CAPRI
"Looking to Mariana Grande"
Photo Daniel Bellino Zwicke
Lucky me, I’m going to Capri. Capri, like Positano, has many charms. Its main attribute being its unmatched beauty, which is exceedingly spectacular. The island springs up out of the sea and soars to very high heights, making for the island's breathtaking beauty. Capri has long been a playground of the rich, the Jet Set, so-called beautiful people, and those wealthy enough to anchor their yachts off the waters off this gorgeous Paradise. But although Capri is the playground of the rich, most anyone can go, and will be warmly welcomed. Go to Capri and have the time of your life. Yes I love Capri, as it was Love at first sight way back in 1986.
I had seen the island in movies, saw many pictures, read about it, and saw it on The Lifestyles of The Rich & Famous with Robin Leach. I have always had the Wanderlust, ever since I was a young boy and saw William Holden in The World of Suzy Wong, Katherine Hephurn in Summertime (in Venice), and Sophia Loren and Clark Gable in “It Started in Naples” which was set on Capri. I’d go to the Rivoli Theater, watching James Bond, Agent 007 in Hong Kong, Rome, London, Venice, all over the World. I wanted to do the same. I yearned to go to Rome, Paris, The Orient, everywhere, so in the Summer of 86 I would chalk Capri off of my Bucket List. I did; Rome, Florence, Barcelona, Positano, Naples, and Venice the year before. I went nuts for Rome and Positano, and was going back again, though this time, I did 4 days on Capri in between. Back then there was no internet and no Booking.com to find hotels. You had to get info in Travel Guide Books, of which the Frommer’s Guides were always my favorite. They’d have a list of budget, mid-price, and luxury hotels, and the pickings of info was rather slim, compared to the vast array of info you get these days. The list of budget hotels in my 1985 Frommer’s Guide to Italy was rather meager, and if I believe correctly, there were only two budget hotels listed for Capri, one being the Villa Tosca, which was $38 a night, so I figured I’d stay there.
So, also in the Frommer Guide, I got my info on how to get to Capri. After spending a few days in Rome, I took a train from Rome to Naples Central Station. I then jumped in a taxi that took me to Porto Molo Beverello where I bought my ferry ticket and waited for the next boat to Capri. Back then, they had beautiful old ferry boats which were much nicer than the ugly modern ones they have these days. I wish they still had those nice old boats, but they don’t, so C’est la Vie. Anyway, I waited for the ferry, walked on the gang-plank, gave the guy my ticket, and found a seat on board. It was a lovely one-hour ride to Capri, and the weather was just perfect, and the boat didn’t make any noise like these new ones do today. I sat outside and enjoyed the ride, as the sea breeze blew in my hair, “I was on my way to Capri. How Lucky am I,” I thought? And I was, very much so. Yes, it was all quite a delight. As we got closer to Capri, I became very excited at the thought of it all. In a few minutes I’d be on the beautiful Isle of Capri. A place I’d only dreamed of, and yearned for, before, and now I was there, I made it happen. I could see it in the distance. The boat got closer and closer, and Capri was looking larger and larger, as it seemed to just burst out of the azure blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. “What a sight? Capri. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I was going there. Again, “Lucky me.”
The boat pulled into Marina Grande. Me marveling at it all. When I got off the boat, I made my way over to a caffe to make a telephone call to Villa Tosca to see if they had a room available for me. That’s how you did it back then (booking a hotel). They did have a room. Again, lucky me.”
I walked over to the Funicular that takes you from down by Marina Grande, up to the main part of Capri known as Capritown. When the Funicular arrived at the top, I hopped off, and immediately spotted the cute little Lemonade Stand across the way. I walked over and ordered one. A Lemonade. So refreshing, made with Capri Lemons, “wow, what a treat?” This was the first of many Capri Lemonades over the years, at this stand, at the end of the Via Tragara, and the one on the Via Certosa near my hotel.
I drank my lemonade, then made my way down the street to get to the Villa Tosca Pensione. I got my first glimpse of the Piazza Umberto where I would have many wonderful times later on in the trip. After about 200 feet you come up to The Grande Hotel Palma, another place where I’d have quite good times as well. About 300 feet past The Palma, I caught my first glimpse of the Grande Quisisana Hotel, where the man on the phone from the hotel, told me to go down the alleyway next to the Quisisana, walk down to the end, make a right, walk a few feet and make the first right and there I’d see the signs to Villa Tosca, just follow them and you are there.
The hotel Tosca was lovely. Well it was pensione at the time. Nothing that special other than the fact that it was very affordable, I had a roof over my head, it was clean, and it is located in one of the most gorgeous spots on Capri. It was amazing, and it still is, though now it’s a little boutique hotel, called not Villa Tosca anymore, but La Tosca. It’s still owned by the same family. The son took it over from his parents, and turned it from a modest pensione into a cool little boutique hotel. Anyway, there is a nice terrazzo where I tell you, the place has one of the most beautiful views in all of Capri. As I sat there on the terrazzo back in 1986, the Carthusian Monastery is just about 500 feet away, you can also see off to the Via Tragara and spot the lush Villas that line it along the way, but most of all are the majestic Faraglioni Rocks that shoot up out of the sea, and are the islands main attraction, along of course with the Famed Blue Grotto nearby. Yes the view from the terrazzo of the Villa Tosca is gorgeous, and I couldn’t take my eyes off of the Faraglioni, they were pulling me to them. Seriously, I had no idea. I looked at them, shooting out of the sea, and they pulled me. I just had to go over there. And so I put on my swim trunks, and I asked Giuseppe how to get there. He gave me directions, and I was on my way.
