After Positano, the next stop on our Amalfi Adventure was the beautiful Isle of Capri.

Capri is a mountainous island and is divided into three parts. The lowermost part is Marina Grande, where all of the boats and ferries arrive and depart. It is a port which doubles as a tourist trap, with shops and touristic restaurants aplenty. The town of Capri is halfway up the mountain, and is constantly abuzz with tourists. It was crowded, frantic and noisy. Over the mountain, near the peak and facing the island of Ischia, is the town of Anacapri, by far the less touristic of the towns on the island. We stayed there for our three nights and were very happy with our decision. Anacapri is quaint, with pedestrian only, cobbled streets and mostly locals wandering around and catching up with each other. There were children playing in the town square and a very local feel to the place.

When we arrived in Capri, we took our transfer up to Anacapri, our van tearing up the winding, coastal roads with a magnificent view across the whole island. The town of Capri was laid out in front of us and the Amalfi peninsula in the distance. The roads were very narrow and we were amazed at times at just how close our van drove to the wall. There were mere centimetres between us and the wall leading down the massive cliffs to the clear, azure ocean below.

Our hotel was fantastic. The restaurant and breakfast area was set in a lemon orchard and all of the trees were simply dripping with lemons. After two weeks of 37 degree heat with no sign of cooling down, we were very happy to see a pool, which we made use of several times during our stay. In fact, we wasted no time in throwing on our togs, ordering limoncello spritzes and jumping into the pool. Unfortunately, I may have been a little zealous and overconfident with my diving skills, splashing a couple of Italian girls who were lazing in their sun lounges by the pool. After berating me, Tona jumped in and did the same to another couple.

When were sufficiently cooled, we took a turn about the town of Anacapri. Many of the homes had ceramic steps painted with lemons or local scenes. The park benches were all similarly painted ceramic. After dinner, we explored the town further. Tona had a little trouble controlling her sphincter at one stage. We're not sure what happened, but apparently she tried to sneak out a quiet one and lost control somewhere along the line. So instead of a quiet little popper, she suddenly started expelling gas like a truckie with a bean intolerance. There were people around and I was so shocked at her indiscretion that I turned to her and said "What are you doing?". She started laughing and this caused more loss of control, exacerbating the issue. Lidia had to turn around and walk in the opposite direction and I was worried about her losing control of her bladder, she was laughing so much. Anyway, we recovered from our shock and then stocked up on supplies for the next 3 days and went back to our hotel to enjoy a few drinks overlooking the lemon grove.

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast amongst the lemon trees before heading off the take a chairlift to the top of the mountain. The chairlift consisted of single, wooden seats and safety was definitely not a priority. As the seats sped past you had to run in front of one and plonk yourself into the seat. The workers there didn't even put the bar across you (which incidentally didn't lock anyway). The chairlift then took you up the mountain with great views of Anacapri all the way up. At the top, after leaping off the chairlift and sprinting out of the way, the lookout provided a panoramic view of the island and Anacapri. From that point you could see all the way down to the ocean and the three rock pillars known as the Faraglioni.

We spent 10 minutes there and then made the perhaps ambitious decision to hike from there to another lookout called Belvedere Magliara. We thought this would take us around half an hour, but it ended up taking us over an hour. And this was an hour of difficult hiking through thick, spiky brush at times and lots of rocky paths going up and down. At one stage Tona fell on her butt on a huge rock and shouted "It's in my bone!" Turns out she had put a stick in her back pocket which was contributing to her rectal pain.

We were hot, sticky and bothered, but there were some incredible views of the coast along the way and the lookout at the end of the hike was spectacular.

The walk back to Anacapri was much easier, along a narrow concrete path. When we arrived back at the hotel it was time for more limoncello spritzes and pool time.

We had lunch in the lemon grove, which was fantastic, and then Tona and Lidia went shopping while Alex and I walked over to the other side of the island to a property called Villa San Michele. This beautiful property was built by a Swedish doctor and author called Axel Munthe who was very influential on the island. He was the personal physician of Queen Victoria of Sweden who also had property on Capri to be nearer to him. The views from the villa across the town of Capri and the port were amazing. While we were exploring the villa we met a couple who were lovely. She was Australian and he was French and Alex enjoyed a lengthy conversation with him in French.

We loved the views from there so much that we took Lidia up later in the day so that she could enjoy the vista.

The next morning, Lidia, Tona and I took the tiny, crowded bus down to Marina Grande to take a boat ride around the island. Alex decided to take the 500 Phoenician steps down to meet us after the cruise. The cruise around the island was great, the skilful driver taking us right into some of the caves littered around the coast. We got to see the Faraglioni up close, and even took the boat through an archway that goes right through one of the rocks.

During the cruise there were two girls who were more interested in posing for photos on the front of the boat than enjoying the scenery. They undertook a variety of different poses, each one looking ridiculous.

We stopped off at the famous blue grotto, but it wasn't until we arrived there that the driver informed us that there was a 2 hour wait for a boat to go into the grotto. The area around the grotto was chaotic, and was crowded with boats, all full of people waiting for one of the tiny rowboats that take you into the grotto, which weaved in and out of the waiting boats, transferring people between vessels. We looked at this disorganised mess and decided it wasn't worth a 2 hour wait in 37 degree heat and so asked our driver to find a way to get us back to the port. We had to meet Alex anyway, so we really didn't have the time to wait, which wasn't explained to us prior to the trip.

After offloading two of his mates onto another boat so that they could skip the queue, our driver took us to another boat that was almost ready to go back to the port and we transferred to that vessel so that we could avoid the 2 hour wait and meet Alex. We were disappointed that we didn't see the grotto, but glad that they could find a way to get us back to port.

When we arrived back at the port, Alex was waiting for us. We were going to take the funicular from Marina Grande up to Capri, but the line was horrendously long, so we jumped in a taxi and drove straight up to Capri instead.

Capri was crazy busy, with people simply everywhere. We found a restaurant off the main tourist route and had lunch, after which we explored Capri a little. I stood on a piece of chewing gum and was squelching through the shops cursing people who leave gum on the road. Tona and Alex enjoyed a gelati at an ice cream shop that made the cones to order. We didn't hang around Capri for long, much preferring the quiet serenity of Anacapri so we took another taxi up to our little town.

We spent our last night in Anacapri at a restaurant with a view across to the island of Ischia. The restaurant was 10 minutes drive from our hotel and offered a shuttle service in a small van. On the way we picked up a lovely English couple, who we got to talking to.

We were hoping for a spectacular sunset, since the night before it was incredible, with deep reds, oranges and purples. This restaurant apparently had one of the best sunset views on the island. Unfortunately it was very cloudy and the sunset was a fizzer. The meal, however, wasn't. We all enjoyed our meals and the views were great, even without a spectacular sunset.

After dinner the shuttle took us back to our hotel. We happened to share our shuttle with the same English couple. The driver must have had a few limoncellos since our trip to the restaurant because he tore around the narrow, winding roads with gay abandon. It was like a fairground ride driving back to the hotel and we were all hanging on for dear life, hoping nothing was coming from the other direction.

When we arrived safely at our hotel, we said goodbye to our English friends. The lady turned to us and said "Bye! We're going to die now!" as the driver took off like Brocky to take them back to their hotel.

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast for one last time in our lemon grove before taking a taxi back to Marina Grande for our return transfer by ferry to Positano.