Capri, Italy

This morning we went to the other side of the island, Anacapri. We took the local public bus for the first time (easy to use) and braved the mountainside road with the sheer drop off to the sea. Once in Anacapri we set off to the chairlift up to the top of Mount Solaro, the highest point on the island. Now, many of you know I don’t like heights (or more specifically, I have a fear of falling when I don’t feel like I’m securely encased). Chairlifts are not my thing. At all. I did it, though. Fortunately it never was terribly far off the ground…but after a while I couldn’t look back into the city. I did manage to survive to the top and was greeted by a collection of cute, feral cats. The view from the top of Mount Solaro is great…unfortunately it was very hazy this morning which did not make for great pictures. Even with the imperfect view it was well worthwhile. We spent time getting the full 360 experience. I would even take the chairlift again to get that view!

From there we took a trail back to Anacapri. I wasn’t too big on the idea of taking the chairlift back down plus the trail goes near a church on the side of the mountain called Eremo di Santa Maria a Cetrella. Parts of the trail were nice and easy to walk. Other parts were partially washed out and harder to traverse. The church was built in the 1500s and historically was a place where sailors went to pray before heading out to sea. We went to the church and found that it was closed. Still got some good views of the faraglioni (with a little less haze). On our way down we encountered a family of wild goats.

Back in Anacapri we got some lunch and explored. We came upon a very interesting church, the Church of St Michele Arcangelo. The church was built around 1700 and is known for it’s painted tile floor which was done around the same times. It depicts Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden. It is impressive! It is also a very large painting that you can’t really see unless you go up to the balcony.

We also stopped by another church, Church of Santa Sofia. This one was built in 1510 and was most notable to me because it has yellow windows which give the inside an interesting tint.

We decided to take the bus again, this time going to the Punta Carena lighthouse. This is the southwesternmost point of the island. The lighthouse was built in 1866 and is still active. Beneath the lighthouse is a cove with a beach club. Lots of people were swimming and the water was beautiful!

After the lighthouse we headed back to the Capri side. We relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon and then headed down to the Marina Grande for a seaside dinner.