Farewell to the Hotel...and my hat

The front of our hotel in Ravello celebrates peace.



(I wonder in which language "fred" means "peace"?)




The inside of the hotel is hung with lithographs by a friend of the hotel owner. In fact, the whole hotel, inside and out, is virtually his personal art exhibit. He created the Peace works on the front of the hotel, and he created every picture in the place--in the public rooms, the hallways, and the private rooms. At the moment, I do not know the name of the artist. Like the owner, he is in his 80s. The owner is on the job every day. Nothing escapes her attention.

The artist rarely puts just one thing in his pictures. He specializes in life forms of all kinds. The many death images are not at all macabre, being part of life and expected in such a vital place.










Rainieri, the youngest son of the hotel owner, and Cathy picked me up at the Naples airport when I arrived, and he drove us back there when we left. Here he is posing for our last photo in Italy. All of the owner's children work at the hotel. Rainieri says his mother still thinks of him as age 8, his brother as 15, and his sister in the middle. He says she doesn't dare take a day off and leave the care of the hotel to such kids.



When we changed planes at the Paris airport, a rather officious security person made me take off my orange Positano hat. "Take off your hat," she said. No please, no thank you. There were two colors of hats--orange and yellow--at the little shop in Positano where I went to get something to shade my eyes. Oranges and lemons...their colors are pervasive on the Amalfi coast. And of course, since the hat wasn't on my head, I lost it in the Paris airport. I lost the umbrella, too, scusi, but I was glad of that. It was always in the way. I'll have to go back to get another hat. It was comfortable and did a great job of shading my eyes.

More Capri

And here is Carey climbing the stairs to the street of our hotel. It's really interesting for a flatlander like me to experience the mountains firsthand. You can look up or down the mountain at something and realize it's very close. But you can't always just go out of your building and walk straight up or down to it. It often involves walking up or down a switchback street for a couple of blocks.

Carey has visited Capri several times, so she volunteered to take us to Capri's only industry (other than tourism): a perfume factory. We got on the funiculare to go up to Capri town.


Here, Carey is telling us about the Carthusian monastery near the perfume factory.


Here's a view of the formal garden next to the monastery.


The monastery itself is called the Certosa (charterhouse) di San Giacomo (St. James), and the perfume factory is on the same street where I'm standing to take this photo. There are no monks left in the monastery now, although part of the garden is in use by a very fancy hotel as a swimming pool. Looking at the monastery's murals, other artwork, and buildings joins the Blue Grotto as things to do on our next visit. Carey told us of the local story that says the monastery originally was built by a nobleman and his wife with eight daughters in thanksgiving for the birth of a son. The German industrialist Friedrich Krupp spent a lot of money restoring the place in the early 20th century and also constructing a road down to the smaller harbor, Marina Piccola, which is on the other side of the island from Marina Grande.


Also on the same street, just very short stroll from the perfumery, is this snack stand. I don't know if the lemons and oranges are for sale, but the small glass bottles of limoncello are for sale--and they are everywhere, not only on Capri but also in Ravello, Amalfi, and Positano. Limoncello, the famous liqueur of this part of Italy is very....lemony, but it has none of the punch of Grand Marnier, which is made from oranges.


Statues in the Augustini gardens:




Our always animated tour guide...


Fambly statues


This is looking down from the Belvedere (a formal overlook, usually on top of a cliff in these parts) in the gardens to Marina Piccola. If I had been more enterprising, I'd have snooped around until I could see the Via Krupp for myself.

Capri...with more coming soon

The day after the big walk from Ravello to Amalfi, Cathy and I rode the bus down to Amalfi, where we boarded the hydrofoil to Capri. The last time we rode a ferry was on the way home from Cape May a day or two after the last Harry Potter book came out. The ferry lounge was full of pre-teen Hogwarts fans deeply engrossed in their reading and totally ignoring the TV over the bar.

There was one feeble TV on the Amalfi-to-Capri hydro, no HP readers, and no bar, either. The trip took less than half an hour, and the older gentleman who kept trying to tune in an Italian football game gave up very soon. By the time he realized the TV signal was too weak, we already were in sight of Capri. People over there pronounce this COP-ree instead of the usual yankee cuh-PREE.

The fuzzy picture at the top shows the three Faraglioni rocks that are Capri's trademark. The one closest to Capri's western shore (and actually joined to it) is called "Stella." The middle one is Faraglioni di mezzo, and the outermost is called "Scopolo" or Faraglioni di fuori.

The following photo, taken from the Augustini formal gardens in Capri town, shows the sparse vegatation on these rocks--dwarf pine, most visibly. Scopolo also is home to a rare blue lizard, doubtless the cousin of all the little green lizards we saw on our walk down the mountain. Perhaps living on the rocks so close to the sea, they've taken on the beautiful blue coloration from the surrounding water. Capri, by the way, is home to the famous Blue Grotto. Since it involved another boat trip, we did not see it.



