The further south you go in Italy, the more scooters dominate the motor population. The variety sharing the roads and streets is immense: the new generation of motorcycles next to the older models, the classy Vespas and the 50ccs that the young ones modify to go faster, at the same time succeeding in creating a powerful eardrum-breaking device. Scooters are the ideal means of transport in the narrow streets of old medieval town centres or on winding coastal roads and in the long southern summers, they are better than air-conditioning.
Tourist mythology tells that wise travellers don't ride scooters anywhere close to the Mediterranean but when you are on holiday the 'don'ts' succumb to the 'why-nots' and this was precisely our case.
Luca and I arrived in Capri in the morning. We were staying in Amalfi and we planned our visit to Capri as a day trip from there. The ferry dropped us and the rest of the daily horde of tourists at the port of the island in the morning and would come to pick us up in the late afternoon.
Capri and Emperor Tiberius, Capri and the Russian émigrés, Capri and Brigitte Bardot in Godard's Le Mépris, Capri and what the TimeOut Guide said about it - I had postcards of Capri in my mind and sought to confirm and possibly improve them.
The scooter rental shop was just off the pier. It consisted of a cave-like room packed with scooters and wallpapered with the ascent and triumph of the Schumacher-Ferrari duo. The owner had developed his own version of Esperanto so even though he did take time to ask where each one of us came from, he invariably slipped in an overdrive mixture of Italian, English, French and Neapolitan. He meticulously explained conditions of rental and parking rules on the island and then let us free. We decided to hire the scooter for the whole day.
Capri is like a big rock off the coast of the Penisola Sorrentina. Like the Peninsula the landscape of the island has a strong verticality, with anything man-made clinging desperately from the grey rocks over a turquoise sea. Our scooter climbed up tortuous roads avoiding buses and the stylish Capri cabriolet taxis. Our first stop was at the town of Anacapri. It was very windy and we sought shelter in the parish church of San Michele Arcangelo. The interior was very much like hundreds of other churches, until you looked down at the floor. Some incredibly talented artist of the 18th Century still forces us today to look down to Earth in this church. But Earth turns out to be Eden.The theme depicted is the fall from Eden. Eden is full of luscious vegetation and all sorts of animals, including crocodiles and iguanas. Apparently Capri itself is part of Eden as it is represented in a corner of the picture as a rock populated by goats (Capreae, "island of goats").
After the break from the wind it was time to mount our scooter again, this time to go to the beach closest to the famous Grotta Azzurra, the blue cave, where through an opening in the rock underwater, light is refracted in many different shades of blue. The sea was too rough so there were no guided tours inside the cave. This turned out to be to our advantage, or, I should say, to Luca's advantage. We got to the bottom of the steps and we saw people diving and disappearing in the cave so Luca dived in as well. I am claustrophobic and had the excuse that one of us had to look after our belongings… Apparently the cave was blue and the water really cold, in fact, freezing cold. Swimming wouldn't have been allowed if the tour boats had been going.
Then it was back to Port and goodbye to our scooter. When I am on an overcrowded London tube with artificial light and artificial air I try not to think of our Caprese scooter. My postcard is definitely Capri and a scooter.
We left for our Amalfi Coast holiday with the Time Out Guide to Naples, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. We followed its recommendations to find accommodation, which was exactly how it was described and perfect for our needs, simple and extremely clean, and in choosing where to eat in the evenings. Fish and vegetables are as fresh as they can get in this area so it is very difficult not to eat well but tourist traps are everywhere and having an expert and opinionated reference saved us from bad experiences. The features on particular aspects of local culture are well researched and so is the historical introduction at the beginning.
We hired a scooter but many beautiful corners of Capri can be reached more easily on foot. The Kompass map of the Isle of Capri has all the information the walker needs.
Author: Marina De Santis
Date: 1 July 2001
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