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Day 23, Sunday, Amalfi

Our view of Amalfi at 06:45am
Restaurant in Amalfi where we dined this evening

I learned tonight on Google that Italians abhor the custom of dipping bread in olive oil, especially prior to antipasto.  So, what is the bread for, what is the oil and vinegar for? They go together perfectly, but the waiters keeping whipping away my plate and the oil/vinegar, leaving me with dry bread.

Positano. Billy and I took a ferry to Isola di Capri while Don recovered from his chest congestion.
Approaching Capri
Then we took a boat ride circumnavigating the island. Cliff on which Tiberius’s Villa Hovis was built, and unfortunates were thrown off, 380m up.
My yacht at anchor. Above it is the road hewn out of the cliff up to Anacapri. Just below the concrete abutment are the stairs to Anacapri I climbed 3 years ago.
Traffic jam

Didn’t even touch the sides.

Queue for the blue grotto. Due to ominous weather it wasn’t blue anymore, just closed.
Back in the Port of Capri it was crowded and the queue for the funicular up to Capri Centro was very long. I found another way up 16 years ago. Only a few hundred steps. Bill Bryson wrote about this in one of his early books.

CentroWe found an isolated restaurant in the farthest recesses of Centro. Looked like a bit of a dive, but the spaghetti with tuna, olives and lemon juice was one of our best meals IMHO. Strictly cash.
We came across the bus station. 2€ each way up to Anacapri. A rollicking ride, standing room only, swerving around the hairpin bends. Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh! from the standing passengers on each bend as we hung on grimly. Capri port visible here.
It was raining steadily by now. Coffee and cake next, look in vain for a WC and queue in the rain for the bus down to Capri Centro.. Time running short for the 3:30pm ferry back to Amalfi.
Then down the hundreds of stairs to the port and the ride home via Positano. I saw my excellent restaurant Chez Black on the Positano foreshore, but it was time to get back to Amalfi.
Grotty looking apartment with balcony is ours, up 84 steps. Worth it for the view. As I write at 11:45pm on Sunday evening a firework display has just started on the beach below, I don’t know why.