Capri Style!

This was Wednesday, and the last full day of our tour.  This was essentially another built-in rest or do-what-you-want day, but we -- and the vast majority of our group -- signed up for the optional all-day tour of the island of Capri.  We knew Capri sat in the Bay of Naples, but it sits too far west for us to see it from our hotel.  We were blessed with another cloudless day as we all piled onto the hotel's shuttle bus to bring us down to the ferry port in Sorrento, which was not too far from where K and I had eaten dinner the night prior.  As we were boarding the bus, I saw an e-mail saying it was time to check-in for our flight the next day.  As we were sitting there, I started the process, but then got an error saying they couldn't check us in for the final leg of our trip -- Munich to Dulles.  I looked closely and saw that the Business Class upgrade -- which I had secured months and months ago -- was not showing.  I was puzzled as to what was happening, but then I saw an e-mail from the night prior, from United Airlines, saying that they had reissued our ticket.  Long story, but we purchased our tickets from United, but all of our flights were operated by Lufthansa.  I used bonus points from United to upgrade us on all of our flights.  As best as I could tell, United reissued the ticket -- for unknown reasons -- and that kicked out our upgrades.  I jumped on a text exchange with United, trying to figure it out, but I lost reception as we started down the cliffside toward the port.  While I was trying to get this sorted, Johnny was talking to us about what to expect that day, that we'd meet our local guide down by the ferry, the boarding process, etc., but I heard very little of it.  I was just trying to avoid a hassle at the airport the following day, so I was trying to get this ironed out before we got on the ferry for the 30-minute crossing to Capri, during which I presumed I wouldn't have cell or internet access.

Johnny had "warned" us that our local guide was "very passionate," and he never knew him to not be talking.  Sure enough, when he met us as we got off the bus, he was already talking a mile a minute.  He was a real character, but they often make the best guides.  I tried to resume my chat with United, but it was futile, not to mention that it was the middle of the night back in the States, so I was certainly dealing with the proverbial B-Team.  The ferry to Capri was very large, and while it could accommodate cars, none boarded.  We later learned that cars on Capri are very limited, and those that do much pay exuberant taxes.  As we boarded, I gave up on texting and elected to call United, which I did.  I got an agent while we waited to depart, I explained the situation, but she was essentially useless.  I knew more about the upgrade and ticket rules than she, and I had to force myself to give her grace.  As we were talking, the ferry embarked and I was resigned to losing the connection at any time.  To my surprise, we remained connected the entire time.  In the end, however, she ultimately told me there was nothing she could do and that I'd have to deal with it at the airport.  That annoyed me no end, but as we were literally standing on the ferry, waiting to disembark in Capri, I went to the website and tried to reprocess the upgrade.  To my surprise, it went through immediately, which was a shock, especially so close to departure.  In the end, it was a very easy fix.  All that said, when we finally got off and were standing on terra firma again, I was relieved, especially as Lufthansa texted the new boarding passes.  My mind was clear and I was ready to return to full tourist mode.

Docking on Capri

On the dock, we could already see how incredibly beautiful an island Capri is.  All around looked like a postcard.  We split into two groups and boarded minibuses which were to transport us to Anacapri, which is the highest point of the island, and the second largest concentration of residents and businesses.  We drove up steep switchback roads, and though our guide was on the bus in front of us, we could still hear his commentary through our Whispers, which was nice.  He explained the history of the island, its deep roots with the Roman empire, and our rough schedule for the day.  He cautioned us, as had Johnny, that it was going to be very crowded, and that they were doing all they could to arrange our day such that we would limit waiting and encountering lines.  At our first stop, Anacapri, we had the option to take a solo chairlift to the physical highest point of the island.  He would give a short walking tour to those who did not go up, and for those who did, he'd meet us and provide the same tour when we came down.  Everyone would have time, regardless, to shop and get something to eat for lunch.

We elected to do the chairlift, which was amazing.  There was a very short line to buy our tickets to ride up, but by the time we left a couple of hours later, the line stretched for several blocks.  As I mentioned, it was a solo chairlift, which I have never seen.  The views from the ride up were spectacular, and only surpassed by the views from the panoramic station and restaurant at the top. 

Katherine on the chairlift from Anacapri

After we all made our way back down the chairlift, we reconvened and our local guide took us on short walking tour, including over to another spectacular viewpoint, this time on the eastern side of the island, with commanding views over to Mt. Vesuvius.  In our free time before we were to all meet up again and take the shuttle buses down, K and I found an nice outdoor cafe with great views, where we had a quick and very tasty lunch.

