If you come to Capri on a half-day trip from resorts on the Amalfi Coast what you will experience is a short trip on the funicular railway up to the Piazza Umberto or the Marina Grande where the ferry from Naples comes in. Here are the groups with flag-waving tour guides and souvenir shops selling lemon liquor and flower perfumes. You will mill around with other day trippers for a while, and then return to the mainland. Plan a longer stay and you will see the other side of Capri.
Italy - Walking on Capri - Explore the island on foot
The best way to see this small island is to walk. You can buy a map in the Piazza Umberto. The two main towns, Capri and Anacapri, are almost completely pedestrianised. For those who don’t wish to walk there are buses that run between them and there are also strange looking “Capri taxis” - jazzy open-top vehicles, Little electric carts called carrelli, are used for distributing goods (but not people) around the island.
Italy - Walking on Capri - The Capri side of the island
Anacapri is on the western side on the island, Capri on the eastern side, and there are lovely walks in and around both places. On the Capri side you can walk to Villa Jovis, built two thousand years ago by the Emperor Tiberius. From here he ruled the Roman Empire and it seems he did a lot of other things not quite so exalted - like holding erotic orgies which took place in the Blue Grotto, after which the young men and women involved were slaughtered.
The walk up to the villa cuts through lemon groves, vineyards and gardens crammed with red poppies growing at the feet of heavily laden apricot trees. Villa Jovis is amazing. Reconstructions show it as an immense three-storey palace, full of porticos, walkways, columns, baths and even central heating and an observatory for the Emperor’s private astrologer.
Another walk will take you to the Natural Arch - like the Blue Grotto, a work of nature, formed by the wind and rains over thousands of years. A narrow path and a flight of stairs lead down to a viewpoint from which the curve of the arch can be seen rising out of the water to a height of about two hundred meters.
Close by, down at sea level, is the Matermania Grotto which in ancient times was a sacred site, possibly a place of worship for the goddess Cybel who was celebrated in orgiastic rites and purification ceremonies including bathing in the blood of a sacrificed bull. Seems a lot of this stuff went on in ancient Capri - real as well as mythical. The Romans coated the huge cave with marble and mosaics and fitted it out with couches for those present to relax on.
Italy - Walking on Capri - Anacapri side of the Island
The landscape on the Anacapri side of the island is wilder and more open than the Capri side. A narrow mossy path leads from the Belvedere de Migliera (a viewpoint) down to the Carena Lighthouse. Shaded by myrtle and pine trees the path is lined with thick bush filled with all kinds of trees and plants: juniper, azalea, broom, pine - all filling the air with their scent. Green-backed lizards scamper across the path, seagulls wheel around the cliffs and butterflies are everywhere. It’s an enchanted landscape.
Take a walk around Old Capri. The Arab presence is still here, with narrow covered streets like those in a North African souk. Forget about wondering where you are. The only way is to lose yourself in the alleyways and passages.
Shopping
In complete contrast there are streets in Capri which are utterly devoted to mammon and the 21st-century. In particular, via Camarelle, just off Piazza Umberto, is lined with Gucci, Pucci and every other ucci you can think of. Something for everyone.
Colourful ceramics are found all around the Amalfi Coast. Yellow suns, blue seas, and red flowers decorate plates, vases, cups and , of course, tiles galore. Every house on the island has an individual tile at its front entrance. Some elegant, some amusing, some romantic. One was inscribed “The house is small but the peace is grand”. Replace ‘house’ with ‘island’ and it describes the real Capri..
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