|
The second part of our trip this year took us to Capri, a small rocky island just off the coast of Naples (45 minute boat ride). It's a pretty ritzy place and in the summer many stars and celebrities rent one of the many houses on the island to pass
some quiet time away from everything. We had our own star sighting as Annmarie saw Eva Mendes walking through our hotel. She was there for the annual Capri film festival where they were showing "Hitch".
Capri was the site of our only 6 hours of sun during this whole trip (except for the day we *left* Italy). Luckily that was the time we picked to take a "small" hike around the island. It turned out to include about a gazillion of stairs, but we manage to make it. If you take out the glitz and glamour for Capri, you are left with some pretty nice scenery. So we spent some time running around the island with the camera. Hope the pictures below do it justice. The first 3 pictures are of the "Arco Naturale", a huge rock arch; "i Faraglioni", Capri's most famous landmark and the town of Capri.
We also headed down to Marina Piccola, a small marina which in the summer must be full of tourists but thankfully was deserted when we were there. This was basically to take the obligatory picture with the Faraglioni in the backgroud. While we were there we noticed how blue the water is, it almost looks fake. What you see in the second picture is the same phonomenon that happens in the "Grotta Azzurra", the Blue Grotto. This Grotto is the second most famous landmark in Capri, but we could not go see it due to weather and sea conditions. Oh well, give us an excuse to go back!
The social center of Capri is the Piazzetta (a very, very, very small Piazza), where people go to see and be seen. The Piazzetta is basically a big open air bar and it was going in full force up to and including New Year's eve. It is very fashionable to go there for an "aperitivo" before dinner and to sit and watch people go buy. We found a very discocerting rip in the economic fabric of the world, however, as sitting at the same bar and ordering the same drinks on two different days did not produce the same bill and the waiter could not explain it (even though it was the same waiter). Someone from Harvard should not study this. For New Year's the Piazzetta turned into an open air disco and even with the bad weather it was packed. The two pictures below show the Piazzetta during the day and on New Year's eve.
Last, but not least, Annmarie decided to start the New Year right by getting her picture taken in front of her favorite store, site of the purchase of one of the 3 purses received this year.
Rain, rain, rain, rain .... Well, its time for that part of the website with a picture that kind sums up our trip. We think that the one below pretty much says it all. 10 days of rain in Italy plus 4 more when we came back to Spain. What else is there to say?
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Back to the main page