Hello friends. I’m continuing to talk about our amazing journey to Capri Island. I had previously explained how to get there in my last post. I also mentioned that I took a boat tour to the Blue Grotto on Capri Island. At the port almost everyone was interested in these boat tours. Some were selling the tours, while others were transporting tourists. Boats of different sizes were constantly docking along the shore, picking up and dropping off tourists. There were also several kiosks at the port where the tours were sold and there were long lines here.
When we arrived we were waiting in such a line when a man approached us and took us to his agency in a back alley. During this time he promised that he would definitely take us to the Blue Grotto. However he forgot to mention that there might be a half-day wait at the grotto but said that if everyone on the boat preferred to continue instead of waiting, the boat would return to the port and those interested would be taken to the grotto again in the afternoon with the same ticket. He was a cunning man because he knew that most tourists would leave Capri in the afternoon and that no one would return.
We bought the tickets and went to board the boat. Since they had convinced us to buy the tickets, I thought they would immediately take us to the boat and quickly start the tour, but that wasn’t the case. The men who were selling tickets went off to attract other tourists and we had to find where and on which platform to wait by ourselves. There was a large queue there and we had to join it and wait for a long time.
Despite all these oddities the tour was quite interesting. They took us around Capri Island and showed us the most interesting places visible from the sea. We saw the Napoli team's blue supporters, the elephant-shaped rock, the Roman palace, the writer's red house, the Lovers arch and magnificent caves. They gave us a lot of interesting information about Capri. With the cliffs of Capri, the Faraglioni rocks, beautiful yachts floating in crystal-clear waters, a sunny day and the warm breeze on our faces, the tour was a complete delight. The most interesting part was of course, the Faraglioni rocks and the Lovers arch.
This place which is the main symbol of Capri Island, consists of three rocks submerged in the water. You can only reach these rocks by boat. The largest rock is 109 meters high, the middle rock is 104 meters high and the smallest rock is 81 meters high. The middle rock has a natural cave and each rock has a name: the rock closest to the mainland is called "Saeta" or "Arrow" the middle rock is "Stella" or "Star" and the farthest rock is "Scopolo".
According to the stories about "Scopolo" there is a blue lizard living there. It has been isolated for a long time and as a result, the rock has gained a unique blue color as camouflage. As for the Lovers arch, all yachts and boats wanting to pass through the arch had to line up. While passing through the arch, couples on the boats kissed as a sign of eternal love, which was a very sweet sight.
After all this beauty we went to the Blue grotto, but unfortunately, we couldn’t get in. We were later told that there is a long queue to get into the grotto in the mornings and it’s best to go in the afternoon or outside the season. Now I know this and you do too, so I recommend keeping this information in mind when you visit Capri.
We learned that we would need to wait more than two hours to see the Blue Grotto. The large boat before us had already waited for two hours, so we would have to wait even longer if we wanted to enter the grotto. It was surprising how many people wanted to enter the grotto. A one-hour boat tour around Capri, which shows all the tourist spots from the outside currently costs 21 euros. If you want to enter the Blue Grotto, there is an additional tax of 15 or 16 euros per tourist.
If you take such a tour during the summer months, especially in June, July and August, remember that you will need to wait in line for several hours to enter the grotto. Our boat tour lasted just over an hour, but if you add the time spent buying the tour and waiting on the boat, the entire experience took us about two hours. After getting some fresh sea air, we went up to explore the city and wandered through the amazing streets of Capri.
