In which Capri Sun is not a child's beverage served in an aluminum pouch.

The views in Sorrento and Capri are almost too beautiful for your mind to accept. You shouldn’t be able to afford, as a college student, a hotel with a view of a giant volcano plunging upward from the sea, framed by sunset. You shouldn’t be walking under lemon trees and lush, fuchsia vines on your way to buy a beer. It makes no sense that the water would be that blue, or that clear.

 

Sunrise from my hotel window

I didn’t get much sleep this weekend because I couldn’t bear to miss anything. I must have gotten out of bed eight times that first night in Sorrento, just to look out the window. Once, for fireworks. Another time to look at all the city lights on the ridge. Several phases of sunrise.

Port at Capri

We left for Capri at 6:30 in the morning, and we didn’t stop moving all day. We started with a boat tour that took us around the perimeter of the island—into grottos, under giant rock arches, and past light houses. The guide pointed out mansions dangling off the cliffs. “You know Dolce and Gabbana, the desginers? They live there.” or “The Gerbers, aka The Emperors of All Things Baby, own that one.”

At one point we climbed off the big boat and into four-person row boats. The water was low enough for us to squeeze through a small opening in the famous Blue Grotto and swim inside. Some strange feat of nature makes the entire cavern glow an electric blue, and the effect of the color and the Italian boat rower’s singing made the whole experience pretty surreal.

After taking a dip in the glowy water.

All in all the excursions in Capri are overpriced, but worth every penny at the same time. With salt crystals dried on our skin and in our hair, we climbed out of the boat and set out for Anacapri. After a terrifying bus ride, in which we all felt sure we would go toppling off the edge and onto the rocks, we hopped on a chair lift that took us all the way to the very top of the mountain. The views were hideous, as you can imagine. We soaked up as much of the panorama as possible, chugged some lemon ice water, and then commenced our descent to the bottom. Mad props to the girls who wore flip flops; I don’t think I would have made it without my fancy hiking shoes.

Two thumbs up for the top of the mountain.

We browsed lemoncello stands, grabbed the most affordable food we could find, and then spent time on a small pebble beach until it was time to catch our ferry back to Sorrento.

But the party didn’t stop there. In fact, it didn’t stop until about 2 am when we decided we couldn’t dance at the English Club anymore without dissolving entirely into sweat.

Sunday we hiked down to a little beach, where we laid out and jumped off cliffs to cool off. Normally I do not engage in such adventuresome activities, but I suppose the Sorrento sun worked some witch magic on me because I found myself willingly hurling my body off of ledges.

 

Proof of my uncharacteristic adventuresomeness

Synopsis: I think we sucked as much marrow out of our last weekend in Italy as humanly possible.