How do you pronounce Capri?

We headed to the Isle of Capri on our second day in Italy. But before we get started, we must take care of the business of how to pronounce the name of this famous island off Italy's Amalfi coast. We've always assumed it was pronounced like the capri pants I was wearing that day. But we've heard from the locals that it sounds like KAW-pree with a heavy Italian accent. You can practice that new pronunciation as you read about our day.

The driver arrived at our apartment at 9:15, and drove us down the mountain to the small village dock several kilometers away. The little harbor was filled with local boats, and ours was the biggest. We were going to be boating across the Campanian Archipelago in the Gulf of Naples.

At the end of the day, we realized that we never took a picture of Alfonzo and his boat. The boat had living quarters with a bedroom and bathroom, and more than enough room for our group of eight.

It was a bumpy hour-long boat ride to the island on this windy day, so we had plenty of time to take pictures as we enjoyed the ride.

While we have been sweating the last few days, Denisa was glad that she wore her capri pants and longer sleeves over her swim suit on this cool trip to the Isle of Capri.

After an hour on the water, we approached the sheer rock coast line. Those tall rock walls jutted out of the water at a right angle, and provided no place for a boat to dock.

Our captain managed to get us incredibly close to those rock walls, especially when there were interesting sea caves to peer into. He told us that this was the White Grotto.

Each time he amazed us with his boating skills in these bumpy waters.

As it got later in the morning, more boats appeared. At times we had to wait in line to nose into the sea caves.    

 

The nose of our boat was big enough for all eight of us to have a front row seat.

As we boated around the far side of the isle, we caught site of Capri's most famous sea stacks.

Faraglioni is the name of the group of sea stacks rising out of the sea. Since we weren't sure how to pronounce that Italian word, we'll call them the English version name--"Sentinels of Capri." While they are all grand, the one with the arch at the bottom was amazing. We watched in wonder as the smaller boats went right through that arch.

Then we realized that Alfonzo was taking us through the arch as well.

This is a special kind of wandering God's wonders when you get to thread the needle through a natural sea arch!

Our boat pretty well filled the arch. But the arch was bigger than we expected.

We took more pictures to document this once-in-a-lifetime experience!

What a blessing to be here with this special family today!

On the back side of the isle we saw a village with a beach and plenty of places for travelers to stay overnight. From the distance, we wondered why some of the buildings were painted a deep purple color. 

When we zoomed in, we saw those houses weren't painted purple. They were covered with vines that were in brilliant purple bloom.

Most of the boats around us were a lot smaller than our vessel. As we saw them come out of the sea caves, we assumed that we were too big and would have to settle for seeing it from afar.

We watched the boats jockeying for a place in line. Then we realized that we were in line as well.

As we waited in the cue, we noticed that the water around us was a perfectly clear turquoise

Captain Alfonzo got us all the way into the Green Grotto until we could see light coming from the other side of the rocks.

The Isle of Capri is a rectangle that is approximately 2 miles by 4 miles. We got to boat all the way around, hanging close to the tall rock walls and their grottoes and sea caves.

As we went around the furthest end of the Isle of Capri, we could see the lighthouse at the point.

Denisa loves lighthouses, and this one was a beauty!

While we were on the south side of the island, we were protected from the winds and bumpy water. As we boated around the point, we again found the wind. The thickening clouds started to rain, and we all were glad that our boat was big enough to have a covered section. We had planned to make a stop at the Blue Grotto, but it was raining too hard to get that most famous experience of going inside grotto.

With all the rain, we decided it was time to go on land until the storm passed. Our captain anchored in the crowded boat parking lot on the north side of the Isle of Capri.

This little boat patrols the boat parking lot, watching for visitors that need a ride to the island. The waves were rocking our boat and this little dingy--sometimes in different directions. Denisa almost did the splits when the boats rocked in opposite directions as she attempted to make the transfer. We don't have a picture or a video, but it would have been very entertaining.

We found a street cafe with a tent over the dining area, and decided to have lunch during the rain. We had carbonara and steak, caprese salad, brushcheta, ravioli, spaghetti bolognese, spinach and goat cheese cantaloni. It was an Italian smorgasbord at our table of eight! The Amalfi coast is famous for its lemons, and they are everywhere! They can grow as big as your head, and they were used as table decorations at our cafe.

The dock area was very crowded, so we decided to ride the funicular to the top of the mountain on this very steep island. The line was long, but a lot of people can fit into this little train that goes straight up the incline.

At the top, we took pictures of the cloudy views over the city that we had seen earlier from the boat. Now we can see those purple-flower-covered houses from a different angle.

The bougainvillea grows like a weed here on the Isle of Capri.

We walked down the very steep Rodeo Street, filled with designer shops. But we were in search of the best lemon ice cream on Capri. We found it at Chiosco Tizzano--serving homemade lemon ice cream in an over-sized bowl made from a real lemon.

We huddled under the cover of the shop awning as the rain continued.

While some people might be shopping for souvenirs, Camden was shopping for a hair cut. He got an Isle of Capri hair cut at a barber shop filled with photos of famous people that have done the same.

It was time to get back to the boat, but it was still raining. So we used our towels as umbrellas and made three-person trains to walk back uphill to the funicular station.

After a soggy day on the Isle of Capri, the weather broke when it was time to head back to the dock. We thought this was a beautiful place even on a dreary day. We can't imagine how stunning it would be on a warm blue-sky day.

The boat "parking lot" is less crowded since it is close to 5:00 and most of the day-visitors have already departed the island. We walked to the end of the dock to wait for the dingy ride back to our boat. Denisa was already a little nervous about that jiggly step between the two boats.

The Blue Grotto is one of the not-to-miss experiences when visiting the Isle of Capri. Boat-fulls of tourists will line up here to see the inside of this famous grotto. The only way to get inside is on a canoe powered by a local. We had seen pictures of tourists laying flat on the bottom of the canoe to get through the small opening at high tide. But all those canoes stopped running at 4:00, and we stayed on the Isle of Capri past that time. So when our boat arrived near the opening of the Blue Grotto, we were all alone. Alfonzo explained that it was fine for us to swim in ourselves, so the most adventurous members of our group jumped into the water. That would be Mark, Denisa, and Camden. The entry is quite narrow, and it was a little unnerving when big waves would completely close the entrance. But a chain along the rock wall helped to navigate the opening, and it was enchanting to have such a special place to ourselves. More of our group followed after our successful trip inside. Besides a few scrapes from the waves tossing us into the rock walls, we finished our adventure unscathed. We got to wander into another of God's wonders!

Our extra stops meant that our boat ride back to our home dock was fast. Moving from the back to the front in the wind and waves was a challenge!

We didn't have perfect weather, but we did have a perfectly wonderful day. Remembering our pronunciation guide at the beginning of this blog, we invite you to read the following sentence out loud in your best Italian accent. We enjoyed a break from the hot weather, and Denisa was glad to be wearing long sleeves and a pair of capris on this cool weather day on the Isle of Capri.