Italy 2012 – Capri & Sorrento

Today we woke up around 8:30 and headed to the (still scrumptious) hotel breakfast around 9. By 9:30 we were in the hotel shuttle that would drop us off at the Vico Equence train station, where we caught a 10ish train to Sorrento. We were hoping to make the 10:45 boat to Capri, but after several wrong turns that resulted in a nice little tour of the city, we were on board the 11:25.

The crossing to Capri was in a Victoria Clipper type boat, and took about 45 minutes. Then we had another wait of about 15 minutes for the funicolare up the hillside (in fairly dense cigarette smoke inflicted by the station employee while standing within a few feet of several no smoking signs). The funicolare (cable car) took 70 people at a time up the steep hillside. The wait today was fairly reasonable, but I can’t imagine coming in the high season.

At the top, we found a very busy main square, almost packed with people.  We had decided to explore Villa Jovis first. Villa Jovis was Emperor Tiberius’ favored villa on the Capri cliff side from where he ruled the empire during his last 10 years of life (died 37AD.)

The site was later fortified and used again in medieval times, with a small chapel eventually built right on Villa Jovis’ roof. The ruins weren’t in good shape like Pompei, and it looks like the site was never even fully excavated. But, you can clearly see the floor plan as at least a few vertical feet of most walls still exist, and the local historical ministry has posted helpful signs explaining what various parts of the villa were used for. It was fascinating, although it would have been helpful to view a few other, more well-preserved Roman sites before going here, as that would have helped my imagination to fill in the space.

However, I’m very happy we went, and I highly recommend it.  It was a great site, and it was also a wonderful way to get away from the crowds swarming downtown Capri. Since Villa Jovis sits on the top of Mount Tiberio, about 300m above sea level, it is about an hour walk uphill to get there from the center square of Capri. The walk is marked on the map as roads, but road really doesn’t describe it. Instead, it’s a thin, nicely paved footpath. The businesses of Capri drive the roads in golf carts because it’s all that will fit. There are high (6-8 foot) stone walls on each side of the path all the way up, with occasional breaks for gated villa entrances.

After visiting the Villa, we stopped for a small lunch at Bar Jovis, just a few steps below.  If you ever make the trek up to Villa Jovis, you MUST stop here. The view was breathtaking, and the food and drink were nothing short of heavenly. I experienced the best Caprese salad of my life, while Rich had a toasted ham and mozzarella sandwich. Oh, and my beverage was fresh squeezed orange and lemon juice from local fruits.

It’s plain from the quality of the food here that it’s far less processed than anything we have at home, even at most nice restaurants. The freshness of the cheeses and vegetables is plain in both the texture and flavor. And the pork products have a “raw” flavor that gets processed out in the U.S. It will make me very sad to go back home to cook, and I may have to find some specialty stores to shop at to find really good food.

We headed back to the crowded streets of Capri, and after brief consideration we decided not to explore more and to head back to the mainland. The boat ride back was brief, and after climbing the 150 stairs back up to town from the marina, we wandered the city for a bit more while we simultaneously sought out gelato, a restroom, and the train station. After a few brief shopping and gelati experiences, we made our way back to the train station and caught the 7pm train back to Vico Equense.

We were told that the best pizza around was at Pizzeria Da Franco in Vico Equense, so that was our plan for dinner.

While good (and definitely several leagues ahead of American pizza with its over-processed cheese), we’re still in search of the best pizza in Italy. Also, I haven’t yet found anything that compares to my memory of the gelato from street vendors in Rome, so additional pizza and gelato is in our future.

Then, of course, we had our daily chat with Mo, which was fun. And now it’s bedtime. Tomorrow we drive to Tuscany!