There’s Travelling Light, and There’s Travelling Light …

We climbed Monte Solaro, the highest point on the island, today.

At the top we met an Australian couple who are also travelling for a year, but through Europe rather than just Italy. They are also doing Airbnb, but are moving from place to place as the whim takes them, staying for just a few days at a time, whereas we are staying at each place for about a month (to gain advantage from long-term discounts) and have booked ahead as far as August 5.

The other big difference is that they have all their luggage in two large rucksacks while we have two suitcases, a roll-on cabin bag and two medium-sized rucksacks. I don’t know how they can manage with so little, but I am envious of the ease at which they are able to move around.

I have a list of items I consider as essential when staying for long periods abroad.

• Swiss Army knife (with corkscrew, bottle opener and screw driver)
• folder of suitable recipes (mainly Italian as I know I can get the ingredients)
• salt and pepper grinders (the sort that you buy cheaply and are non-refillable)
• a set of measuring spoons (Airbnb kitchens never seem to have measuring jugs or scales)
• a good all-purpose knife in its own case
• apron (for when one of us is cooking)
• elastic clothes washing line
• travel kettle (boils enough water for a mug of tea – saves having to heat water in saucepans)
• cotton-lined rubber gloves (I am allergic to normal rubber gloves)
• hot-water bottle for winter travel (every place we have stayed in has been freezing for the first couple of days as they have stood empty over the winter)
• plug in mosquito repellent (the sort you buy tablets for)
• game for when we have no internet etc. We usually take Scrabble away with us, but even our Travel Scrabble takes up quite a lot of room, so for this trip we have Bananagrams.
• Chromecast (enables us to watch British TV via the internet on a TV set, provided you are also using vpn)

I wonder what you have on your list of essentials? It would be great if you could leave a comment and let me know.

Anyway, back to Monte Solaro. It was a fairly steep climb up, and I fancied taking the chair lift down, just because chairlifts are fun. We had seen the chairlift stopping and starting most of the way while we were walking up, and we had assumed it was to give them time to load and unload the big containers of water which were being carried on some of the seats.

However, when we got to the top, we discovered that the chair lift is not open until next week and for now they are carrying out tests with the water containers standing in as people.

Oh well. Shanks pony down.

It was just as well as we saw some more goats. The nanny goat was white, and the two kids were black and white, the front half of their bodies were black, and the back half were white. They looked as if someone had held them by their back legs and dipped them in chocolate to halfway up their bodies. Sadly, I didn’t manage to get a good photograph of them.

The shops and restaurants that were closed when we arrived on Capri are now opening up for the end of March. Over the last few days we have noticed that the activity is getting more frenetic. Having let the places get dusty, dirty etc over the winter it seems as if people have just realised the tourist season is just round the corner and are now busy with the paintbrush and broom.

Lizards and butterflies are also coming out of their hidey-holes. The lizards here are green or green and brown, but on the farthest of the Faraglioni rocks, the same lizards are blue, to match the azure blue if the sea.