We dropped our bags at the hotel and rode up the funiculare from the harbor area to Capri town. By the time we got to the town square, it was raining, and a nice waiter at the sidewalk cafe was using a broom handle to arrange the umbrellas and awnings so that the water would run off the canvas, not drip down in between onto the customers. Italian men work hard, and the ones we encountered were very kind and friendly, too. This man was there in the morning when we sat down for a cup of coffee at his cafe. At night, about 9:30 p.m., when we were going back to the hotel after dinner, we passed back through the piazzetta, and he was STILL THERE!! They are no strangers to the art of sweeping, either. I saw only one woman sweeping the streets with those ubiquitous brooms made from twigs, the manufacture of which has been going on since medieval times or before.



It was not raining hard, but it was enough to make these two nuns hurry to shelter. I just barely had time to snap this picture before they were out of sight.


We started to shop a bit (i.e., enter shops, look around and smile, and go on to the next one--the American peso does not go very far in Euro Land), but since it was after 1 p.m., we decided to get in out of the rain and have lunch. The place was jammed, so we sat at the bar. It's always fun to sit at the bar because not only can you avoid waiting for a table, you get to see what's going on. Here is
the salad guy making DOZENS of caprese salads: fresh buffalo mozzarella, RIPE tomatoes, basil, and other little greens and veg for color. Of course, we had to have one:
The head bartender was emptying this bottle into a glass with the young woman watching him fill it too full. With her dark hair and eyes and sensitive face, she made me think of Gemma when she was that age.


Boats coming to Capri land at Marina Grande, Capri's main harbor. Here is the scene at the docks. I took these photos from our hotel room balcony. I don't know what kind of cactus this is, but I found it fascinating that such a watery place could have so many cacti!




Standing outside in the street and peering through this window, we watched this chef filet a fresh fish, cut it into chunks, flour and season it, and fry it in hot oil. Next, he added some chopped peppers and onions, prepared by his helpers at the tables along the back wall, then he added a ladle of broth and a splash of wine (from a big jug that he kept on the floor). He tasted his cooking frequently with a small spoon that he kept in the pocket of his chef's jacket. After each taste, he dipped the spoon into the boiling water and slipped it back into his pocket. Then he'd add a pinch of salt and a sprinkling of fresh herbs. While the fish & vegetable dish was cooking, he went to the big stainless refrigerator to the right and took out a portion of fresh noodles. He dropped the noodles into the well of boiling water on the right corner of the stove nearest the window. He also tossed TWO HANDfuls of salt into the water. When the noodles were cooked, he lifted out the basket and added them to the fish & vegetables. He let it all cook for a little while longer, then he plated it and stuck a sprig or two of basil on the side. We clapped our hands, to which he grinned, and then we left to walk back to the funiculare.



These highly ornate tiles decorated the waiting room at the top of the funiculare. They show a bit of Capri's salient points, including a Saracen pirate (maybe the famous one who wrecked the Carthusian monastery in the 1500s) and the Blue Grotto.



As much as we loved the food and the people watching, however, the highlight of our trip to Capri was a visit from my niece Carey, who lives in Naples. Carey was always smart as a whip even as an infant. She was less than a year old when she could say simple sentences--especially after being coached by her late, beloved Uncle Jim-- "Jimmer boom deers!" "Jimmer 'mash cars!" She called us Saturday morning about 9 a.m. and said she was taking the hydro from Naples. Our hotel looked down on the harbor, and maybe 15 minutes later, Cathy pointed out this one at the dock.
It was too soon to expect Carey's boat, but then a few minutes later, we spotted a very fast ferry approaching from the east.


And there she is....

Walking down to Amalfi (updating in progress)

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The day after I arrived, Cathy and I walked down the mountain from Ravello to Amalfi--a distance of about 4 miles, give or take a few kilometers. Four miles doesn't sound like much, but tell that to your knees.

If you click on a picture, you'll see a larger version...most wonderful details.

Looking back toward the top of the path...

Back of church...

Passing by homes...

Madonna (the other one)...

Does this say NO PARKING?...


Terrace...

Thanks be for walls...

Hitching a ride? No cars!!...

The sea to our left...

Mountain to our right...

Sun, flowers, sweet grass...

Prickly pear, but not Arizona!...

Hey, kitty!...

Construction zone...

Forget-me-nots...

Olive tree, I think...

Gorvy's house--white speck on cliff...

Looks like rain coming in...

Gorvy's again (he sold it when his knees gave out)...

About half way down...

Old foundation...

Lemon tree...

Looking toward valley of Dragon (river)...

Terraced orchards (with netting), gardens in valley...

Stone wall...

Church on hill...

Getting closer to town (Castigliano?)...

Clothes drying on a line...

St. Somebody's convent...

Amalfi!...

and lunch!!...

Hmm...let's see...

Always more color...

Vinegar and oil...

Swimming after lunch...

Back in Ravello, dinner time at restaurant next door to hotel, multicolored hydrangeas on terrace...

We made it!!...