[Jan. 2025] New Year’s Day on the island of Capri in southern Italy.
After getting off the tourist boat, we thought we’d have a coffee at a cafe, but the only shop open was not a cafe, but a proper restaurant.
It was called Furancuccio.
So we had pizza.
This was the only place open, so it seemed like almost all the passengers on the boat came here, and it was crowded.
They kindly let us try a glass of wine in the midst of all the hustle and bustle.
The pizza was delicious.
The only problem was that it was cold.
Not just in the restaurant, but everywhere in the shade, it was cold and we could not relax.
After the meal, we planned to take a bus up to the town of Capri, but there were only a few buses running, so we gave up.
The famous funicular was closed.
The boat back to Sorrento was scheduled to leave at 16:10, so we still had plenty of time.
We had no choice but to ask a taxi driver there to take us around the island.
It was a rip-off at €100, though.
We got some basic information about the island from the driver.
The population of the island is about 13,000.
The town of Capri is a commercial town, and most people live in Anacapri.
Until recently, half of the population lived in Capri, but as prices skyrocketed, everyone moved to Anacapri.
Also, people believed that once upon a time, “the Roman emperor had a special tunnel that went down from his palace to the Blue Grotto,” but the tunnel has still not been found, so it seems to be a legend.
We looked down from the hill to the Faraglioni Rocks, which we had seen up close earlier.
The view from above was also wonderful.
I think this was the same place we came to the last time we visited Capri.
Above here are the ruins of an old castle, which the driver told us was once on the market for 35 million euros.
A Russian woman he took offered 28 million euros, but after a background check, she was turned down.
After that, the castle remained unsold, and eventually the owner of a ferry company bought it at auction for 18 million euros.
A big discount from the first price, isn’t it.
This driver was a native Caprese.
When he was young, he and some friends planned to emigrate to the United States, but he had to give up due to his mother’s strong opposition.
In Italy, a mother’s influence is enormous.
But all of his friends who went to the US came back, except for one.
Apparently, those who went out saw Capri as a safe and nice place.
We listened to other stories and toured around the best vantage points.
The last place we visited was La Piazzetta (Umberto I Square) with the clock tower.
The last time we came here, I bought a watch with the same pattern as the face of this clock tower, but it broke soon after, which was a bitter memory.
And that was the end of our excursion to Capri.
Our winter vacation in Sorrento was also over.
The next day, we were on the way home.
We took a series of trains and made it home smoothly.
This time, it was a holiday where we felt somewhat relieved to be back home.
