Easter Sunday in Italy went a lot differently than I had initially planned when I realized I'd be staying in Rome during April. I had snagged a ticket to go to Vatican mass with the Pope, but seeing as I've already been to see Papa Francesco and don't like huge crowds, spending the day on the island of Capri away from the millions swarming Vatican City for religious festivities sounded like a pretty sweet deal to me. We got up for a fantastic breakfast of freshly baked croissants and a magical mix of machine-made espresso mixed with hot chocolate before heading down to the ferry port in Sorrento where we piled onto a boat in anticipation for our adventures to come. The exhilarating ferry ride was definitely a highlight of my morning, as we burst through the rolling waves without hesitation, the entire load of people oohing and laughing as the waves sprayed water across the windows and we jostled around in our rather comfy padded seats. I definitely missed being out on the water. Upon arrival we were greeted by teal blue waters and dozens of boats lining the harbor that screamed dream vacation. A bit disoriented without a map, we decided our first order of business was to get some lemon granitas (new favorite thing), and the young man who ushered us to his slushie stand turned out to be the greatest guy ever. We asked where the info booth was upon handing him our change and he told us to talk to him instead of finding an info booth and bellowed, "You want a map? Oh, I'll get you a friggin' map!!" and ran into the store to grab a map, a pen, and told us, "If you follow what I say, you have the best day ever. You don't do what I say, it won't be the best, it will be the worst day ever. Okay?" And we laughed and nodded in agreement. He circled a bunch of places on the map and rambled off the places we should see and in what order, told us it was a great time to get going because his mom had just made mozzarella sandwiches and the 12:10 bus to Anacapri would be leaving super soon, and invited us to come back at the end of the day and he would whip us up some cocktails (sadly, we didn't make it back to his store at the end of the day to thank him for his recommendations, but we really appreciated him planning out our day for us!).

Feeling better about the rest of our day with a granita in one hand and a map in the other, we headed towards the bus stop and crowded onto the second round of the tiniest orange buses that would take us up and around the mountain into the cliff-top town of Anacapri. We moseyed around for a little while following the adorable hand-painted tile signs and maps (and benches and stairs) that were everywhere and looped our way through the Moorish style houses that looked exactly like the image I have in my mind of Greece a la Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. We decided to skip the death-trap... I mean, chairlift, that would have taken us up to the top of the mountain because we were satisfied with our view and saving those €10 for some future gelato, and instead walked through an outdoor market area where we stopped by a store where a man brought out platters full of chocolate samples, bonbons, and gave us some local limoncello to try. We then circled the outer facade of Villa San Michele and ended up with a gorgeous view overlooking the harbor and main city of Capri. Continuing along the path for a better photo opp, we came to the end of the way where the small lookout ledge dropped into cliff-hugging stairs. A family that had just climbed the stairs told us that they came from Capri city center, which was our next destination, so we decided to go for the plunge and descend the stairs while all of the other folks headed back towards the villa.

A few feet down and we both stopped to gasp because it literally looked like the stairs disappeared into nowhere, and peering over the edge we saw that they went straight down to the only road that wrapped around the cliff (the one that we had made fun of tiny buses for going up earlier when we were down at the very bottom of the harbor). Too late to turn back and our adventurous spirit flowing, we ended up down on the road at what we discovered was not a bus stop and walked along the small sidewalk on the side of the ginormous mountain (thankfully carless for the most part, though we did have to run along a few tight curves so as not to be pummeled by buses chugging their way down the cliff). Most drivers passing us gave us confused smiles or stared at us like we were crazy, but one nice taxi driver pulled over and offered us a ride for €10, reduced it to €5 after we told him we were close enough we could make it, and then told us he was going down anyway so he'd give us a free ride in his open-air taxi. We figured it'd be safe since the only way to go was down on the one road going down from the cliff so we enjoyed the breeze from the road sans running for about five minutes until he dropped us off right in front of the main piazza in the middle of town. It's what we now refer to as the Capri Easter miracle.

We hit a hungry low point but satisfied it with some margherita pizza before heading out to see the Faraglioni and grab some of the best gelato I've had (stracciatella and lemon on a freshly made waffle cone... mmm...) before heading down to the beach. It wasn't much of a sandy beach, but rather a ton of small rocks that hurt our feet (though we waded in anyway, though only calf-deep because it was freezing) and sat on the shore looking out towards Mt. Vesuvius and Naples. My friend was brave enough to dive into the water, justifying it as "I've swam in a glacial river before, I'll regret it if I don't do this," but I was perfectly content sitting on the rocks with my feet dangling towards the clear blue water feeling halfway to freezing in the shade without being wet. As the sun started to set we crossed over to the other side of the harbor to catch the last ferry back to Sorrento and said goodbye to our wonderful Easter Sunday in Capri. This was definitely a day of adventure I will never forget, and I'm pretty satisfied to say I made the right decision in escaping the tourist hell that was Rome this weekend to spend my time basking in the sunshine in mediterranean paradise.