Sunny Saturday

Yesterday somehow managed to top the previous day spent touring Pompei and Positano. We went on an 8 hour boat ride around the island of Capri, which was set up through our hotel. We were picked up from the hotel at 9:30 then traveled to the marina. Our captain, Mario greeted us as we got in the 11-person boat. We first went to a little waterfall. We must have been really excited about this ride because up until we got to the fall, we couldn't stop laughing. 

After getting drizzled on, we made our way into the deep blue. The water wasn't as blue as in the Aegean, but it was pretty blue nonetheless. 

Capri

We went around the whole island throughout the day. It was a lot different than I expected! Rather tall cliffs dominated the terrain and caves (gratos) were the focal point of the shore. 

Coral grato

It was really light and clear towards the shore 

Faraglioni Rocks

Legend has it that if you kiss someone while going under this arch, you'll be pregnant within the year.

After going under the arch, Mario released the anchor and let us swim around. Us 4 girls jumped off of the side of the boat and then he threw beers into the water for us! 

Sam, me, Mario, Sara, Sarah. I don't know why I'm the only one with such a face. We were rocking like crazy and likely to fall overboard at any second. 

This felt awesome in the salt. Not. I lost a battle with a rock the day before in Pompei. 

Once we got out of the water, we docked and were given 3 hours to wander the island. Also at this time, we received Caprese sandwiches. My first since I've been in Italy and I loved it! It was just tomatoes and mozzarella on bread but everything was so fresh! After stuffing ourselves, we hiked and labored our way to the top so we could see both the Capri view and the Anacapri view on the other side. 

Found my grandma's name!

Anacapri

Sarah and I with Anacapri in the background

The most awesome gates were everywhere on our walk up. 

With about 45 minutes left on the island, we made our way down back to the beach. The water was perfectly clear and Aaron, Sarah, and I went for a few dives off of rocks. So cool! Once we got going again, we cruised right into the famous green grato. Seen below, it's a narrow passage that somehow has such a strong green glow when you swim through it. We dived off of the boat, swam through, and were picked up by Mario on the other side. It was probably my favorite moment of the day. It literally looked like a green light was at the bottom. 

On the other side of the island, we anchored for the last time. I've been such a water bug this whole trip! I can't believe how open I've been to jumping into and swimming in open water. The clarity of what's below must be giving me the confidence. 

After coming in, we enjoyed a longish ride back to Sorrento. The waves were so fun and choppy! We got a little soaked a couple of times as we were perched on the front of the boat the whole day. 

After arriving back to the hotel, we were pretty tired so we decided to stay there and partake in the BBQ night they were having. We had sausage, hamburger, chicken, pork, TATER TOTS WITH KETCHUP, vegetables, rice, and watermelon. We also conveniently were in time for happy hour so it was a pretty fun night relaxing by the pool. 

Just stocking up on tots. Ya know