The Island of Capri. It's pronounced Car-pre.

If there was ever something that stuck in my head from our Amalfi tour guide Giovanni it was the pronunciation of Italian cities we were visiting. You see you couldn't just say we were visiting Positano. In Italian it was Pos-it-an-o. The town of Praiano was Prai-arn-o, and the Island of Capri was no exception. Over and over there was Giovanni making it sound so much more exotic. "Today we go to Car-pre". It did sound a bucket load better when he said it. Alas Ford thanks to their vehicle of the 1990s has so much to answer for having butchered how the town is pronounced by the English speaking world. Perhaps any future Italian friends and visitors will forever roll their eyes when I put on what seemed an over the top exaggeration of speaking Italian.

Anyway the day over to Capri could not have been any nicer. Especially considering as the day before had ended in an afternoon storm. From Amalfi it might have been just over an hour of ferry cruising via Positano to arrive at the Island. Of course on arrival there we the obligatory squeeze through a Large Limestone cliff arch. Indeed it's not the Blue Grotto. However still plenty of excitement for the masses. Capri as a tourist destination is expensive to stay on. So it wasn't surprisingly our tour along with many others instead choose to visit only by day trip. Boat after boat is arriving into the island's harbour shuttling from the mainland to the island. Many of these people are then herded onto the smaller tourist boats raking in money on the Blue Grotto experience. Although we were given the opportunity later to take the boat I suspect noone from our tour actually did. Realisation was that we had only a few hours on the Island. And if you weren't trying to fit in a rushed walk around the top cliffs you were exploring the many avenues of the main town up above the sea level harbour. If you were actually staying on the Island there would be plenty of time for the hour trip of which only a minute is inside the cave. Personally I had been inside a cave before thanks to the Algarve trip the year before.

Also of note for anyone thinking of Capri. If you can spend the money I guess you get the place all to yourself at night. It would have been great dining along the waterfront at night with only a small portion of the daily tourists.

Anyway I digress. Those tourists not immediately shuttled from the bus onto a Grotto boat were shuffled on to private and public buses driving them upto the main town centre of Capri. But not us, not Intrepid. Heck we were on a walking and hiking tour. There was no bus to save my legs. I was signed up for the uphill hike.

The walk uphill was challenging as Capri isn't flat. We weren't missing out though by spending time walking. In fact the opposite was true. Whilst many were lining up for buses, wondering when the bus was, and whether they would be squished, we were passing by the locals homes on the rising stairwell to the top. Sure it was lots of stairs. But these stairs came with a sense of freedom from the controlled herding mentality of others, and a badge of honour that we were earning the view to come.

After an initial obligatory rest and photo at the Piazzetta we walked through, around, and up the back streets of Capri eventually finding the Villa Jovis, better known as the Villa of Tiberius, a Roman Emperor. We're talking barely A.D. in terms of time period. So it was no surprise the villa is little more than a crumbling foundation of rocks. Rocks they said were guest quarters might have indeed been so but there wasn't much to indicate habitation there in oh just 2000 years. However what I really noted of the site was the missing herded tourists. Alas too many stairs. No door to door deliver it seemed. Although historically significant to Capri the Villa was considered too challenging for the average tourist. So the ticket box was no more than an unmarked room at the entry gate. There was no fanfare, no cafe, or gift shop with Tiberius dolls. Alas there was no love here for the Emperor.

From there it was lunch and exploration. I chose to join others in a quick photo stop at the Gardens of Augustus before trampling downhill in time to partake in a quick swim at the beach. Not because I was desperate to swim. Purely because I wanted to be able to say I had swam on the Isle of Capri. Tick!