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Last week, Alex and I took a four-day getaway to Capri, Italy. (Here’s why:) Have you ever been there? What a magical place! I’d love to share a few photos, if you’d like to see…
We stayed at La Minerva, a design hotel with stark white walls and bedding (how do they keep everything so white?) that’s run by two lovely Italian brothers. On the walls hung framed photos of the French movie Contempt, which was filmed in Capri. Here I am, hanging out on the bed trying to pose for a photo and then getting sunscreen in my eye like a five-year-old.
We quickly fell into a vacation routine. During the day, we would hike down the cliffs to a beach club (either Da Luigi or La Fontelina), where you can rent a chair and umbrella for the day. Here’s a photo of Da Luigi. How gorgeous is that?!
As you can see, there’s no real beach, but instead you lie around on the staggered rocks and then climb down a ladder into the clear blue water…
The cold water was so refreshing.
One thing that surprised me was that every single woman rocked a bikini, no matter what her age, shape or size; it was inspiring to see all these beautiful women walking around. Another surprise was how none of the Italians we met seemed nervous about the sun. Everyone lay out all day; we were the only nerds under an umbrella.
Here’s me, slathered with 90 SPF, in the shade, fully dressed, reading a book. (Also, my book was not cheery beach reading, although it was good and gripping.)
Each beach club had its own restaurant, so we’d take a break from relaxing to have lunch. Having a Caprese salad in its hometown of Capri was a very rare treat. The tomatoes were bright red and bursting with flavor, and the mozzarella was fresh and milky with sea salt and oregano. We washed everything down with Negronis.
Around sunset, we’d take walks and admire the views…
The beautiful Via Krupp, full of hairpin turns, leads down to the Marina Piccola, the bay where, they say, Ulysses was seduced by the sirens.
Alex of course insisted that we walk up to the ruins of Villa Jovis, where Emperior Tiberius had lived.
At night, of course, we’d go to dinner and get more Negronis. One of our favorite places was Le Grottelle, a family restaurant up in the hills. We walked away from the main town and through dark pedestrian streets, until we finally stumbled upon the beautiful restaurant under a canopy of trees which overlooked the dark side of the island. Luckily, a full moon lit up the sea and the black silhouette of the cliffs. We had amazing pasta with shrimp and zucchini.
And since obviously we hadn’t eaten enough, we got gelato each night with JUST BAKED WAFFLE CONES THAT WERE STILL WARM! Secret tip: The best gelato is the yogurt flavor. It sounds boring and plain, but it’s actually tart and incredible. We’d get it alongside Nutella or Pistachio. Mmmmmm.
On our last day, we took a bus to Anacapri, the smaller town on the other side of the island. On our friends‘ recommendation, we went on a long walk through on twisty little roads…
…until we came across this community pool! It was full of families with sweet little kids. Of course, there was a bar at the pool…
…so we got Negronis.
After four days, we headed home. We were sad to leave such a beautiful place, but also happy and ready to return to our sweet Toby (who we had promised to bring back a blue soccer ball and a lollipop:) Our last memory of Italy was at the Naples airport, where, in the food court, this awesome guy was making pizzas to order—literally one at a time, rolling out the dough, brushing on the sauce and sprinkling on the cheese. Oh, Italy, we love you! :)
Thanks so much for reading. And thank you for your fantastic recommendations!!! xoxo
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