The Best Day Ever in Capri, Italy
It was our first full non-travel day in Italy, as well as the only day of sunshine in the forecast for our time in the Amalfi Coast, so we decided to day trip to Capri! We researched the ferry options from Sorrento to Capri and decided on a mid-morning departure, 10:30am. We hustled down the stairs down the cliffs of Sorrento (pausing to capture a few photos of the multi-color harbor–below), arriving just in the knick of time around 10:20am... only to find a long, long line at the box office. Yikes! There were options to buy tickets online ahead of time, but the hotel front desk said no, don't worry about it, much easier to buy in person at the harbor... oh well. There was another ferry 30 minutes later at 11:00am, so it could've been worse.
After we waited in the box office line, purchased our tickets, we got into a second (long) line to board our ferry. A woman approached us with a pamphlet on information to rent your own boat on Capri– no driver, just yourselves! We knew it was popular to hire a private boat rental in the Amalfi area, but since Shaun knew how to drive a boat himself, we'd way rather be out on our own then on a guided tour with a driver. Plus, it was only 60€ for two hours!
Once we got off the ferry on Capri, we found the boat stand to confirm they had one available for us. Then we collected supplies for our boat ride: a towel, a bottle of champagne and a couple slices of pizza to-go. Woohoo!
The boat rental company, Banana Sport, gave Shaun a 2-minute "tutorial" to make sure he knows how to drop an anchor and drive the boat, and thankfully he already knew these skills, because the tutorial was in broken English and minimal description. But I guess renting vehicles and machinery in Europe is more laissez-faire than America!
We were in awe of the colors of the water the entire ride. It's like a translucent blue that almost looks neon in person! The "Blue Grotto" is the huge tourist destination on Capri (which we skipped)––a cave where the light reflects perfectly and makes the water sparkle in this translucent way, but honestly the water around the entire island looked this special!
Also, the cliffs are amazing. Shaun has backpacked in the Sierra Mountains multiple times, and he kept exclaiming in awe that it looked like the Sierras had plopped down in the Mediterranean! The rocky cliffside edging over the neon blue water is a beautifully dramatic landscape to admire.
After cruising about halfway around the island of Capri, we decided to drop anchor and chill for a while to eat our snacks (at least that's what I thought we had planned)...We played around with self-timer on our camera for a few photos, when Shaun said let's try to take a self-timer video! I thought, sure that'd be fun! So he clicks "start" and I thought okay, should we kiss? smile? gaze around the boat and look cute?... and then Shaun gets down on one knee.
He didn't get any words out besides "I have a question to ask you." Because I kept repeating: Are you serious? Are you serious? Are you serious? And after the fourth or fifth time of me asking, he finally got the big question out, "Will you marry me?"
Yes!!!!
I couldn't believe it! If you don't know us well, we've been together for 7 years, since I was 18 years old. So I can't say it was completely out of left field for him to propose– obviously we had talked about wanting to get married eventually. BUT, I was still super surprised! We had never talked about rings, or ring sizes, or a timeline of when to get engaged/married, or anything really definitively about getting married.
It was the most perfectly planned surprise that he had been coordinating for the past month or two: consulting with my best friend for ring size, asking his stepbrother for advice, asking my dad for permission, and telling his parents what he was planning. Shaun was traveling for 6 weeks (without me) before our week in Italy, so he said it was the perfect time to shop online and design the perfect engagement ring without me around. And it is perfect!!! And honestly I'm a pretty inquisitive (read: nosy) person, so the fact that he pulled all of this off as a surprise to me is super impressive!
After taking lots of pictures and Shaun telling me the entire story of the past couple months plotting the proposal, we decided to keep driving along because we both get a little bit seasick when stationary. The rest of the ride, we both had a permanent smile and a sparkle in our eyes with disbelief: is this real life?! We just got engaged in Capri!
After returning the boat, we walked over to the beach to pop our champagne (we waited because of the potential seasickness on boat– not a good combo).
Once we finished our bubbly, and honestly feeling a little bit buzzed, we decided to keep exploring the island of Capri before catching the last ferry back to Sorrento at 6pm. We rode the funicular up to the shopping centre of Capri, and grabbed lunch on the cliffside. The rest of the afternoon felt like a blur because of the excitement and surprise (and champagne).
It was the perfect afternoon, in our own little world! Once we got back to Sorrento, (because we didn't have wi-fi all day) we finally FaceTimed our family and best friends and let the rest of the world in on our secret. The best day ever!
