I’m vacationing 8 days in Capri in mid July. Will bring swim and run gear, but no bike. Any suggestions on training? Would like to burn off some of the food, wine and limoncello. Thanks.
Swim to the blue grotto!
But seriously… if they won’t let you swim there, you need to go for sure!
I was actually just there for 5 days in early June. No bike, obviously. I did run and swim a fair amount.
The running is super hilly and a little dangerous, but a great challenge. We stayed at the Hotel Luna which is in Capri in about the middle of the island. The Capri side of the island doesn’t allow cars, but the sidewalks are a little skinny and you might spend a lot of time dodging people - run early before the cruise ships come in for the day and it will be less crowded. I also ran from the far end of Capri all the way to the other end (an area called Faro, where the lighthouse is). The road from Capri up to Anacapri is a pretty sick hill, with lots of switchbacks. That road is also pretty scary - it’s two pretty skinny lanes and you have buses, taxis and scooters all jostling to go up and down as fast as possible. I was the only runner on that road. I learned pretty quickly that I had to watch out for cars, because they were not really looking out for me! After you get to the top of that, you run through Anacapri and down a big hill to Faro. The hill back up from Faro is even steeper than the hill from Capri to Anacapri. If you’re going to do long runs, bring a fuel belt and a hat - it gets really hot and there isn’t much shade and obviously there aren’t 7-11’s along the road.
The Hotel Luna actually has a 20-or-so meter pool. The pool opens at 8 or 8:30AM and closes at 6:30, I think. There are no lane markers or lanes, but I just swam on one end. I went early in the morning to get it out of the way, but also to do my laps when no one else was there. One end of the pool has some steps, but I still managed to do modified flip turns off one of the steps. The pool is for guests only, but no one really asks unless you want a chair or towel…
I thought about doing some OW swims, which you could probably do, or looking for a 25 meter pool set up for laps, but the hotel pool worked out for me.
I definitely recommend a boat ride around the island. We did a private boat (hooked up through the hotel) and it was fantastic. There’s a great romantic restaurant called La Grotelle on the far end of the Capri side, near the Arco Naturale. If you want to go, make a reservation.
PM me if you have other questions or want more info about training or what to do there.
We plan to go there as well, thanks. I saw there is a Capri-Naples 36k open water swim on 7/7 (that’s one hell of a long swim). I arrive on 7/16, but will look into open water swims.