Capri

21 May
Today we took a fast ferry over to the island of Capri, playground of the rich and famous, as well as the average tourist.  The restaurants have boards with pictures of the rich and famous from Dr. Oz to Jackie Kennedy, as well as familiar faces that we couldn't remember their names.

The island has three distinct tiers.  The lowest tier is the harbor where all the ferries come in and the fishing boats, and tour boats work out of .  There is a funicular up to the town square on the island with all the shops, jewelry, leather, clothing, kiosks with a variety of lemon products, sunglasses as well as countless gelato stands.  We walked up to the Roman Garden which Emperor Agustus had built around 70 BC.  The island was orginally inhabited by Greeks, who were eventually conquered by the Romans.  It continues to surprise Roger and I how civilizations use former civilizations construction as foundations for their building projects.  In the late 14th century the Carthusian Monastery figured out how to make water into perfume by the addition of various scents from flowers found on the island.  Today the factory continues to manufacture 13 different perfumes and au de toilettes for sale.  The favorite is Floiri de Capri which is refined floral notees dervied form the lily of the valey along with wild carnation blended together with the enimatic allure of sandalwood, glang-glang and oak.  This perfume was not my first choice, as I was able to pick out the most expensive perfume manufactured.  Needless to say (Lynda) I didn't by the most expensive, but opted for the most popular instead.

After seeing the Agustin garden we wandered around the island.  Unfortunately there are a lot of private villas which limited the walking away from the crowds of people.  Of note Capri was never attacked during WWII and General Eisenhower had a meeting with Winston Churchill on the island according to our guide.  Roger was unfamiliar with this meeting, as my history addict didn't know about this which could have gotten lost in translation.  It is interesting to us that the Italians don't necessarily remember that they were allies of the Germans, as there have been frequent statements about the German attacks and occupation.  The only mention of the Italian government during WWII was a comment about a road built by Mussilini during the late 1930s.

When we got back to Sorrento this afternoon, Roger and I went on walk through the town.  Unfortunately it started to rain, so it wasn't as pleasant as it could have been.  We had lunch at a trip advisor restaurant, and it was just OK.  The calamari was rubbery, not nearly as good as last nights.  Oh well.  After several more trips down less trafficed alleys we had to stop for ice cream.  Apparently there's a definite difference between gelato and ice cream, but Roger hasn't figured out what that difference is.  Regardless Roger hasn't had a bad taste of gelato since he started taste testing it.

I keep forgetting to write about this.  Trent and Lynda-- there are NO STARBUCKS in Italy.  I was told by an Italian barrista that the idea of Starbucks was based on Italian Cafe places.  Italians do not drink expresso in anything but a stoneware cup.  They enjoy the tradition of stopping by their favorite coffee bar for a quick expresso.  You pay the cassa first and are given a receipt, which you take to the bar and get your order filled.  You won't get served if you don't have the receipt, because that indicates you haven't paid for anything.  We learned this in Rome, when we ate first and then went to pay and the cassa was confused about our order or doing things.  Fortunately it wasn't busy, so paying for a Coke Zero and sandwich didn't cause us too much of a scene.

Apparently Italy has joined the rest of on time Western Europe and has definitely gotten organized over the last 25 years.  Even traffic is more organized since we were last here.  Sadly Napels continues to be very polluted and there is an LA like brown haze that can be seen from Capri.

Tomorrow we leave Sorrento and start heading north towards Florence with an overnight in Orvieto.