Blue Grotto (Capri)

The Blue Grotto (Italian: Grotta Azzurra ) is a cave in the northwest of the island of Capri, whose access is only about 1.5 meters high rock hole in the sea.

The cave is about 52 meters long and 30 meters wide, the water in it is about 15 meters deep. As the daylight is reflected in the sea water gets into the grotto mostly below sea level, the water shimmers in the interior of the cave in a strange blue hue. There are photos, especially on postcards, on which also the ceiling of the cave is completely blue. In practice, however, this can not occur; here one has additional lighting lamps operated or edited with image editing programs. The rediscovery of the cave, which was already used in ancient times as Nymphaeum, in 1826, sparked by the German poet August Kopisch one up today unbroken flow of tourists to the island in the Gulf of Naples.

Brought with larger boats, tourists have to change to small boats with 4 to 10 people, and then to pass through the narrow entrance into the interior of the cave. The crowd is sometimes so great that longer waiting times before entering. Much like the gondoliers in Venice, many locals now earn with control of the grotto boats their livelihood.

Visitors should be aware that due to the low input make big waves the cave inaccessible. In heavy seas, the cave is locked.