#6 Tuesday, March 11 "Rain Rain Go Away"

Yep. The cellphone lets us know it is time to get up and face the day. Cathy and Shirley continue their getting up so promptly, and I continue to "work" on getting up. It's just that I have to "work" harder each morning. I look forward to throwing back the shutters to see our view of the bay only to be disappointed that it is raining and the bay is covered in a gray mist. What I do see is impressive from the stand point that we are perched and I mean perched on the side of a cliff that overlooks the Bay of Naples with a sizeable drop (I'm not good at measuring distance at a glance or even after I have time to think about it.). We head to the dining room for breakfast. Our table overlooks the bay also, and by the time we finish we are beginning to get a better view of the bay. Breakfast is a wide assortment of cereals, fruit, breads, eggs, meats, juices, pastries, and tomatoes. I could truly get use to eating breakfast if it was prepared for me every morning. Yes, Lance I know you fix my oatmeal for me, but for some reason your breakfast doesn't quite match up to an Italian breakfast.

We return to the room to don our rain gear and then ride the bus to the dock where the boat lands to take us to the Island of Capri. The weather is miserable. The temperature is cool and the rain is coming down fairly hard, so we shelter ourselves on the dock under an awning until we are told to board our boat. Strike one against our day on the island. Our boat is the kind that ferries passengers back and forth between the island and Sorrento. It probably holds 150 to 200 people and is comfortable. All the stories of ferry boats sinking are running through my mind, but I push them back in my mind and enjoy the company around me.

The view from the boat dock. We walked down the steep hill from our bus.

We are a joyous group boarding and finding our seats, even though the weather is so rotten. We laugh and talk with each other and take pictures of the beginning of our journey.

Mary Kat and Dianne are all smiles before the ride to Capri

MR, Bill and John before the nausea sets in

It is still raining and the water becomes rough. Our fun ride is not so fun now. Several of us start to get a nauseated, white around the mouth, and sweaty. Several of the kids are going to the restroom and some of the adults are trying to find cool air. If you haven't figured it out, we are sea sick. This all happens about 10 minutes into a 30 minute ride. Before the crossing is finished, half of our group is nauseated, a fourth is throwing up and the other fourth is seeing to those who are sick. Strike two on our day on the island.

We finally debark and get our land legs back and walk in the misty rain to the lower part of the city. As we make our plans, the monsoon hits with a vengeance. It rains for a good forty five minutes as we try to decide what to do. Shirley and Cathy and Mary Cat and I decide to take the funicular, a.k.a. a tram, up to the shopping area of the island. We ride up only to get off in the still pouring rain. This is not how I imagined my day on the Island of Capri.

Getting ready to ride the funicular

A Brief Lesson on Pronunciation: Capri

In our southern drawl, we say Ca pri with the emphasis on the second syllable. The pronunciation should be Cap ri, with the emphasis on the first syllable. It is much more lyrical, as is much of the Italian language, with the second pronunciation.

Class dismissed.

We have come this far so we might as well see the sites. We wander the narrow streets lost as a goose (Does a goose get lost that often that it gets to be part of a phrase meaning you are lost?) in the pouring rain. Strike three against our day on the Island. As we return to the piazza where we started, the rain begins to lighten some. We find seats at a small ristorante and order the most delicious hot chocolate. The rain finally stops, so the day may not be a total loss after all. At this point Lisa Young joins us and makes our day. She introduces us to scopolimine patches. We all go with her to the pharmacia to purchase patches for our return trip. The druggists are more than happy to help us and probably think we are crazy by the time we leave the store.

Shirley, Cathy, Mary Kat, Me and Lisa warming up with our hot chocolate

Our druggists who helped us with our scopolomine patches

The rain stops for a while and some of our group finds us to tell us that our trip to the island has been shortened because another storm is coming and the last ferry to Sorrento will leave at 2:30 p.m. So we have to make the best of the time we have left. One of the best bargains on the island is the cameos that are carved from the shell around the island. We peruse some of the shops and settle on our cameo purchases. We do not get to make a trip around to the other side of the island to see the rocks at Punta Tragara or go to the Blue Grotto or go to Anacapri at the top of the island. We eat a quick lunch at a small ristorante. I wish I could say we have a congenial waitress, but that is not the case. Now, I am a nice person when I dine out because I adhere to the old saying, "You can catch more bees with honey than vinegar," but my southern charm has not worked on the Italians. I vow to keep trying. I share a pizza with Mary Kat. It is the best. The crust is thin and soft and melts in my mouth. It has a marinara sauce with fresh basil. What can I say? Another good meal. The weather clears for a while, and we take pictures at the Pizzetta by the Santo Stefano church.

Picture at the Piazzeta with the mountain leading up to Anacapri in the background

The clock tower in the Piazzeta

The apartments above shops at the Piazzeta. Notice they all have balconies.

The view from the Piazzetta. The boat landing is in the distance.

Our group gathers and after a lengthy wait, we board our boat back to Sorrento, many of us armed with our scopolomine patches. They do the trick and before we know it we are back at the dock in Sorrento. We attack the steep hill going up this time and find our bus that takes us back to our hotel. Our trip to Capri was somewhat disappointing, but it it was worth braving the rain and the nausea.

We arrive back at the hotel. After a short rest, several of us gather and walk into the main shopping and restaurant area of Sorrento to spend the rest of the late afternoon and evening. We visit several of the shops and leave several euros with the owners. We then scout out a place to eat and enjoy the company of our group. We eat a variety of food that night. I order a prosciutto sandwich with lots of cheese and basil along with tomatoes. I know you think I should be tired of prosciutto by now, but it just keeps getting better and better.

Our group enjoying our meal. Notice Shirley is still standing in the background.

Shirley ordered a hamburger. Do you notice anything missing?

I said in an earlier that John (on the right) was a nut and the Drew (on the left) became a different man when he hit Italian soil. Here is proof!

We finish our meal and look in some of the stores as we walk back to the hotel. The day has been long and tiring. We bathe and collapse into bed, but not before I set the trusty cell phone.