Getting Around

Even though it's September and a Monday, the crowds in the city of Capri are large. Lots of Japanese, German and French tour groups. The tours are easily identified; they move en masse, have some sort of badge and the guides carry flags held aloft - although one Japanese group was led by a woman holding aloft a long-stemmed fake tulip.

The weather has been warm, the winds low and the sea calm, so the water is an incredible azure blue. From a distance it's quite beautiful - up close, it loses some of it's charm. There is a remarkable amount of trash in the water, particularly around the public beaches. And the beaches are not sand - sea washed stone and pebbles. You can tell the day-trippers from the hotel quests by the foam mats provided to the quests by the hotels and by the impressions of the stones and pebbles temporarily etched into the skin of the day-trippers.

Most transportation, other than walking, is by cab, bus, or hotel van; although the incredibly brave, or incredibly foolish, can rent scooters. The roads are very narrow and abound with hairpin curves. However, the cab, bus and van drivers make few, if any, concessions to these conditions. In Italy, driving at breakneck speed may not be a constitutional right, but it is a national obsession - and Capri's drivers are no exception. As they approach a blind hairpin curve, drivers simply blow their horns and soldier on! Though we've seen no collisions yet, both our hotel vans have smashed side-view mirrors - on both sides! So clearly, it's a contact sport!