NFPC: Hiking Capri

Think you have high-maintenance hair? Not compared to these ladies.
Did they or didn’t they pay a ransom for the hostages?

Like I promised you in a previous post, I will always follow up an unpleasant/ranting/down post with a NFPC (Nature-Food Porn Chaser) to lift your spirits again.

Today’s chaser comes from a trip to Southern Italy with my mom when she came to visit, in the good ‘ol days when I didn’t make any money, so I could take a month off work.

The isle of Capri. (KAH-pree, not kah-PREE like most English-speakers say).

The past few times I had been to Capri, I had done the “island tour” in a private car. In the winter, this can be a limousine-type closed car that fits up to 6 people. In the summer, it’s an open-car with a shaded roof so you have the wind in your hair but not the sun on your already-developed sunburn.

Usually the trip is as follows – drive to the Grotta Azzura (Blue Grotto), driver waits for you (weather permitting, it’s not always open). Driver then takes you to Anacapri and leaves you there for an hour or two (he must make a few other trips during that time) while you eat lunch (selection isn’t the best, either – bring a picnic!!). After, he comes back to pick you up and takes you to Capri the city (Marina Grande is where your ferry comes in, not Capri). Sometimes they will take you to Marina Piccola on the other side of the island which is also nice.

But this time, being with just my mother and not a big group (easily worth the $$ in the group for the private car), we decided just to take the Funicular to the top of the island where Capri is and see where the wind took us.

We decided to follow a poorly-marked trail towards the Arco Naturale, the Natural Arch. We weren’t really dressed for hiking, but we did our best. Though it was a rainy April in Italy that year, we found sun along the trail that day. There were only a few other people on the trail, and it was very peaceful.

Finally we made it to the Natural Arch, and were bombarded by children on a school field trip. We felt a bit like someone crashed our party. And they hadn’t done the hike (there’s another way to get to the Arch that is mostly city street). There was also a lone, packed restaurant there, waiting for starved and parched hikers (there’s a steep part that’s tiring at the end).

We resisted the lure of the restaurant, though we did get a much-needed bottle of water, and headed back to the main city, to complete the circle of our trail. We stumbled and bumbled our way through the backstreets of Capri, and we found a little restaurant tucked away in an alley.

We followed our noses inside, and were greeted by a pleasant surprise, a terrace for dining with a wonderful view. I charmed our way into an available window table. There’s Vesuvius in the background.

Marina Grande as we headed back to Sorrento.