Day 12, August 14: I like to think of today as a scout and research day. We had a long breakfast and walked to the bus station to go to Positano. It was a lousy trip with the very windy road, which was managable. But then the A/C unit in the bus was leaking all over some of us. The half the back of my dress was wet by the time we got off. Nasty.
As soon as we exited the bus and started walking down, we knew we should have allowed more time here. The tiny roads winding down the mountain are lined with stores, cafés, and trinket stands with trellises of bright pink bougainvillea providing shade everywhere. It's so picturesque and the paths stretch up and down the mountain like a maze. It's unbelievable people decided to build properties here. Even in Sorrento there are roads that run through incredibly high walls of rocks with stairs snaking up them for pedestrians. Who said, "Let's dig straight down and carve out a path to the water"?
We did a little shopping (a couple sexy swim wraps), peeked in a little church, and got to the beautiful shore. That was when we fully regretted not being in our swim stuff. It was so hot out and when we dipped our feet in the water, it was perfect. So that made me a little cranky.
We ate by the beach at a place Jason's friend recommended, Le Tre Sorelle or the Three Sisters. It was very good! I ordered a tomato salad and a dish of prosciutto with figs. I've been on a fig kick ever since Croatia. Jason got an amazing gelato across the way at another cafe afterwards.
We hopped on a boat to Capri, a beautiful and relaxing ride across the water, and arrived on an island of sugardaddies with their young trophies on their arms. There were families there as well but Capri is known for the high end shopping like Fendi, Bulgari, D&G, Gucci, La Perla, and an expensive shoe lined called Hogan. Sneakers are around $200. We saw what appeared to be a pro soccer player with shopping bags over his shoulder, walking through with his family, (hot wife, 3 kids, the oldest maybe 13) completely decked out in labels like POLO or D&G and running around the different windows pointing excitedly at things that caught their eye. Most kids their age wouldn't even know to look at half the things they drooled over. But people are right, Capri is overrated.
We got a slush and gelato then searched for information on the Blue Grotto. We found out the last excursion leaves at 4:15 from the shore. We were at the top of the mountain and the guide said if we were able to make the next tram down (4:15) they would wait the 5 minutes it would take us to get down there before leaving for the excursion. There were too many people trying to make their way down so we missed it. I was disappointed. Had I thought about it, I would have spoken up about finding that information first and forfeited walking around the shops until later.
Instead, we left the line and hopped on a bus that was supposed to take us to a different beach, Marina Piccolo. Jason and I were depending on Mom and Dad since they'd been here a few times before but it had been awhile and they didn't remember exactly how to get to the beach. So after some confusion with the bus ticket vendor selling Dad twice as many tickets as we needed, we hopped on the bus. But when we got off a stop we were told is Anacapri we discovered from a few policemen that the entire area is called Anacapri and we were no where close to the Marina. So we got on another bus back to downtown to catch the tram back down the mountain. At that point I was cranky. But it wasn't anything gelato couldn't fix. =) We enjoyed a big scoop after buying some Meloncello to take home and a hat for Jason. So we know for next trip, spend more time in Positano, wear our bikini/ trunks, and we'll make one more trip to Capri just to see the Blue Grotto.
We went back to Sorrento to fetch our bags and car, and then head out to Macchiagodena. We stopped at a random restaurant called Navajo in the middle of nowhere. Service has been pretty competent everywhere else until now. It took 10 minutes just to get menus and beer. The place wasn't busy, it was just out in the country where no one is in a hurry. I ordered a pasta dish the young waiter said was his favorite. It was a light cream tomato sauce with ham, basil, and small curly twist pasta (I forget the name). It was yummy!
We arrived here in Macchiagodena around midnight. Ready for bed and glad to be at the hometown. I get to sleep on this surprisingly comfortable murphy bed and we have to wear earplugs because the roosters can start crowing at 5 A.M.
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