We headed back to the hotel for breakfast before checking out and trudging back up hill into town with our packs. It was a tough walk up hill but we saved €24 on getting a taxi. We caught the funicular down, checked our bags in at the dock and boarded a small boat for a 2hr cruise around the island. The cruise makes its way anti clockwise around the island starting off with the Grotto Azzurri. The suns out and we're feeling fortunate again. We arrive at the grotto and there's a crowd of boats. It's kinda ridiculous. You have to get in a smaller row boat of 4 people max to fit through the grotto arch gate.
We step off our boat into the small one, I'm the first in and the old Italian man rowing the boat is yelling at me to move back. I try to move back and to the side but he keeps yelling at me as I'm apparently not doing the right thing. Angry prick! Anyway sim gets in and we row for the mouth of the grotto.
We scrape under the rock opening and squeeze in.
It's all a bit surreal inside, kinda of don't know where to look and it's very loud and echoing. It takes a while for my eyes to adjust and then when I look back I see the shimmering neon like blue of the water. It's quite spectacular / feels like floating in a lava lamp.
The old guy rowing is talking about the grotto but I can't hear over the surrounding noise, he then starts to sing an Italian tune which gets drowned out by the other dozen boatloads of people in the grotto at the same time. We make our way back out again, scraping under just! As quickly as it had began its over, and all for €13 each - geez! Was interesting to see but rather an uncomfortable ride and all too quick and frantic. We row back to the big boat and get back on, the Old guy has the nerve to ask for a tip.
We continue around the island on the big boat which is much more relaxed and enjoyable being out in the open air.
We venture around Anacapri, then the lighthouse, the green grotto and then past marina piccola and via Krupp. It looks amazing even from the water. We then head past La Fontelina before passing through the arch opening in the Faraglioni where Simone and I share a good luck kiss.
We're now in familiar territory as this is the coastline we walked yesterday. We get another view of the villa Malaparte, which is even more interesting from the water as it seems to be an extension of the terrain. We then pass the grotto bianco as well as the Arco naturale. Such amazing coastline. The small caves and grottos are amazing and the shallow calm waters sparkle magnificent greens and blues.
We head back to Marina Grande and wait to board our ferry back to Naples.
Everything has been going great up until now. We've been having an amazing trip and been really fortunate with weather and met some nice people. That is until we get off at the ferry in Naples and try to catch a tram into the train station. As I'm getting into the tram with my luggage I feel someone brush past me. I immediately feel for my pocket and my phone is gone. On sheer instinct I jump off the tram and chase a guy in a black leather jacket. Why do these people always wear bad clothes. I get a hold of him and pat him down yelling "you stole my phone". I'm not 100% sure it's him but he's a shady dude. I'm also not sure what I was even doing. Looking back it was all rather crazy. For some reason he lets me do it, which makes me think he did. He had a smugness about him that said I don't have it. The prick probably offloaded before I even realised it was gone. He pushes me away and I look around to see if I can spot anyone else but there's too many people. It's gone! SHIT!!!!
I get back on the tram where sim is looking shocked and stunned, as is the whole tram. Pandemonium then erupts when sim uses the find my iPhone app, and she thinks that the blue dot is moving with us on the tram. Sim yells "it's on the tram, one of you has it!" One Italian lady try's to help and advises us to tell the driver. I rush to the front of the train and tell him. He looks like a shady character too. Very laconic about the whole situation which raises my suspicions even more. He stops the tram and locks the doors. At this point a plane clothed man gets up and flashes a badge in my face. I have no idea who he is. He says don't worry to me, I will go and get help, then he makes his way to the door. He looks like a short stature lookalike of Tuco from Breaking Bad, dodgy as all hell. Thinking that he has my phone and he maybe the guy, I yell at him "do you have my phone and hassle him trying to look into his bag he has around his waist. "Carbonerrie" he yells back. The whole tram then starts yelling "noo carbonerrie, noo carbonerrie " telling me that he's telling the truth. Great, I've potentially just chastised a police officer. WTF is a carbonerrie anyway!
He gets off the tram then comes back with two uniformed polizia. He tells them what's happened and they look at the iPhone with the blue dot, somewhat perplexed as if it's the first time they've seen this technology. FFS! Meanwhile, Sim is a woman on a mission. I'm so proud of her. She's yelling and telling people to give it back. I was scared of her. I however at this point, was much more resigned to the fact that it was gone, and fearing that we would spend the rest of the day at a Napoli police station when we should be on a train to Florence. After 15-20mins go by and a few people get off and the police check there bags, I tell them it's ok and not to worry, let's go, which thinking back is weird and even weirder that they listened . They actually didn't seem to want anything to progress or resolve the situation. The policeman get off and we make our way to the station.
What a horrible experience! I feel like now I experienced the full Naples experience. We'd read that it was dodgy and full of pick pockets but to have it happen still comes as a shock. The sad thing, like whenever something is stolen from you, is that it makes you vulnerable and rocks your confidence. I feel preyed upon, as they've targeted us as we're foreign and are easy targets with luggage. Still it's just a phone, no one is hurt and we're in one piece.
Anyway, we move on and run for our train which we just make in the nick of time. Sweaty and breathing heavily we're both drained and exhausted and it's only 2pm. That was hectic!
The two and half hour train ride flys by as we sort out stuff on sims phone.
We finally get to Florence around 5pm where we meet with the host of our Airbnb accomodation. She is lovely, explaining the place and the city to us. We ask her where the police station is and naturally she asks why, we tell her the story and she gets on the phone to her husband to come and get us. They give us a lift to the police station and accompany and assist us once inside.
What lovely people they were. My faith in people and strangers has been restored a little after their help.
We say ciao to Alessandro and Azadeh and head back to our apartment. The nice thing is we're only 100m away from The Duomo, right in the heart of town. It's s great building. I'm impressed by its grand scale.It's now well into the evening and we're both stuffed. After a light snack we crash.
It's been a weird day, emotionally draining.
The trials and tribulations of travelling!
mat + sim
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