Views from Anacapri

When we all gathered to reboard the shuttle buses, the scene around the central bus depot was drastically different than morning.  There were now throngs of people arriving and milling around, and -- as I mentioned -- the line to mount the ski lift stretched out of sight.  We again split into two buses and rode down to the actual center of Capri, the town.  It was a proper little city, with crowds to match.  There were loads of toney hotels and spas, and every conceivable high-end department store.  Capri is known to attract lots of wealthy Gulf Arabs and the millionaire/billionaire set that sail the Italian coast in their yachts, dozens of which were clearly visible anchored around the island.  In and amongst all this wealth were just as many tourist shops.  We were told that celebrity sightings are a daily occurrence, but usually in the evening, given the daytime heat and crowds.  It was now, by the way, very warm, and we did everything we could to stay in the shade whenever possible.  

As up in Anacapri, we had free time in Capri proper, a short walking tour, and we choose if we wanted to participate in an optional tour.  In this case, it was a boat tour around the island, of which we availed ourselves.  Before the boat, we walked down A LOT of steps to reach a beautiful botanical garden, again with wonderful views out to sea and the azure water.  The heat was catching up to us, though, as we were very careful to seek out the shade and keep drinking water.

About half of us elected to take the boat tour, which we reached by taking a funicular from the center of Capri, down to the main port, which is also where our ferry docked.  Our group did not fill the tour boat, so other tourists (mainly Italian) filled the empty seats.  Our local guide came with us and made an arrangement with the boat crew that he would provide commentary via the speaker system.  To accommodate the other guests, he did everything in English and Italian.  The tour itself was really enjoyable, with some incredible views.  The sea was rather rough on the windward side of the island.  We didn't so much feel the seas, but rather could see the magnitude of the waves as so many other boats were in the area, and they'd bob in and out of view, as the waves raised and lowered us, and did the same to the other vessels.  

Our Boat Tour Around Capri

We were hot when we got back, and with about 30 minutes to kill before our ferry we were not in the mindset to shop, so we had some "adult beverages" with another couple from our trip.  It was the perfect cherry on the outing.

Our ferry back to Sorrento was about half filled, and we were a much more somber group on this leg, with most of us sleeping.  We bid farewell to our guide back in Sorrento, and two shuttle buses from the hotel met and took us back up the cliff.  If we had more time, it would have been a perfect day to cool off in the hotel's pool but, alas, we did not.  Tonight was our farewell dinner, even though the tour did continue on to Rome for three more nights.  Still, given that three couples were leaving and given the itinerary in Rome, this would be for the "gala" farewell meal, which we have had on all our Gate1 tours.

Our Ferry Back to Sorrento

Arriving Back in Sorrento (Hotel Excelsior Vittoria is where the famous Opera singer Enrico Caruso live when he returned to Italy.  He was not treated well in Italy, moved to America and became a sensation, and then returned to Sorrento when he knew he was dying, and stayed here)

As we were leaving the next day, we packed our bags and each took a shower before dinner.  The presidential debate had been the night prior, so I pulled it up on You Tube, which we streamed to the TV in our room.  We were to meet in the lobby at 6:30pm to take buses to dinner.  We both got caught up in the debate and lost track of time.  At 6:27 or so, I realized that we had to go, so we rushed down to the lobby...which was empty.  We quickly went outside and didn't see anyone.  There was one shuttle van, though, departing the parking area.  We waved our arms but they didn't stop.  We weren't even sure -- at the time -- that members of our group were on the van.  What was clear, however, is that we had missed them.  I, frankly, got annoyed at this. I could not understand how they could miscount and miss us completely, especially when the three departing couples had met with Johnny when we returned to the hotel earlier, to discuss our departure instructions, etc.  I asked at reception if they knew the name of the restaurant to which our group was going.  They did not.  I went up to get Johnny's phone number and, after some fits and starts, was finally able to reach him.  As soon as he heard my voice, he realized he'd left us behind.  He said it had been "chaos," as they ended up having to split between three vans vice one bus, and I could hear the regret in his voice.  He then spoke with reception and they got a cab sent to pick us up and take us down to the city.  The restaurant in which they had gathered was in the pedestrian area of town, so Johnny met the taxi at the city gates and he walked us there, apologizing the entire time.  I do think he sincerely felt awful about the oversight. 

My previous frustrations were gone by the time we joined our table, as the meal had yet to begin.  It ended up being a really enjoyable evening, with great conversation and equally good food and wine.  It was a very fitting farewell.  On the rides back to the hotel, and then in the lobby, we said our goodbyes to everyone, exchanged contact information, etc..  It was, as always, bittersweet, but that is also a sign that we had a great group, whose company we had enjoyed.    

