Cah-pri. Today we adventured to the isle of Capri (pronounced Cah-pri). I successfully navigated driving to the Naples port and found parking without too much stress or trouble.
Leaving the port we saw this ad. Apparently it's cool to join the Navy. Also submarines.
I don't know if this is an ad for the Italian Navy or the US Navy.
We arrived in the Marina Grande, wandered around a bit and then took the funicular up to the town of Capri.
Looking out from the funicular port onto Marina Grande.
We decided to explore Capri a bit and I found this florist/garden shop and the Juicy Fruit Zebra.
The "roads" in Capri are not actually for cars but for people and various scooter and scooter hybrids.
That square area is Saint James' Charterhouse (Certosa di San Giacomo). It used to be a Carthusian Monestary but has changed a bit over the years. It now hosts public events and is home to a highschool and a museum.
Jacob wanted to do a hike along the west coast so we made our way back to Capri to try to catch a bus. Some fun mosaic art I found on a private residence on our way back into town.
There was some confusion about which bus and which stop and things and we ended up getting off at the wrong stop and had to wait a bit to catch another bus going to where we wanted to go to.
Which was here, the Punta Carena Lighthouse.
It's still an active lighthouse and we were not allowed to go explore it.
Faro Beach is where our hike was to begin, so here we go!
The hike of 100 signs begins. (No seriously, I took about 100 pictures of signs. I would have taken more but Jacob was getting annoyed that I kept stopping to take pictures of signs. I will spare you and only show the best ones. If you want to see the others, they have their own blog post here.)
This trail is actually called The Old Walk of the Forts. It has many ceramic tile signs like this one telling us all about the history, geology, and flora and fauna of where we are.
And here's a sign that shows us a map of the trails and important stops along the way.
Also Jacob's foot makes an appearance.
Our first flora sign is for Hairy Thorny Broom and tells us it is poisonous. I'm not sure that's true, but it's a bright and cheery plant and I hope we get to see some of them.
Apparently there is also a Spanish Broom plant that also may or may not be poisonous.
It's also bright and cheery.
This sign tells us about the Parate, or the catching, killing, and selling of migratory birds to the "continent" as delicacies. The Parate was the wall of nets the islanders set up to catch the birds. These birds were usually quails, woodcocks, thrushes, partridges, and others.
All those signs happened in the first bit of the trail. Now we have encountered steps.
Laura is not thrilled about the steps.
We climbed a lot of steps but eventually came out up here. Look how far away the light house is. We started there!
In which we meet the delightful and poisonous Euphorbia or Tree Spurge.
I believe these are the Euphorbia shrubs. They have fantastic color whatever they are.
The first fort along the hike is the Small Fort of Pino. It is, in fact, the largest of the coastal fortifications. It was built first by the British and then by the French during the Napoleonic Wars.
Laura was very pleased with the small fluffy plant she found at the Small Fort of Pino. We stopped here for a water and snack break. And to sit for a bit.
The lighthouse seems oddly closer than the previous lighthouse photo.
By this point we've walked about 1/5 of the trail.
A little Wall Lizard. You will see these things all over the place in Italy. Also you will suddenly see a plant move or hear rustling but not know what caused it. It's these guys.
The Cliff of Helichrysum. Helichrysum are any number of 600 different species of flower and are related to sunflowers. Their common name is Everlasting flower.
Here's a helichrysum now!
Also crazy steps along the Cliff of Everlasting Flowers.
Annnnd the sign for a species of the Everlasting flower, Helichrysum litoreum.
A lot of the walls around here are apparently dry stone walls. The technique for building these walls was introduced to the people of Amalfi by the Arabs, with whom they did trade. When the Duke of Naples gave Capri to the Duke of Amalfi in 872, the technique spread to the island.
The cliffs were really covered with the helichrysums. It's just hard to tell in the photo.
Daucus gummifer. The most well known Daucus is Daucus carota, or the wild carrot, AKA Queen Anne's Lace. There's some helichrysum on the right pretending to be a daucus. Don't you hate that?
A pretty pinkish daucus.
Il Gabbiano or The Seagull.
Apparently there are octopi in these hills! Or...rocky shores, or whatever.
We didn't see any. We weren't in the watery bits.
A view of the rocky shores.
Apiacea is the overarching family of carrots, celeries, anises, cilantros, cumins, dills, and a whole mess of other plants that are used in cooking.
Laura and Jacob along the rocky shores.
We're now on the Silver Path.
A little common Garden Spider.
There behind us is the Silver path with daucuses and brooms a plenty.
And we crossed the Silver Fjord.
At least there's a bridge of the Fjord. I don't think Laura would have like fording the fjord.
Fjord! I don't think this one was done by Slartibartfast.
The Brassicaceae family are the mustards or the cabbage family. A lot of things are in this family - cabbages, mustards, broccolis, kales, cauliflowers, turnips, radishes, etc.
All the steps down to the bridge.
Artsy photo of the bridge.
It was actually in really good shape; I was surprised.
Jacob stopped to take pictures of us on the bridge, so now he had to catch up with us.
Crazy winding stairs!
"The Lookout For."
The lookout for what? What am I looking out for? I hope it's something nice.
Ah, well that is nice. Good job, sign!
Um...I'm not sure if these had their own sign. If they did, I'm failing to identify them.
"Mesola's Flowery Moon."
I got nothing.
Some waves crashing on the shore with the helichrysum dotting the rocks.
A private entrance to the trail/shore.
I like the contrast between the clean newer looking stone pillars and the very rusty gate.
The path has changed shape as we have hiked along. At first it was wide steps, then it was a paved walkway, then it was rocky steps, and now it's a little more than a cow path.
