Isle of Capri - Blue Grotto

April 25, 2014

We had a nice and big breakfast at our hotel before we walked down to the Marina Piccola. It was a fairly quick walk into town and then we had to walk down a huge gorge that used to separate the town of Sorrento. 

This is the view from Piazza Tasso

We then had to walk down the maze of steps

 Now we are at the bottom walking towards the Marina Piccola

We bought our tickets to take the ferry over to Capri. The island is 15 miles off the coast and it was about a 40 minute ferry ride. 

leaving Sorrento on the ferry

When we arrived in Capri the skies were blue and the water was beautiful. There were boats all over the place filling the shoreline. 

Coming into Capri on the ferry

When we got off the ferry we immediately got tickets for the Blue Grotto because I knew this was going to take awhile. We had to wait 30 minutes until they had room for us in the next boat. We all got a quick bite to eat before we got on the next boat to the Blue Grotto. We all had fun soaking in the rays (and getting lots of Vitamin D since are bodies are deprived of it living in Ireland) and enjoying the ride. 

When we arrive at the entrance to the Blue Grotto we had to wait in the boat for a long time until it was our turn. There were many boats that were there before we arrived. The Blue Grotto gets 3,000 tourists a day...crazy! 

the big hole is the entrance to the Blue Grotto

lots of boats waiting

When its our turn to see the famous Blue Grotto the 8 foot long dinghies all come over to the boat. They load up 4-5 people each on the boat. We had to climb over the edge of our boat to get into the dinghy. It was a little nerve wrecking getting three kids into the boat. Next, they take you over to a floating ticket counter and you pay the entrance fee to the grotto. From there, the rower will elbow his way to a tiny hole, then pull fast and hard on the cable at the low point of the swells to squeeze you into the grotto. You have to keep your head down and hands in the boat. 

The rower brings each boat over so you can pay the entrance fee...ohh and its not cheap!

Here are two videos that Joe took of us going into the Grotto. It definitely was a neat and fun experience of getting there, getting in, and getting back out. You don't spend very long at all in the cave (maybe 5 minutes). The glow comes from a second cave opening directly under the entrance to the cavern. Light reflects off the white sand bottom, making the water shimmer and sparkle. It creates the most beautiful color blue, which radiates throughout the entire cave.  

Here are some pictures from inside the Blue Grotto. Even the pictures do not do this justice...its just an amazing site! Even though we were only in the cave a few short minutes, I thought it was totally worth the wait. A nice touch was how all the rowboat captains were singing in the cave. It was even a little romantic (too bad the children were with us). 

Isn't it just beautiful?

When we got back out of the grotto we had to get ourselves out of the dingy and back into the boat. By the time we got back onto our boat we just had to wait for a few people to return and then we went back to Capri. It was now time to explore the island before we had to take the ferry back to Sorrento.