Capri, Italy

Our last day in Capri and we still had some sights to see. Started the day with a hearty breakfast before heading out for a walk.

Our first stop today will be the Giardini Augusto or Gardens of Caesar Augustus for you Roman Empire buffs. To get there, we made our way up to the main Piazza. It was actually pretty quiet, just a couple groups walking around but the boats were on the way.

We found the signs pointing the way and set off towards the Marina Piccolo on the northern side of the island. The walk down was very pleasant, lots of little shops and a few nice hotels lining the way. From our last walk in this direction, we were now on the other side of the Y in the road.

We reached the bottom of the path and were presented with the gardens and orchards of the Hotel Luna. Very beautiful and fragrant. There was wisteria that was very vibrant and lush all along the walls. Through the gardens you could see out to the sea and the Faraglioni. Walking by the orchards, the lemons shown a bright yellow through the leaves of the trees and the apricots were bursting from the trees.

A little ways further and there was a lemon stand. They had various lemon flavored treats including lemonade to quench your thirst. Next up was a Perfume Shop that has been around for a very long time. If you have a sensitive nose, ‘popping’ in might not be for you as the air was thick with the smell of the various fragrances.

We finally reached the Giardini Augusto. The story goes that Caesar Augustus loved Capri so much that he traded another island to get it for his own. Probably had nothing to do with the fact that Emperors were getting assassinated back in Rome fairly regularly back in the day.

Anyways, the gardens planted in his honor are beautiful. Located right along the shore on a high cliff, they provide wonderful views of the sea as well as a peaceful retreat among the plants and flowers. It only costs 1 Euro each to get in, nice bargain.

For the next part of our journey, we decided to walk over to see the ruins at Villa Jovis. To get there, we had to backtrack to the Piazza. When we arrived this time, it was mobbed. Luckily, we headed off in a direction that most of the day trippers don’t go.

The narrow streets headed up.. up..up. It was nice walking through what was mainly a residential area for a while. We were able to see some of the day to day goings on in Capri – and laundry hung out to dry. We walked for a while and then came to a map and saw where we were and where Villa Jovis was. According to the map, we still had about a 40 minute walk and most of it was uphill.

I pretended to be tired, knowing that Sue was probably exhausted and just doing this for me. Then I suggested that we turn around and head back. And people think I don’t do things for her. Ha!

The crowds were still packing the Piazza and funicular station, so we just wandered back towards our hotel.

We ducked into a small snack bar for a drink and a little snack to take the edge off. Turned into a wonderful way to remember Capri. Our waiter seemed nice when we walked in and got even better as we interacted.

Besides being critical of my Italian (Four weeks and that’s all you know?) he kept an eye on us the whole time there. When someone would come in and speak English, I’d just give him a look and he’d laugh. We had fun with him – and the food and wine were good too. When we were leaving, he kissed Sue on both cheeks like she was a good friend and shook my hand thanking us for coming in. There were two women who he seemed to know well, who were beaming and “Ciao’ing” us as we were leaving. It was a perfect way to remember the people of Capri.

Back home at the hotel, we checked to make sure that we would be ok to get a taxi in the morning and then relaxed for the evening.