cliffs by day.. and night

(copied from journal, obviously)

I am currently sitting on a giant cliff overlooking all of Capri and the beautiful Mediterranean. We are drinking wine and eating panini and talking about the inherent good or evil of mankind. This is bliss. It weirds me out that Ian and even Sandy (sort of) can have a substantial, thoughtful conversation when they are sober, but act like raving imbeciles when they are drunk. Oh, the joys of alcohol...

After our lovely free breakfast at the hotel, we took a funicular (no one seems to know what this besides me so think of a ski lift-type thing) from Anacapri centro up a huge mountain to get here, and it's basically the most breathtaking vantage point I can ever remember witnessing. I think I've taken at least 200 photos in the past hour and am now sketching the view. Glorious.

LATE THAT NIGHT

What a fucking day. So surreal. So we had that amazing day like a bazillion meters above sea level and then went down to the beach to catch some rays and take a dip and that beautiful ocean. When we got back to the villa for the evening, Mel and Ian stopped by the pool for a minute and met a girl who was studying abroad in Rome from Brown University and came to Capri for the weekend by herself. She was super adorable so they invited her to dinner with us- we were planning to go to the famously gorgeous Grotta Azzurra and have a little dinner somewhere where we could enjoy the view.

We decide to walk because the people with the map (Sandy and Ian - BIG mistake) said that the Grotta wasn't too far from our place, so we set off as the sun is setting. It's a lovely walk and I'm getting to know this totally sweet girl who is actually from New York City as well, when all the sudden we realize that Sandy and Ian (who had apparently drank like a half a bottle of Courvoisier before leaving - these kids get classier by the minute) have essentially led us to a mountain hiking trail, which is MOST DEFINITELY not on the map and MOST DEFINITELY not leading anywhere populated. So obviously, me, Ally, new girl Jen and my friend Jess who met up with us late Friday night all piped up and were like uhh, maybe instead of stumbling into pitch darkness we should perhaps turn around and ind the main road and either catch a cab or ask for directions, but miraculously, Sandy, Ian, and even Mel and Marinna were like no I'm sure this will take us somewhere.... !?!? I mean, call me crazy, but I'm not ok with scaling the face of the cliff, IN THE DARK, with only the vague hope of at some point in the indeterminate future, arriving... SOMEWHERE. Um, no thanks? So since the four of us had no luck whatsoever trying to convince the drunkies to come to their senses, we figured tromping into the wilderness might teach them a lesson, so we about-faced and caught a cab back to Anacapri and ended up having the loveliest dinner that I've had since arrive in Italy.

Our cab driver recommended the restaurant to us (Ristorante La Rondinella, for those of you planning a trip to Anacapri in the near future), and sure enough there we found the most authentic, delicious Caprese meal you could ever imagine. Caprese salad (obviously), but also ravioli Capresi, perhaps the most memorable component of the meal for me - instead of the usual grainy ricotta filling you find in most ravioli, these ravioli were filled with the freshest, purest mozzarella di bufala, cooked perfectly (the capresi never overcook their pasta) and dressed with, I swear to god, the same sauce that was on my pizza from Pizzeria da Michele. I know Campania (the region of Italy where Naples and Capri are located) is famous for its mozzarella and tomatoes, but I didn't realize what a crazy difference that would make.

We also had some PERFECTLY grilled squid, a plate of linguine arrabiatta with langoustines, and spaghetti con frutta di mare - all in all a fantastic meal with fantastic company. I had a 20 minute conversation with Jen about our favorite bars and restaurants in New York - we fawned over Da Silvano and Bread, disagreed on Bar Americain (she didn't order the meat - who goes to a Bobby Flay restaurant and doesn't order the steaky-est thing on the menu??), and traded burger recommendations, all while eating impeccable Italian seafood. You can imagine my state of euphoria.

When we got home, the drunkies were, again, drunk, this time all spooning and eating Nutella. Weird. There seem to be talks about going out all the way in Capri but me Jess and Ally are so food coma-ed out that I think we're just gonna pass out and leave the drunkies to their own devices. If you don't hear from me again it will probably be because they burned the house down or something. And on that note... buonanotte!