Day 9
We walk down to the beach and grab the ferry to Amalfi. After spending a few hours in Amalfi, we catch the ferry back, and walk back up to the hotel. Then we walk back down to the beach, eat dinner at Chez Black for the second night in a row (good again) and walk back up the hill to go to bed. We ate gelato. Twice, I think.
Day 10
Up early for the jet boat to Capri. The jet boat was CROWDED. The Marina at Capri was CROWDED. The line for the funicolare was long and unhappy. So we jumped a cab and went to Anacapri, the other town on the island. I'd never been, but before we left, S and I saw a show about Capri, and the traveler in the show went up on a chairlift to the top of Monte Solara from Anacapri, and S was very keen to go. (I have to say that I was feeling really, really shitty for the first time in the trip--my throat was raw and I felt achy. So S and I popped into a pharmacy for the second time on the trip, and I bought some very strange Italian throat lozenges.) But when we got there, and I saw how far up the chairlift went (and the fact that they were single seat chairs), I started having second thoughts. But S wouldn't let me not go, so I worriedly got into line and ended up plopping my butt into the chair. The first 5 minutes of the ride were not good. I clenched the bar and the seat really hard, and I wasn't happy. But it was actually okay. The 12 minute ride up was pretty relaxing, and the views were great from the top. (Kate, I can say right now that you would NOT be going up that mountain.) The ride down kind of sucked because it was COLD, but it ended up being well worth it. Probably one of my favorite things we did on the trip.
Okay, so then it wasn't quite lunchtime. We wandered down through Anacapri, and ended up walking a long long time to get to a very secluded restaurant (Il Cucciolo) that was recommended in one of our travel guides. The setting was gorgeous, and the food was very delightful, even if I didn't like my pasta dish. Then we began to walk down to the blue grotto. I hadn't been aware that there was a land entrance to the thing, but in the guidebooks, it recommended taking the bus there. We came across a cab not long into the walk, and thank god too, because the walk was very long. I decided not to do the blue grotto thing, and I felt like shit even more than I had at the beginning of the day, so it was good.
Then we went back up into Capritown, which was AWFUL and crowded and bad. We got in line for the boat, and watched in horror as a whole big group of ticketholders (not including us, thank god) got left on the dock as the boat was full. Not cool. And then, after walking up, I decided I absolutely couldn't walk down and up again for dinner, and in solidarity, everyone stayed up too. We went to a restaurant that was embarrassingly bad (they served us hamburger buns and white bread instead of good bread) right around the corner from our hotel. I felt guilty, but oh well. You can't win 'em all.
Day 11
To Rome again, to go home. We stayed right by the airport, but took the train into Rome to spend money and have gelato at Giolitti one more time. I was exhausted by this point--we all were. So yeah, that's it. The great Italian trip. It was fantastic.
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