Hey Girl Hey

This was my I’m going to Capri selfie as I was waiting on M to hurry his butt up. Yes, I was waiting on a boy which doesn’t happen often folks so remember this moment!

Last Christmas my sister and I were in New Zealand and we had just struggled our way up and over Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom). On the way down as the sun started warming our frozen fingers and toes and the lush greenery of the landscape slowly crept upon us leaving the vast volcanic landscape behind we met an older gentlemen also on the trek. After a few minutes talking I told him I was moving to Italy next and it would be Naples. He smiled real big and told me that I just had to visit the island of Capri but “don’t do it like all them tourists”, he said. “Climb away from the town and start hiking the paths and the beauty will pop out at you.”

I tucked that little piece of advice in the back of my head and bringing you back to present day I decided that it was high time I investigate Capri. Lately I’ve been all over the place, traveling mostly every weekend, which has been awesome, but I needed some independent travel. To hike through all of my thoughts and my fears, because there are plenty of those these days since I’m debating getting out of the Navy after this tour, and I was just feeling like I needed some clarity.

Then, late on Friday night, a friend called and asked if he could do laundry at my house because the hotel he was temporarily living in costs 3 euros a load! I said of course and by the end of the evening I convinced him to join me on the ferry, to Capri.

We woke early the next morning to be on our way and let me tell you, transiting from Naples to Capri is very easy! It was very good that we were going in early September because by this time the summer crowds have died down and there were plenty of tourists but it wasn’t annoying, as it sometimes is.

So here’s what you do. From the Naples International airport there is a bus called the Alleybus (the stop is just a 2 minute walk from the Arrivals/Departures Terminal). It cost 4 euro to ride it down town and it drops you off right in front of Molo Beverello which is the ferry terminal that will take you to Capri.

Heading up the hill

It cost 40 euro round trip to take the hydrofoil which is the high speed ferry and each way takes about 50 minutes. When you pick your tickets they make you choose one of the times (they run from about 0655 until 1910 one leaving approx every 3o minutes) but if its not too crowded they allow you to get on any ferry that’s leaving at the time. We had a 1910 ticket for coming home but ended up on the 1755 ferry, there was plenty of room!

When we arrived into the Capri harbor it was obvious this was a place of great taste and real beauty. We wanted to immediately begin hiking, but as it turns out we needed to take the gondola up the mountain to get to the hiking trails. this cost 1.80 euro one way so less than 5 euro and worth the trip because it would be something horrible to climb that mountain from the bottom.

At the top of the Gondola ride you’ll walk out to a church and some real prudy shops full of very fancy things. At one time I may have been interested in some of them, but that was before I made traveling a full priority. We meandered through the streets and stopped for a chilling lemonade before we decided it was time to get on the trails and head away from the town.

There are a few different hiking trails and the path we chose actually started in the city and just continued up and up and up. We never actually walked on a dirt path and there were houses all along the way. No room for cars though. They had those little gator carts that I’m pretty sure drive to all the houses, I mean how else would they get a piece of furniture or something big up to their house without a car. Certainly not by carrying it.

The higher we weaved the less people we saw, but we did run into a candy man along the trail and I got some delicious milk chocolate/ white chocolate bites (get away Megan!)

Welcome to the Candy Shop

When we got to the top we reached Villa Jovis after about an 1.5 hour climb (only should take 40 minutes but we got a little lost). And what is Villa Jovis you ask? As it turns out Tiberius, whom was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD built 12 villas on the island of Capri during the last 10 years of his life.

Blue Door

Top of the hill

Villa Jovis happens to be one of them and its way up on the cliffs overlooking the peninsula of Sorento, Positono, and the Amalfi Coast. Quite a beautiful view. I imagine at the time Tiberius was thinking that he would wake up in the morning at Villa Jovis and walk out onto his balcony and listen to the hills sing as the sun rises.  I’m also thinking that’s exactly what happened once the villa was built. Unfortunately for us Villa Jovis was locked up for the day and being the rebel that I am I was planning to jump the gate and at least get a photo at the top real quick. Mig was trying to talk me out of it, little does he know…! But he didn’t have to talk for long because just as I was about to walk up to the gate an older gentlemen walked out and deterred all of my plans. We’ll settle with a picture of a goat.

Taking the path less traveled, we walked along an old dirt path back down to the town, where we could find some food because we were quite starving explorers at this point.

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One of the restaurants we stumbled upon, literally, that had the most amazing view.

If only we could leisurely walk among the tree tops, it would be a beautiful site to see I am sure.

From where we were on Capri right down the walk from Villa Jovis you can see the peninsula that is Sorento, Positano, and if you were on the other side of it to the right you’d be looking at the Amalfi coast. Only about a 40 minute drive from where I live in Naples.

A summer home you can take a tour of

I settled for some gnocchi followed by a lemon cake, which was delicious because the gnocchi was stuffed with fish (so good!) with a homeaid sauce.

This is the camera strap that @Titiprado game me in Ibiza which her cousin hand made in Guatemala and sales via @wonderlustwear. Absolutely love it! Its such great quality, you should head on over to have a look!Finally after some very tastefully delicious wine and full stomachs we meandered our way back to the gondola and caught the early ferry back. At which point I promptly fell asleep as soon as I sat down until we pulled into the harbor. It was just the day that was needed.

This article appeared first on The Cassey Excursion.