Lupins were used as protective hedges for the gardens.
The harsh salty winds would destroy the vegetable gardens along the shores.
Rocks, blue swirling water, flowers....what more could you want on a hike?
A wall geko! Not to be confused with the wall lizard.
Anacardaceae are the cashew or sumac family. This particular family member is a type of pistachio. This plant is harvested for its resin, not its pistachio nuts.
"The Wind Path of Campetiello Point."
I guess we're not on the Silver Path anymore.
We reached the second fort, the Small Fort of Mesola. Like the Small Fort at Pino, this too was first built by the British and then remodeled after the French took over. It is in a strategic point because it controls both northern and southern approaches along the coast.
Time for more snacks!
The common Blackbird. It was not night, so I don't know if this one was singing.
Polypodiaceae are a family of polypod ferns.
Almost all are epiphytes (a plant that grows harmlessly on another plant), but a few are terrestrial.
"Path of the Cyclamen."
Cyclamen are great hardy plants with bright flowers - they're also hard to kill. I had one on our patio for a long time until we went to the USA for two weeks and it died of dehydration. Ooops.
We've left the cyclamen and are now on the "Gorge of Acanthus."
Thanks to Laura, I now know what an acathus looks like and that when ever you see ornate looking leaves in Greek/Roman columns, they're probably acanthus leaves.
Honeysuckle!
I don't know that I've seen pink honeysuckle, but yellow and white flowers are common in the USA. They have a pleasant and distinct odor and of course a little drop of "honey" in each flower.
Gorge of Acanthus. I don't see any in this photo, but I know we saw some later.
A view across from the gorge into a little grotto on the sea.
I think this might be a pistachio of some sort.
"Rosemary and Asphodel Lake."
Wild rosemary was everywhere, but I'm not really sure what an asphodel is, so I don't know if we saw any. This also gives you a better idea of how the various signs were mounted along the trail.
The Painted Lady butterfly.
The trail has changed again. It's now an overgrown path.
Also the signs became less about flowers and more about trees.
I had seen Strawberry Tree on something else. I thought, until now, that "Strawberry Tree" was a translation issue. Turns out, no, there IS a strawberry tree. It's an Arbutus unedo and it has red strawberry looking fruit.
Rhinoceros Beetle. Who knew they lived in Italy?
I did because I found a dead one in our yard, but I was confused by its presence.
Oak Longhorn Beetle. They got crazy antennae man.
A Scops Owl. Tiny little owl.
At this point, I'm overloaded with plants. I think this is probably in the Hyacinthaceae family.
A Wall Geko!
He did not want to pose for photos.
Gladiolas. There are so many flowers that I think of as "Florist" flowers that I forget they exists outside of florists' and garden shops. Gladiolas are in this group. I never saw any on our hike.
Purple puff!
White puffs!
"Old Goats." I guess Capri means "goats."
Little blue wildflowers.
Sarsaparilla Stairs. Sarsaparilla is part of the Greenbrier family. The kind found in Italy is Smilax aspera where as the kind you make soda out of is Smilax ornata and is common to Central America.
"Goat's Beach."
We didn't see any goats.
This is a Broom of some sort.
Italy happens to be the Indiana for bird migration.
Most of the European and African bird migration paths cross through Italy somewhere.
Because there is nothing to block or slow the wind before it hits the shore many trees and shrubs have been shaped by the winds.
"Wind Sculpture Lake."
The Small Fort of Orrico.
The French took Orrico from the British on October 4th, 1808. Apparently the battle for Orrico was bloody and the French soldiers scaled the walls like they had wings.
Jacob leave Orrico behind.
Bye Orrico!
Apparently this is an asphodel.
Just a reminder of the map of where we hiked today. This ends the official hike.
We walked down to the Blue Grotto, but the waves were aggressive enough that tours weren't happening. So we went to the platform to see what we could see and tried not to get wet.
I don't know what the neon orange things are on the rocks.
As you can see between these two photos, the water was pretty rough today.
Two little boats in buoyed in the sea.
A random tile map of Capri. We hiked he whole western coast.
This map shows where the Anacapri chairlift goes.
Some numbers on the chairlift.
Hi Laura!
Woo village!
Someone's crazy rose garden/vineyard.
Hi Jacob!
I'm not going to lie, I giggled most of the way up. These people coming down were all sourpusses.
We're pretty high up.
Once at the top we had some spectacular views:
Looking out.
Looking down.
Looking out the other way.
Looking down some more.
Looking sort of down and sideways.
Jacob looks surprised to be here.
MORE FLOWERS!
This is the top port for the chairlift.
There was a group of nuns who were having a grand ole time getting back on the lift.
Where things are from this point.
Caesar? Someone looking out over Capri and to the sea.
Proof I was on this trip!
Also it was cold at the top and I apparently don't know how to button my over shirt.
Jasmine.
The chairlift is pretty long. Here you can see it go down and well toward the horizon.
It stops around where the white buildings begin.
I was amused that the chairlift is used to send supplies up to the cafe at the top.
It makes sense; it's just a little funny.
I saw this on the way up, but didn't get a photo of it.
It's a crazy pond/patio made of things I'm guessing the owner found down at the shore.
I liked this garden, so here's another photo of it.
Coming in for a landing!
We scrambled from here to get a bus to take us back down to the main port so we could catch the ferry home. This proved more complicated than expected.
We missed the ferry back to Naples by a few minutes, so we had to wait for the next one.
We sat on the beach and watched the waves for a bit.
So many colorful boats.
Bye Capri!
BYYYYYYYyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeee!
This concludes our adventure for today.
