The entrance to the grotto is very small.
The hole is two meters wide, and rises just a meter above the surface of the water. When the tide is high, it disappears below the ocean surface. The ceiling is high once you’re in, though—probably about ten meters above the surface—with plenty of space to move around and even go deep inside. The sparkling blue water creates a stark contrast against the pitch-dark ceiling and walls of the cave. The light that streams in through underwater holes reflects off of the white sea bottom and the water to create a magical, otherworldly color scheme.
You’re only allowed to tour the Blue Grotto for less than five minutes. This first requires that luck is on your side with the weather, and that you be patient enough to wait in the long lines. It also takes a bit of pluck and athleticism to get off your cruising vessel and board the tiny boat. All of this makes the Blue Grotto a unique spot that demands a combination of luck, time, and effort.
While you’re waiting on one of the many cruising vessels, tiny paddle boats wind around and between them. They’re so small that they can only carry two or three people each. They’re uncomfortable to sit in, and they carry you to the mouth of the grotto as you struggle and suffer the whole way. Then the ticket boat comes puttering over to collect your entrance fee, so that even on a day when the waters are calm, you’ve got to complete your payment in the tiny window between your little boat rocking and the ticket boat rocking—which to the untrained eye looks like a virtually impossible task.
Once you pay your fee, this tiny, uncomfortable boat whisks you towards the grotto entrance. For a moment you’re giddy with anticipation as the rower tells you to get low and duck your body below the edge of the boat. It feels like they’re asking you to lie flat in the hull, so you do your best to contort yourself in the cramped little space and fail. There’s basically no time to figure out how the tiny boat and its bottom are configured when you’re asked to get in. So there’s no time to arrange yourself or prepare mentally for this thing that’s supposed to be a peak life experience. One procedure after another just comes flying at you in ways you don’t expect. By the end, you’re so disoriented that you have no idea where you are.
While you’re being tossed about by the waves, the rower is keeping an eye on the other tiny boats coming out of the grotto, the chop, and everything else going on. And just when you think they’re about to make their move, you see them crouch down and slide into the mouth of the cave. The tiny boat slips in the grotto as if the waves pushed it in there.
When they tell you can sit back up and look around, you’re greeted by a beautiful scene that takes your breath away. The space is so dramatic that it may just be the most impressive thing I’ve seen in my life.
Just when you’re nearly lost in ecstatic contemplation of the miracles of nature, the rower’s explanation of the grotto going in one ear and out the other, it’s time to exit. Once again, you’re lying down in the boat and waiting to go out when a wave rushes up and pushes you through from behind.
Depending on the day, you may have to wait an hour and a half or two hours to get into the Blue Grotto, and it’s quite a stressful scene with the captains of the cruising vessels constantly gripping the wheel when they arrive—it’s much better for the people who have traveled the tiny overland roads to get to the entrance. And even with all that, there’s a chance you won’t even get to go inside…
Capri is full of piers and cliffs, and there are a lot of other caves as well. If you travel around the island, you can enjoy the Grotto Bianca, the Grotta Verde, the Heart Grotto… the list goes on and on.
Although, nothing compares to the Blue Grotto…
