Capri, Italy

Today is a pretty day with a cool breeze. We packed water and snacks and stopped by a grocery store to pick up some sandwiches. We decided to first walk to Villa Jovis. It’s at the highest point on the Capri end of the island and is only accessible by foot. The walk isn’t exactly short and This is the remains of a Roman palace on Capri. It was initially built by the Emperor Tiberius and was completed in 27 AD. He basically ruled the Roman Empire from Capri after that, or, more likely left the day to day control of Rome in the hands of others. There are substantial ruins of the palace, which must have been huge. There are a few areas where mosaics and other floors still remain. The view from there is gorgeous.

Just outside the entrance of Villa Jovis is a small path that leads to an early 1900s lavish mansion called Villa Lysis. It overlooks the Marina Grande. Amazing views! The house is full of marble and custom tile. Now, the pathway we took to get there was another thing…basically an up and down rocky rabbit trail.

Before we headed back to the hotel, we decided to go see the natural arch. This is a rock formation that makes an arch over the water. It is a well known landmark in Capri. Like everything else we did today, it involved a walk—uphill both ways. When we got there we found the natural arch in a very unnatural state—covered with scaffolding. They’re renovating and reinforcing it. That’s good, but it was very frustrating to hike to it and then not be able to see it. I’m not sure why they didn’t put up any signs along the way letting you know. Oh, well.

We did all of that by 2 pm. After that we relaxed by the pool at our hotel…looking out at the Mediterranean. We had dinner back in town: Paul had linguini bolognese and I ordered fettuccine with shrimp and zucchini. I actually got fettuccine with shrimp and squid. Still good.

In total we walked over 8.5 miles today and went up over 50 flights of stairs (stingy Garmin numbers).