Today we are going to catch the ferry out to Capri and see the Blue Grotto. For any of you who know me you know this is what I am looking forward to the most. Out of everything in Italy it is the Blue Grotto I am giddy over. My mom and Aunt Cathy saw it and both raved about it. We decided to get up real early and venture down to the water front. We found a cute café on the street with an awesome nutella croissant.
We are walking on the sidewalk on a very busy street and decide to jump over the 2 foot wall and walk on the giant sidewalk next to the marina. This sidewalk is about 8 feet wide, away from traffic, with little pedestrians so it's quite nice this early in the morning. As we are walking my eyes are taking everything in. I am on the water side and notice a large man in a blue track suit in the water. He's holding onto a rope that is connected from the wall to a 35 foot boat. Both his feet are on the boat and he's just hanging on, not moving or anything. I say to Ryan, isn't that weird? that doesn't seem normal to me. He agree and we walk closer. As we near the man he starts mumbling words I can barely hear. I ask Ryan what the man is saying and Ryan says "Aiuto". Startled I blurt back, "Aiuto? Oh My God! That means help!" Ryan quickly strips off hParla Italiano?" She said "Si" and I pointed to the man. She began conversing with him and then quickly called Italy's equivalent of 911.
is shirt, shoes, and empties out his pocket then skillfully dives into the marina. He swims up behind the man and holds on to the rope. He then uses his knees to push the man up on to the boat. This man was so drained of energy that he couldn't help himself on to the boat, he couldn't help Ryan save him, and he barely had the energy to call for help when we came up. My guess is he had been there for a while and was at the end of his energy. Once the guy was sitting on the boat he started to throw up all of the water he had consumed. He then began mumbling and I couldn't translate it. Luckily at this moment a woman about my age was jogging by. I yelled to her "
Amazingly she spoke English and we were able to piece our end of the stories together. Soon more people started to show up and try to assist. Amongst those people were 3 Italian men. It was hard to gage their age as they dressed in their 20's, Gucci hats, skinny jeans, and high top sneakers, but their faces looked more to be in their 40's. To be honest, I was quite suspicious of accepting their help. With no sense of urgency they got the story on what happened and then tried to decide how to proceed. They tried to tug on the ropes to pull the boat closer but it was anchored down. Ryan had to climb on to a tiny ledge on the side of the boat and then haul himself up on top of the boat to get to the front as the boat itself was locked. He unanchored the boat and maneuvered his way back. The men were able to pull the boat in and Ryan lifted the drowned victim up to the flock of Italian men that appeared. They laid him down and one man in particular seemed to really know what he was doing by placing him into the proper lying position. One of the other men though tried to move the guy to his back, that didn't fly luckily. As time went on I figured out these three questionable men were the Coast Guard!!! Who knew?! They were calling Ryan a hero and got his information to send to the American Embassy. 45 minutes later the ambulance showed up and he was taken away.
The Coast Guard let Ryan shower at their building and then we walked a mere few feet to the ferries. We decided we were still going to try and go over to Capri. We didn't have to wait long and were seated and on our way over to the island. We sat next to a very nice guy about our age who was a flight attendant from Malaysia. His name is Harrik and we are now Instagram buddies. As we were engaged in polite conversation the ferry hit several very large waves giving the large vessel some serious air- enough to create a few hoots from the passengers. As time went on the ride got worse and worse. I started to get sweaty and had to remove everything I possible could. Soon enough it was really bad, I stopped talking with Harrik and Ryan had to switch seats with me. He was actually feeling sick too! which is a pretty big deal as nothing effects Ryan. He had me focus on the island. About 10 minutes from arrival the crew came out and started handing bags to all the passengers. A few seconds passed and then everyone was involved in mass vomiting! No JOKE! Everyone is puking around me as I am trying to keep my nutella croissant down! Harrik disappears for awhile.
Finally we make it and I am ready to get the heck off that ship. *Please note that this gal did not toss her cookies!* I was still very wobbly though on dry land and my stomach wouldn't stop cramping up.
Harrik had a 3 day layover and ventured down to Napoli by himself so we invited him out to lunch with us. As we were walking we found out that he got up during the ride to go puke and he felt much better afterwards.
We found a delightful cafe on the water and enjoyed pizza. I passed on alcohol and went with a Sprite as I thought I might literally die a slow and painful death. I soon realized there was no way I was going to make it to the Blue Grotto. I had to leave it on Ryan's shoulders to go on the tour, take photos, and share his experience with me. Waiting in a little row boat on rocking water after that ferry ride???? Know your limits people!
After lunch the 3 of us rented adorable yellow scooters and rode all over the island. It was so perfect and picturesque! Clean streets and white buildings paired with a clear sunny day, simply dreamy! When we finally made it to the Blue Grotto we found it was closed for a holiday! I was secretly grateful as now missing the Blue Grotto wasn't my choice but the islands.
It really was a truly interesting day.
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