MORNING in Capri, afternoon with the KIRSCHENBAUMS

August 10, 2012

You may have noticed that the past two months we haven’t really accomplished much of anything in the morning.  Our entire schedule has shifted to be more in line with the late-night Italians. It isn’t really a suggestion here – restaurants don’t open for dinner until 8:00 which forces the late night.  Even I have been sleeping until around 9:00 am!  But we had heard from several sources that the key to seeing the Blue Grotto is to get there EARLY!  So, we set our alarms for 7:00 am, and while we didn’t make it down to the docks to catch the boat to Capri quite as early as we hoped, we did get on the 9:15 am boat – which got us to Capri in time to get on the 10:00 am boat to the Blue Grotto.  

Happy on the boat

We decided to take the 2-hour boat tour around the island, past the white and green grottos, and ending in the Blue Grotto.  This might be where we made our mistake.  Perhaps going directly to the Blue Grotto would have been the wiser move, but we knew that the best way to see Capri was by boat and we weren’t  planning on boating again later in the day. In addition to my new shifted sleep schedule, you may have also noticed that I have spent a good deal of time on boats this summer - at least for someone who doesn't boat well.  I have been starting to wonder if since losing hearing in one ear I am actually less prone to sea-sickness.  So, this was a big test of that – starting out on a pretty big boat going from Sorrento to Capri, then around Capri on a smaller boat, and then into the blue grotto in a row boat.  Could I do all of that?  The first boat from Sorrento to Capri was actually quite rocky and unsettling, but I really wanted to see the blue grotto, so off we set on boat number 2.  And, once we got going at a pretty good pace, I was actually doing ok.   



Seeing the island from the sea was wonderful and I was so glad we were doing it…

...then we got to the entrance to the blue grotto.  The only way to get into the blue grotto is to be transferred from your boat into small, 4-passenger row boats.  The driver rows you to the entrance where you have to lay down in the boat while he pulls you in on a chain.   So, it is a slow process to move people in and out.  When we got to the entrance area, our tour boat driver told us that because there were six or seven boats ahead of us, we would need to wait 60 to 90 minutes before it would be our turn to go in and asked if we wanted to wait.  The people on the boat were split, but  I was feeling good and very determined – yes, we would wait.  Then we started waiting – just sitting in the open sea, rocking with the waves.   Slowly, that wasn’t so fun anymore.  40 minutes later another boat arrived to take those who wanted to wait off the boat to a slightly smaller boat to continue waiting, while the larger boat would take the rest back.  At that point, I knew I couldn’t make it an additional 60-90 minutes (our 40 minutes sitting didn’t count towards the original estimate), so I sadly watched as the four other members of our party got onto the boat to head towards the grotto while I stayed on the one heading for shore.  Seeing the blue grotto is one of my few memories from childhood, and I  wanted to be there when my girls saw it – so I was really, really sad as we pulled away – for about 10 minutes.  Then my feeling of  sea sickness overtook my feeling of sadness, and I was just so grateful to be getting off the boat!  It took me the 60-90 minutes they were rocking on the water waiting to get into the grotto to start to feel normal again.  I still think the deafness and whatever that means for my inner ear has lessened my sensitivity – but clearly no deep sea fishing expeditions are in my future. 

When I asked the other four people in our party today (3 days later) what they remember about the blue grotto, they focused a lot on how they spent the time waiting:  Grandma stretched out on the boat feeling like a baby being rocked in a cradle and slept,  Jim and the girls played cards while Julia retold the story of Harry Potter.  When it was finally their turn to go into the grotto, 5 row boats swarmed over to their boat and took them off in groups of 4.  Their driver was pretty grumpy; Rachel’s recollection was him yelling, “Sit on the floor!  And give me a tip!... if you like my service.” Apparently at the outset he asked for a tip now and one again later.  The rowboats have to wait for the perfect time in a wave cycle to get into the very small entrance to the grotto.  The entrance gets closed off when the waves come so you have to time it perfectly to enter between peaks of the wave.  The primary light in the grotto comes from underneath which gives the water a real luminescence.  Julia felt it didn’t look like you were going through water but some other neon liquid, like the inside of a highlighter.  The light fades to darkness.  All that is lit is the water, not the walls.  

Don't ask about Rachel - I have a whole summer full of silly poses!

After we reconnected on dry land, a 3-minute funicular trip up from the marina took us to the Piazzetta at the center of Capri through the island’s lemon gardens.   Having heard that dining in Capri is super expensive, we brought a picnic with us and found some steps off the main square to sit on and eat our sandwiches and chips.  After lunch, we skipped the high-end shopping and followed a sign up and away from the people that said “belevedere” – beautiful view.  We kept going up and up and up and were treated to just that – it is amazing how we keep managing to find ways to be practically alone in the middle of the summer in Italy – and only by taking a few different (and usually steep) turns.   

Looking down at that beautiful ocean only feed our desire to find a place to swim so we headed straight back down to find a swim spot.  It seems like there should be beach options a plenty, but there really aren’t, and the beaches that are available (like the one in the marina) are super crowded and really rock = not super appealing. 

In a nice happenstance, Jennifer and Jeff Kirschenbaum (friends from South Pasadena) are spending 10-days along the Amalfi coast and our time in Sorrento happened to overlap with their time.  We hoped to be able to see them at least for a gelato but when they invited us to come swim at their hotel beach - though we were initially concerned about crashing their kid-free vacation - we jumped at the chance.  It was so fun to hang out with them half-way around the world and great to do some hassle-free swimming in such a beautiful spot.  

When we left them I had visions of returning to the hotel to shower before dinner, but the idea of getting back up to Hotel Spicy and then back down to town again didn’t appeal.  So, we decided to dine as we were, fresh from the swim.  We walked from the Kirschenbaum's hotel into the main square and then took some side streets to get away from the bustling town.  We stumbled upon a fabulous place in an alley called La Basilica Restaurant.  The meal, including the melt-in-your-mouth eggplant parmiagiana, the first spaghetti and meatballs we’ve seen on a menu, and a sweet serenade, was definitely memorable!   For dessert, we started with tiramisu at the restaurant because Julia had never tried it before, but then followed that up at what we were told was the “best” gelato in Sorrento.  Certainly the most usual flavors we've seen.