Capri - Beauty amongst the hordes (of tourists)

Trip Start Apr 26, 2008
1
22
28
Trip End Ongoing


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Italy  , Campania,
Friday, September 5, 2008

Dad and I decided to spend a night at Capri because I've always wanted to see the blue cave there. Much like the one in Croatia. We enjoyed the place so much that we decided to stay another night. The first day we went swimming off a rocky shore which was just beautiful, but like I said to Dad I'm always afraid in the water when I can't see the bottom and I'm scared of what creatures are lurking beneath. Of course there's nothing dangerous in these waters, no currents, no deadly animals, nothing to be afraid of but coming from Australia where the ocean is something to be respected I still had this feeling of uneasiness that I couldn't quite shake off. But in the end when I see a beautiful place to go swimming I always have to get into the water because I love it so much! The water was a clear deep blue and warm - incredibly inviting! So Dad and I jumped off the rocks into the sea a few times and swam about before reascending the steep windy path back up to our accommodation.
Cute church
Cute church

So at Capri we did many, many things. We went to visit the Villa Tiberius which was constructed in the first century common era, and the Leap of Tiberius. Villa Tiberius is set on a rocky outcrop that is surrounded by high cliffs. The Leap of Tiberius is where as legend has it, the Emperor Tiberius used to 'dispose' people he didn't like. Dad being the eternal lover of adrenaline decided he wanted to stand in the Leap of Tiberius which is like a box in a theatre. You're not meant to go there but Dad as usual sweet talked his way into it and before I knew it he was standing on the rim of the Leap of Tiberius taking photos while balanced on the edge of a VERY high cliff. I must admit it made me nervous - I took a few photos of this too and Dad took a few of me there, I'll load them up soon but I'm sure they're already on his blog 'everardt' which is also on travelpod if you want to have a look.

We also visited the villa of San Michele, who was a writer and I read the story that he wrote about living there and it was a really unusual but enjoyable and humorous book. Dad hired a scooter one day and we went to visit the Blue Cave which was beautiful but unfortuantely way too touristy. Then I decided that I wanted to have a go on the scooter despite never having driven one in my life and only having ridden on one twice in my life
Shadows
Shadows
. What happened? It probably wasn't the best idea to decide to have your first go on a scooter on steep windy roads - so you can probably imagine what happened. After Dad showed me the accelerator and breaks I shot off up a hill about 30 metres and then decided that I better turn around. As I was turning around I felt the weight of the scooter and thought it was going to tip over so I sped up the accelerator to take some of the weight off but couldn't turn fast enough and shot off towards the edge of the road where there was a 5 metre cliff. I really thought I was going to die shooting off the edge of this cliff. Fortunately I remembered the break just in time and I braked and tipped over into some grass and bushes about 10cm before I was about to go over the edge. Dad was below and saw everything. I can't imagine what he must have thought. And there was a group of people below at the bottom of the cliff that looked up at me with questioning and incredulous looks But you know what the first the thing I did was? I started laughing! So anyway, I've promised Mum I won't try anything like that again and when I do learn to ride a scooter - which I will do very soon I'll make sure I learn on flat straight road to begin with!
Slideshow

Use this image in your site

Copy and paste this html: