Grotta Azzurra (Blue Cave), Capri, Italy

Summer 2004 - I was expecting to get either an electric shock or a ping of some sort when I dipped my fingers into the electric blue waters of the Blue Grotto. Grotto means Cave, and Azzurra means blue in Italian. The Blue Cave is located along the coast of Capri (an island), in Italy. A ferry boat took us around the coast to arrive at the entrance of this cave. One does not simply enter the Blue Cave on a ferry boat. The entrance is so small that its diameter is a meter and a half! So, technically, passengers are transferred into small gondola boats and made to lay down flat in order to enter the cave. I shared the gondola with my father, Sara, and the boatman himself. To enter the cave, the boatman pulls a rope that marks the route into the cave and out. Just at the brink of the entrance, the boatman pulls the rope and himself ducks backward into a laying position while the boat slides into the cave. 

Once safely inside, the boatman instructs the passengers to sit up. This is where the magic begins. I looked around and saw pitch dark overhead. The cave's ceiling is not visible. But what is visible is the electric blue shining water below. The surreal color is because of the way sunlight enters the sea cave through a small opening that is the entrance. The boatman then assumed his position as a guide and told us that Roman emperor Tiberius used the Blue Cave as a bathing pool when he lived in Capri. How cool is that? I would like to have a personal sea cave for a spa, please.