Margaret ’24, recounts a visit to Capri.
From my limited knowledge of the island, I don’t think getting a bad view in Capri is possible. Once arriving at the main dock in the morning, my classmates and I were greeted with sprawling hills before us and rising cliffs on all sides. Moving to a slightly smaller ship, we began to tour around the island’s coastline, where the truth of how flawless the island is came to fruition. From blasting ABBA on the boat speakers to looking at the caves that were scooped out of the rock face, we began to formalize ourselves with the island we would spend the rest of our day on. One of the ways our group achieved that was by understanding the island’s name itself: Capri meaning goat in Latin. Shortly after that classical bit of information, two little goats could be spotted sunbathing in the Capri sun.
Later in the day, our view switched as we joined the goats on the rocks, looking out onto the hundreds of boats tearing through the wake. After a rather hot, rather narrow hike to Villa Jovis, our entire group was entertained by the fact that the goats had made these ruins their home. And, of course, the advantage point on a cliff side gave the hills, neighboring land masses, and ancient ruins a new spark. The Romans gave Capri its name because of the number of goats they saw when they first discovered it; it seemed only fitting that the Roman ruins would find the little mountain climbers making the ruins their own.
Although almost every view from or on the island is beautiful, that doesn’t mean the sights are always peaceful. Even when one too many people are shoved into a trolley car, or our group of seventeen is speed walking on the pier through other groups twice our size to catch our ferry, we are still accompanied by clear skies and the bluest water you will ever see.
