Capri: La Scala Fenicia

To go between Capri and Anacapri you have a few choices.  You can take the bus.  You can take a convertible taxi.  Or you can do like everyone else did before there were cars on Capri, and walk.  Luckily the "Phoenicians" (allegedly really the Greeks) came before you and carved steps into the side of the cliffs and so you have a path.  I recommend DOWN which is what I did.  Why make things harder than they need to be?  I understand there are fewer than 1000 steps to walk.

You will find these steps if you visit Axel Munthe's Villa San Michele.  Just keep walking past his villa (after your visit) and you can't miss them.  The first two photos were taken as soon as I started walking down.  First, the view ahead to Capri harbor and the Sorrento/Amalfi Coast peeping out from the left, and then, a glance behind me which gave me a stellar view of Villa San Michele and the mysterious Sphinx.

Down I walked...  trudge trudge.  In a few places, the steps are somewhat awkward in that they are spaced just enough that you can't do a one-two step down them, alternating feet like you normally would on stairs.  You step down, the other foot comes forward, then you reach the next "down" which means the same foot is going down.  That doesn't sound like a big deal until you do it for a while!  I stopped frequently for photos so it wasn't a big deal.

The beams you see below support the roadway to Anacapri.  They are huge.  This is only a part of them.  Later as I update this blog I will point them out in other photos.  They are very distinctive and are a frame of reference.  There are not many roads on the isle of Capri. 

Below is an example of the steps I mentioned above  - your opposite foot just reaches the end when you are walking normally.  You can either take mincing steps to keep your left-right rhythm going or just alternate once in a while.  Interesting!  I imagine there were many a donkey on these steps over the years. 

What a gorgeous day it was.  This was my first visit to Capri but if this is indicative of May weather, that's the time to go in my opinion. 

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Now, do you see what I mean about those beams?  I am not even all that far away, either.  I'm finally down to where the houses are...

You can see the beams on the right.  I came from up there (and even higher).

I passed homes with grape vines or lemons in the gardens...  see the mainland peeping through?

I veered off the path in that I did not walk all the way to the harbor to take the funicular back up, opting instead to walk back up towards Capri.

Tada.  Back to the roadway in Capri.  I still had a ways to go up, up, up to get to the main square and then my hotel, but I'm back in Capri.  I hope you enjoyed your walk with me!

If you want to see the rest of my photos from this little hike, here are the all of them in a slideshow.  There are only 22, but the slideshow is out of order, FYI:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skywalkerbeth/tags/phoeniciansteps/show/