Sometimes when you go off book and skew off the path you had
planned out, it doesn’t work out. Fortunately, this was not one of those times.
Visiting Pompeii during a cool, cloudy day fit the mood of “whole city
disappears in a split second” perfectly, leaving us a perfect sunny day to visit the
picturesque Isle of Capri.
Before taking off, I woke up early to grab some sunrise
pictures from the roof of our hotel. This is essentially the view during breakfast
every morning, and I imagine it would be hard to find a better one in the city.
Between the sun rising over Vesuvius and the Amalfi coast, hitting the harbor,
Castle, and city before it wakes up, really captures the beauty of this coastal
city.
Capri has been occupied by various peoples since the Stone Age,
serving as a safe-haven for a number of people throughout history, including Emperor
Tiberius near the end of his life. Mix a little paranoia with numerous political
backstabbing’s to become Emperor, and a tiny fortified island with steep hills
and 360 degree unimpeded views sounds like a nice place for a retirement villa.
Lucky for us we haven’t made that many enemies (I hope) so we were just able to
enjoy the winding roads up to the main town.
It appeared that literally every single property had between 1 and 20 lemon trees, meaning that the entire island had a slight lemon smell, and every store prominently displayed their varieties of Limoncello and lemon gelatto or sorbet (yes, obviously we had some). Don't be surprised to find a lemon tree in our backyard in the near future, since the climate and soil of Charlotte are basically the same as Capri, right?
Once you reach the top, you had plenty
of places to look around, or just as easily find a place to just sit back and enjoy
the scenery. Here you can see the lower town of Capri, the Faraglioni rock formations, and the Amalfi coast in the distance.
Once we made our way back to the boat, it was a whirlwind of
getting back to Naples, getting our bags, getting to the train station, and
making our way to Rome. Similar to travelling in China, the high speed train
was a dream, with a smooth ride, more space than an airplane, faster trip once
checking in and boarding times were concerned, and easy access to food and
beverages when you want. Get on it America….
After getting to our hotel, the Marriott Grand Flora, we
made our way to Piazza Novona to start our “Welcome to Rome” tour. Our guide,
Angela, was excellent, an Italian with good English that had an obvious passion
for the history and art she showed us. We saw a ton of Bernini sculptures, the
Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, and a few other sites. The tour also included gelato, which makes it our second gelato stop of the day, for those counting (and hopefully not judging!)
But of course, the highlight was the Trevi Fountain, which
we got to right at dusk (definitely not romantic…not at all). Some of us were
more excited than others…..
The fountain was huge, taking up the entire block and backside of a building. It was built to celebrate the water system of Rome, for which the people were proud of, since almost any fountain in the city is clean enough to drink (though some are illegal to drink from, so please ask first). The fountain dates back to the days of the aquaduct system of Rome, which would carry almost twice as much water back in its prime per capita as it does now. Lauren may like the artistic beauty, but I'm a sucker for the engineering feats myself. To each their own I guess.
Overall it served as a great start to Rome, and looking
forward to a full day of Vatican tours and meandering Rome, followed by some
casual typical Easter mass with Pope Francis with our 75,000 closest friends.
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