So we took advantage of the many, many men standing around the dock trying to sell us a boat ride, and asked them where they would recommend. Sure, they might get a kick-back from the restaurant, but we were hoping for something a bit more authentic.
One helpful fellow recommended Verginiello, and with some waving hands and general directions, we figured we could find it. I mean, Capri is a small island. We aren’t that directionally dysfunctional.
We took the funicular (sort of a tram/chair lift combination, popular in this side of the world) up to Capri’s main street and plaza. And we headed right. Verginiello was nestled a bit off the road, in some lemon trees. It had a beautiful view out the window of the coastline.
I’m not quite ready to start taking pictures of every random dish I consume, so I apologize for the lack of photos, but I can vouch for its deliciousness. In fact, it was one of those places where the food wasn’t pretty. But it was great. We had fresh fish, mussels, clams, and calamari.
And the oh, so priceless moment…when dear husband asked waiter for some marinara to go with his calamari. Waiter stammers…says yes…looks bewildered. Husband feels sort of embarrassed for asking, but wants marinara too badly to care. Waiter returns with huge bowl of marinara—think gigantic soup bowl. Said bowl happens to be sooooo delicious, that my husband, my mom, and I devour it—by itself—with bread.
Even perhaps more shockingly for Italy—they didn’t charge us for it. But we would have gladly paid. Note for the future: order marinara in Italy even when you don’t want pasta (or calamari) to go with it.
We then wandered around Capri, looking at the coastline, the lemon trees, and obviously checking out each and every gelato shop before settling on the chosen one. And in cute little fishy cups! I’m a sucker for animal printed things, no matter how silly.
We hemmed and hawed about whether to go to Anacapri, but in the end, we didn’t make it. While still low season, lines were building at the funicular, so we decided to head down to the port. Thank goodness we did, as the high speed ferry was already sold out for the next two times, and the regular speed ferry (which takes vehicles and such) sold out soon after we purchased our tickets. The regular ferry was a bit less expensive, and we were able to sit upstairs on the open deck which was nice. It took probably an hour and half to return to Naples. If it’s high season, I’d definitely recommend purchasing ahead of time if you want to get back to Naples at a specific hour.
I’m so glad we spent a full day in Capri. There is so much more to see and do (swim in the summer, explore old churches), but it was great just to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
