My Italy Diary: Capri

This morning we woke up early and headed for Capri. The train ride was only a couple hours. Once in Naples we grabbed a taxi for the Port, where we took a ferry to Capri. Again, we have beautiful weather. The island is gorgeous with turquoise water. The Hotel Weber is very nice and we have a great view of the mediterranean. Tomorrow we are going to tour the island and grottos by boat.

After checking in we set out for a place to have lunch. We selected a small ristorante very close to the hotel, Onda D'oro. The owner, Raphel set us a table outside and lowered the awning to give us some shade from the sun. There was no menu, but I told him I wanted calamari and he suggested we also have a caprese insalada (mozzarella, tomatoes from his garden, and fresh basil), we agreed and asked for a bottle of wine to wash it all down. Raphel started our meal with the best bruchetta I have ever tasted. The bread was toasted and rubbed with garlic and olive oil, topped with small roma tomatoes marinated in olive oit and basil, delicious! This was followed by the caprese salad, which on the board out front was pictured with sliced mozzarella, but to our surprise was served to each of us with a large ball of raw buffalo mozzarella. Way too much cheese for any one person to eat without risking a heart attack on the spot!

While we dined Raphel hovered over us, anxious to see if we liked it. He has a very weathered face and a voice ravished, I suspect, by many years of cigarette smoking. He shared with us that he was born in Capri and had lived there his entire life, growing vegetables in his garden for the restaurant and spending the off season (which would begin on Sunday) doing maintenance on the building. Next he served us a casserole of eggplant, which was most delicious. We protested because we had not ordered it, and his response was “you are my guests,” which we took for “on the house.” We were already quite full from the first two courses. By the time the fourth course, the calamari, was served we were stuffed, but I managed to eat a little even though I found it tasteless and particularly disliked the little fried fish (which looked somewhat like a Sardines, head and all) which was served with it.

We did manage to disuade him from bringing us dessert as we literally could not eat another bite without risking becoming ill. Of course, the biggest surprise was yet to come—the bill, €70,00. Mr. Man paid without complaining and only told me the cost afterwards when it was too late to protest. We felt taken advantage of, and I joked that he had made enough money from us to close a few days early. We will certainly ask for a menu or at least the cost upfront from now on.