Awesome Number Seven

.....I have to say that I am getting a "rush" just recalling all ten of these "experiences". They are just as alive and awesome in my memory now as they were when I saw them many years ago, and I am very appreciative and fortunate that these events happened to me in my lifetime. I begin this posting on my blog with event #6; and again--this list is not in any particular order--but #10 will describe my #1 experience. So, stick around for the end of the game.

.....7)The Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra)-- is a noted sea cave on

the coast of the island of Capri,Italy. Sunlight, passing through an underwater cavity and shining through the seawater, creates a blue reflection that illuminates the cavern. Once you are rowed inside the cave, the light can change from a brilliant blue to an emerald cast. The grotto was known by the Romans, as proved by the antique statues which were found in the Grotto. The grotto was known to the locals under the name of Gradola, after the nearby landing place of Gradola, but it was avoided because it was said to be inhabited by witches and monsters. To enter the low opening to the grotto, the tourist transfers from the motorized boat that brought him or her from the port into a small wooden rowboat manned by one of the oarsmen who specialize in ferrying travelers into the cave. Because there is no headroom, visitors must lie on their backs in the bottom of the rowboats as they clear the entranceway. Once inside, the grotto is quite roomy and it is possible to sit upright, until conveyed back out through the same tiny hole.

…..The Baron was awed by this experience partly because the lyrics to “The Isle of Capri” kept swirling around in his head. And, too, remembering my Greek mythology about Charon who is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Of course, my ferryman wasn’t dead, but I did have to place a coin in his hand when the experience was over. I have not the words to describe it.