MARCH 29, 2011 Tuesday, CAPRI

We have not had access to internet for several days so I will try to catch up on my diary.  We left Napoli on teh 11:35 ferry.  I was surprised to see this beautiful castle at the ferry terminal.

We are staying in a 4 Star hotel with free WiFi but it seems to work only on this little laptop and not on either of our iphones or Rick's ipad.  We arrived on the isle of Capri approximately 1:00 pm after an hour and a half fast ferry ride on a cool catamaran jet boat.  It is strictly a passenger ferry and seating is like the airline, 3 seats across at both sides and a row of seats down the middle as well, high backs but no leg room and no recline. It was a rough ride as we were really zooming along but it was fun.  We called the hotel when we arrived at the ferry dock and they sent a car down to pick us up.  We are staying at Parco Excelsior, a place that was built as a private residence in the 19th century and operated as a hotel since 1906. 

We checked in and got a ride up to the Capri town center.  It is a small town built on an island mountain.  All the roads were built long before cars and are very narrow, and they wind back and forth due to the steep nature of the island.  Much of Capri is for walking only but we may rent a scooter to get around tomorrow and see how far we can get.  We had lunch in town, paid 12eur for spaghetti that was not even close to the dinners we had at l'archetta in Rome.

Our hotel is on a steep hill so we bought junk food in case we don't feel like going out later.  I would love to walk around all side streets and explore so maybe tomorrow.  There is a castle at the top of the mountain and apparently there are some ancient Roman ruins at one end of a walking tour.

Our room is cute, a couple of twin beds on the main floor in a tiny space with no window so we were a bit creeped out when we saw it but she pointed us to the marble staircase that leads up to our real room with a wonderful bathroom.  Unfortunately, only the bathroom and the stairway have windows so we have no view at all so may ask to move tomorrow.

I decided to go for a walk and found it is faster to walk to the beach than to drive.  85 steps down but cute little shops at the marina.  I walked around some neighborhoods on the way back and found some beautiful homes, a school and a soccer field but the ocean view is the hilight and can be seen from everywhere.