I had to go back towards the Quisisana, and turn right onto the Via Tragara, and take it all the way to the end before taking the walking path that leads you down to the two beach clubs by the Faraglioni Rocks, Da Luigi and Fontelina Beach Club. I have to tell you, right before you go down the pathway to the beaches, there is another Lemonade Stand there at the very end of the Via Tragara. “You just know, I had to get another Lemonade.” And so I did, and along with the beauty of Capri, the swimming that I love so much, the piazza, the trattorias, and caffe’s, the lemonade stands of Capri are something I’ve always adored. Everytime I’m on Capri, you know I get my fair share of Capri’s tasty Lemonade. It tastes so good. “It’s the best in the World.”
On my trip to Capri, in the Summer of 2015, I made my way back to the Faraglioni Rocks, to swim once again at Da Luigi Beach Club. I hadn’t been to Capri in a few years, so as always, whether swimming at Marina Piccola, La Fontelina, or at Da Luigi, that day in 2015, I had the most wonderful day. I had picked up my tasty beach lunch of an Arancini, Eggplant Parmigiano, and a small bottle of Aglianico at the Salumeria Capri. I got lunch and it was down to the Via Tragara and off to Da Luigi. I couldn’t wait.
As usual, I spent the day lying around on my chaise lounge, looking out to the Faraglioni, the yachts, Goza Boats bobbing off the shore. It was a gorgeous sunny day in Capri. “I Love it.” And though I’m not normally a beach person, when I’m in Positano, on the Amalfi Coast, or on my beloved Isla of Capri, I just adore swimming there. I hang out doing nothing, that’s what you do on Capri. Well, you swim, lounge around, eat lunch, and have a cocktail or two when it’s Aperitivo Time. This is what you do on the beautiful Isle of Capri, pretend you are Sophia Loren, Or our old pal Marcello. One can “Dream, can’t one?”
On that first trip to Capri, I was so lucky to wander into the Palma Hotel one night. There was a girl singing at the piano bar, and it was quite a lovely little scene. The crowd was cool, and a good crowd more than anything else is what makes a place, whether you’re in a bar, a cafe, club, or cocktail bar, it’s all about the people, “are they cool.” And the fact that you are in a lovely hotel, and you are on Capri, you just can not help having “the time of your life.”
As I sat at the bar, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I spotted Tony. Tony used to own a little clothing boutique on Broadway in the East Village of New York. I had bought some pants, and a couple shirts a few weeks earlier. And there he was, Tony from New York was at the bar on Capri. “I love it.” And so we had our cocktails and chatted, and then I met a girl Alessandra, who was from Napoli. She lived in New York, and had a little house in Capri as well. I chatted with Alessandra, and so we became friends, and I had fun hanging out with her for the rest of my time in Capri.
Boy I tell you it’s crazy, I met Maria and her daughter when I was swimming at Marina Piccola one day. Actually, her daughter started talking to me and was so excited to meet other people from New York. Maria was from Naples originally and moved to New York and she and her husband owned Benitto II Restaurant in Little Italy, New York. Actually, I was hanging out on the beach at Marina Piccola, and this girl started talking to me, and when she found out I was from New York she got quite excited, and told me, “please, you have to come and meet my mother and my nonna.” And so I did, and that’s when I met Maria who owned a Benito II restaurant in New York City. So when I got back to New York, I went down to Benito and met Maria’s husband Sal. For a number of years I’d go down and eat at Benito a few times a year, but eventually I stopped going and I sort of lost touch with Maria and Sal, and their daughter Maria. And it’s such a funny thing, that a couple days later when I was leaving Capri and going to Positano, when I was sitting in a caffe for a few minutes before I was getting on the Funicular, I met another woman and her daughter at the cafe, and I couldn’t believe it, the lady (forgot her name from 30 years ago) owned a restaurant in New York as well. She and her husband owned Martel’s on 3rd Avenue. I couldn’t believe it. What are the chances of meeting two different women on the island of Capri, and they both own restaurants in New York? Quite high I’d say.
So, as usual when I’m on Capri, Positano, Ischia, or anywhere on the Amalfi Coast, what do you do? Well it depends. Mainly, you will eat at different restaurants and trattorias, and just enjoy all the wonderful food of the islands and the Amalfi Coast, and you drink the local wine, chit chat with your friends, go to the beach, swim, sun bath, and soak up the lovely Mediterranean Sun. You “Live the Good Life” if for only a week or two a year. Now you might do a little sightseeing, or you might not, you don’t need to. Some people just want to go to the beach, go for lunch, go to another nice place for dinner, have some espresso, gelato, and aperitivo in-between, then go back to the hotel to sleep, and do it all over again the next day. You do whatever you want, it’s your vacation. And that’s what I always do. The first 3 times to Capri, Positano, and the Amalfi Coast, that’s what I did, I didn’t do much sightseeing, but all the subsequent times I did, here and there, seeing Pompeii, exploring Napoli, going to Ravello, Cetara, some vineyards, and Vesuvio, but mainly when I'm on Capri, I just swim, eat, relax and live the good life, "La Dolce Vita"
Basta !
Daniel Bellino Zwicke
Excerpted from my forthcoming book -
POSITANO The AMALFI COAST
TRAVEL GUIDE - COOKBOOK
The BOAT to CAPRI
Author Daniel Bellino Z
CAPRI TAXI
My FAVORITE LEMONADE STAND
BEHIND THE QUISISANA
CAPRI
The WORLDS COOLEST BARBER
The CARTUSHIAN BARBER SHOP
CAPRI
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