The Blue Grotto Awaits

It was destined to happen! Friday morning, check-out time at 11:00am, we finish our breakfast at around 9:00 and head for our room to complete our packing. The concierge calls us over and informs us that the Blue Grotto is finally open. Of course there is no way we can arrange a boat, take the more than two hour tour and still check out in time. She checks the schedule of arriving guests and decides to extend our checkout for as long as it takes. She arranges a boat for 10:15 - we finish our packing, change and head for the beach to await our boat.

We watch as several other couples and groups depart on their boats, but by 10:45, ours has still not appeared. I hike back up the hill and the concierge calls - our boat has broken down! But, they're sending another, it should arrive at any moment. I race back down the hill! The boat and I arrive at about the same time and Guisseppe (who else) welcomes us aboard.

With or without the Blue Grotto, the tour is quite interesting. The geology of the island is remarkable. Weather, waves, geologic activity and time have produced a number of interesting features along the shoreline and Guisseppe manuevers his boat into some very tight spaces, in order to give us the best views. It's easy to see why Roman Emperors chose the island for their summer retreat. The nearly complete lack of beaches and the near vertical, unstable limestone cliffs make attack from the sea almost impossible.

About 40 minutes into our tour, we arrive at the Blue Grotto. There are a considerable number of boats massed about the entrance, jockeying for position and awaiting the attention of the Grotto boatmen. In order to enter the Grotto, you must transfer to a small rowboat, perhaps ten feet long. Up to four people sit in the bottom of the boat, while the boatman stands and rows to the entrance. There, everyone ducks as low as possible and you squeeze through the tiny gap.

Inside, the cavern formed by the wave action is about twelve feet above, at its highest point, about sixty yards deep and twenty-five yards wide. there are six or seven boats in the cavern at any one time, and once inside, the boatmen begin to sing traditional Italian songs. The real treat, of course, is the cobalt-blue color of the water There is no light source inside the cavern, the color of the water is the result of a completely underwater entrance that allows light to reflect off the limestone bottom. The boatman circles the cavern once and then exits through the same tiny gap - as other boats are entering - cooperation is a must; the entire event takes about ten minutes.

After rejoining Guisseppe, we completed the full circle of the island and returned to the rocky "dock" below our hotel. It was now 1:15 and we rushed to check out, travel across the island to Marina Grande and buy tickets for the 3:45 ferry to Positano, our next stop.