One of the gardens in the restaurant where we held our farewell dinner

Addio all'Italia!

Our Final Morning in Italy

It seems like for most of our trips we always have an early-morning flight, leading to a short night of sleep. Not so in this case.  We were reversing our original itinerary on the flight back, flying from Naples up to Munich, and then connecting for our onward to Dulles.  Our flight to Munich didn't depart until 1:15pm, so we did not have to rush in the morning. The two other couples who were departing the tour in Sorrento had such early flights, and their airport transfers were very early.  One couple got picked up at 4:50am, and the other at 6:30am.  Our self-booked transfer wasn't until 9:30, so we had time to enjoy breakfast at a leisurely pace. The rest of our tour left at 8:00am, so we waited to go down until they had gone.  We'd said all of our good-byes the previous night, and did not want to be source of slowing down the group with yet more farewells.  It gave us time, too, to finish watching the presidential debate, which we'd started to watch the previous night.

On paper, the trip from Sorrento to the airport in Naples should only take about 30 minutes, but having witnessed the traffic at times, I was skeptical.  Our driver showed up early, which was fine, so we loaded up, departed, and promptly got stuck in traffic. I fired up Waze on my phone and immediately saw that there were two accidents just within Sorrento proper, which had thoroughly confounded traffic, as there are no real alternative routes. I wasn't worried, yet, about the delay, but in the end, it took more than 90 minutes to reach the airport.

As we'd seen in Milan, Italy needs to invest some money in their airports.  The Naples airport was small from the outside, and quite dated.  It seemed obvious that the airport was not equipped to deal with all the new crowds generated by the influx of low-cost carriers now flying there.  We headed toward the Lufthansa check-in and encountered a huge line.  Upon closer inspection, however, we realized it was for a different airline, but the airport had so little room, and the line could not be directed elsewhere.  We pushed our way through and straight up to check-in, which was a painless affair.  We'd packed all of wine and booty, along with our now smelly clothes, into the three bags and everything went through without a hitch.  We even had about an hour to kill in the lounge before they announced boarding.

We only had a 75-minute layover in Munich, which would be fine, if we were on time.  The fact that our flight was announced as boarding right on time was a good sign.  We made our way to the gate, got in line, saw the sign announcing boarding, but when I looked out onto the tarmac, there was no plane.  I fired up my phone and saw that the incoming flight from Munich had not even arrived.  Why exactly they announced boarding for a plane that was still in the air is still beyond me. I fought my inner demons and tried not to get anxious about our connection, but it was a challenge.  The plane pulled up to the gate about 10 minutes later, and they deboarded via stairs, even though there was a jetway right there. As they were still getting off, they began to let us through the check-in gate.  We went through, but then stood on the other side, still with no place to go.  About 15 minutes after that, they let us walk out onto the jetway, but then we just stood for another 10 minutes or so, with nowhere to go.  It was all very odd, and the Lufthansa app still showed us departing on time, even though we'd already blown past our departure time.

We did eventually board, and we ended up leaving about 40 minutes late, but either by creative padding of the schedule or favorable winds, we ended up only being 25 minutes late into Munich.  We arrived, of course, at the last physical gate, with meant we'd be walking for a while.  We had to clear immigration and another security check, too, so we'll just say that our pace was brisk through the airport.  We approached our ultimate departure gate about five minutes before boarding, but in the final checkpoint, Katherine was notified that she was flagged for a random security check.  I was carrying all of our bags at this point, so she had nothing on her, but they still took their time checking her out.  Nonetheless, boarding was delayed about 15 minutes, so we had plenty of time and pretty much walked right onto the plane. We had the exact same seats on the plane as we had on the flight over.   The flight itself was very pleasant, and Katherine slept for a good chunk of it.

Our plane from Naples to Munich FINALLY Arrives

Bay of Naples, and Island of Capri, as we departed

Our flight from Munich to Dulles

Oktoberfest-themed Flight

We arrived into Dulles a little before 8:00pm but we breezed through immigration -- the new facial recognition for Global Entry worked like a charm, and we literally walked through without even slowing down.  Unlike before, all three of our bags arrived, and were in fact some of the first to arrive.  I had the Uber ordered the minute the last bag arrived, and by the time we walked out to the pick-up area, our driver was pulling up. It was seamless, and we were home in under 15 minutes.  Chip was, needless to say, very happy to see us.  We have a new dogsitter who took care of him while we were gone, but he was nonetheless over-the-moon happy to have his people home.  The late arrival was helpful, in that we went straight to bed, so it was a noneventful return from an amazing memory-filled trip.