Greg & Haley's Travel

Day Nine: Posillipo

Naples is a hot hot hot city. The heat can really wear you out, sometimes it feels hard to get out of bed. It takes lots of motivation to venture out when you know you will be covered in sweat only 10 feet from the door.

Our friend John-Maria had suggested a beach up on the Posillipo, meaning "respite from worry". Being that we'd lost our suntan lotion in Capri, we went and bought some more, then hopped in a cab.

The beach was only a 5 minute cab ride (we should have walked) and is very clean considering that it's right off the shore of the city. If you're getting images of Coney Island water in your head, it's farrrrr from it.

Ton's of Vespas.

YSL Vespa.

Kids diving off of the dock.

Day Eight: Museo di Capodimonte

After an exhausted Monday at Capri, we decided to take it easy on Tuesday and checkout the Museo di Capodimonte. The museum was at the top of Napoli, in the midst of a beautiful park. The collection was vast, even though most of the art had one common theme... Christianity.

After the museum we took an amusing cab ride (make sure to watch the video below to see what we mean). The Piazzo Bellini was filled with a bunch of restaurants, Greg was starving, but none of them were serving food at the moment. We hung around for a bit then walked home. We were still worn out from yesterday.

Press play (below) to watch the video of our cab driver to Piazzo Bellini

Day Seven: Capri

It seems like every adventure we go on gets better than the last. Today we woke up early (almost slept the day away) at 8:00am, and headed over to the Molo Beverello to catch the 9:10am ferry to Capri. We got there with time to spare, so we sat and had an espresso before boarding.

We arrived in the Marina Grande, the main port on the island. Haley had been to Capri before, so she led the way. We took the Funicular up to the village of Capri, a pish posh town filled with fancy designer boutiques. Undecided of where to head next, we asked for some guidance at the town tourist booth. She circled three places on the map, but couldn't recommend one above the next, as she said, "everything is amazing". So we went to Antico porto di Tragara, a spot that Haley had been to years prior.

There were two private beaches surrounding one "public beach," which had sharp cliffs and steep drops. It would have been easy to get into the water, but getting out would leave one's body mangled and shredded. After scoping out the free "public beach" for about an hour, we caved... we decided a safe trip in and out of the turquoise sea would be worth the 13 euros each. The water was spectacular!!!

We swam and tanned until three o'clock, then took the Funicular back down to the Marina Grande for a trip to the Grotta Azzurra (the blue grotta). When we arrived, the line was drastically shorter than it had been at 10 that morning. There was only 5 minutes before the next trip departed so we quickly boarded the small motorboat with only 7 passengers (this was very lucky). In about 15 minutes we had arrived at the scene of the grotta. Row boats, captained by middle aged Italian men filled the area. They would paddle up along side the motorboat and offer a ride into the grotta for "only" 9 euro. The other members of our group hopped onto row boats and left Haley and I. Another row boat quickly came along side and offered us a private ride... the captain of our motor boat said we were very lucky for such an intimate experience.

The entrance to the grotto was a small hole, no larger than 5 feet. The driver holds onto a pully chain as to not be driven off-course by the incoming waves. The grotto was pitch black. We ventured deeper into the darkness and began to see the diamond blue water caused by light refraction. All of the row boat drivers were singing opera, the sounds banged off the walls. Our driver then told us to get in. We stripped down to our bathing suits and did cannonballs into the glowing, electric blue water, the drivers still singing.

10 minutes of swimming flew by like nothing. We were told to get back on the boat. We thanked him as he took us back to the motor boat.

By now it was 4:45pm. The next ferry left at 5:10pm. We contimplated staying until the last ferry (7:10pm), but decided that the day couldn't get any better, and that we should probably head back.