purchased bus tickets and went to the town of Anacapri (after waiting over an hour to get on the bus). The “bus” rides were their own experience. They are really large passenger vans (with maybe 18 seats), but they cram probably 30+ people on them so it’s packed pretty tight. Masks are required in Italy on public transportation and authorities have been hit or miss about enforcing it, but on Capri they were very strict — which makes sense given how closely together people are. So we’re standing in the center aisle of a bus with a million other people, and we start moving. The road — which includes a section carved out of the rock on the side of the mountain that from a distance looks like it’s barely clinging to the rock — looks barely wide enough to hold the van, let alone it and an oncoming car simultaneously. And yet somehow it worked (although there were times we had to stop and back up to let another car through).

But the view from the road, in particular the side-of-the-mountain-barely-hanging-on road, was breathtaking and kind of made everything else worth it.

When we got to Anacapri, we had an overpriced lunch and then rode on a chairlift up Monte Solare. More incredible views going up and down and on the top. After we rode down the chairlift (there was a hiking down option but we were short on time and it was like 1000 degrees so we opted not to hike), we took a bus to another big town on the island, and then took the funicular (fun car) back to the shore. This fun car was much less fun than the Orvieto one as it was jam packed with people. Then to the ferry back to Sorrento.

The first ferry we had taken this morning was a small boat; the one back was the kind of ferry that carries cars and to the kids it might as well be a cruise ship, they were so excited to be on such a big boat.

All in all, I’m glad I saw Capri and the nature there is truly beautiful. But it’s not a place I need to go again.

After we got back, hot and sweaty and exhausted (although the hot and sweaty at least is daily; I feel like we should be renamed the Stinky Family), we went to dinner and then gelato, and then home to watch a movie.