Anacapri

See also Capri (disambiguation)

The island of Capri near Naples, Italy.

Overlooking Capri harbor from the rotunda in Villa San Michele.

Capri (Italian pronunciation Cápri, usual English pronunciation Caprí) is an Italian island off the Sorrentine Peninsula. On the south side of the Gulf of Naples, it has been a celebrated beauty spot and resort since the time of the Roman Republic. The features are a litany of postcard views: the Marina Piccola (Small Harbor), the Belvedere of Tragara, which is a high panoramic promenade lined with villas, the limestone masses that stand out of the sea (the 'Faraglioni'), Anacapri, the Blue Grotto ('Grotta Azzurra'). Above all are the ruins of the Imperial Roman villas.

Capri is in the region of Campania, Province of Naples. The City of Capri is the main centre of population on Capri. It has two adjoining harbours, Marina Piccola and Marina Grande (the main port of the island). The town of Anacapri is located high on the hills west from the City of Capri.

History

In Roman times

Tacitus records that there were twelve Imperial villas in Capri (or 'Capreae', as it was spelled in Latin). Ruins of one at Tragara could still be seen in the 19th Century. Suetonius reports that when the foundations for the villa were being excavated, giant bones and 'weapons of stone' were discovered, which Augustus ordered to be displayed in the garden of his main residence, the Sea Palace, one of the first displays of fossils.

Augustus's successor Tiberius also built a series of villas at Capri, the most famous of which is the Villa Jovis one of the best preserved Roman villas in Italy. In 27, Tiberius permanently moved to Capri, running the Empire from there until his death in 37. According to Suetonius, while staying on the island, Tiberius (accompanied by his grand-nephew and heir, Caligula) enjoyed performing numerous cruelties and sexual perversions upon their slaves. However many of these alleged cuelties may be the result of negative propaganda by the church which had an interest to diffamate Tiberius who persecuted early christians.

In 182, Emperor Commodus banished his sister Lucilla to Capri. She was executed shortly afterwards.

Newer history

In the 2nd half of the 19th century, Capri became a popular resort for european artists, writers and other celebrities. An own villa or a stay of more than three months is reported for: Norman Douglas, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, Christian Wilhelm Allers, Emil von Behring, Curzio Malaparte, Axel Munthe, Maxim Gorky.

Capri in literature

Capri at sunset, from the tip of the peninsula of Sorrento.

The book that spawned the 19th century fascination with Capri in France, Germany, and England was Entdeckung der Blauen Grotte auf der Insel Capri by the German painter and writer August Kopisch, in which he describes his 1826 stay on Capri and his (re)discovery of the Blue Grotto.

Capri is also the setting for The Lotus Eater, a short-story by Somerset Maugham. In the story, the protagonist from Boston comes to Capri on a holiday and is so enchanted by the place he gives up his job and decides to spend the rest of his life in leisure at Capri.

Shirley Hazzard, winner of the 2003 National Book Award (for the novel The Great Fire), wrote the memoir Green on Capri (2000) about her reminiscences of Graham Greene and Capri.

Norman Douglas, a neighbour of Greene, wrote travel books and Fabio Giordano's Relation of Capri (1906).

Writer and Swedish royal physician Axel Munthe (1857–1949) built the Villa San Michele near Anacapri. His memoirs, The Story of San Michele were published in 1929.

Jacques_d'Adelsward-Fersen wrote the novel Et le feu s’èteignit sur le mer (1910) about Capri and its residents in the early 20th century, which caused a minor scandal as it was a roman à clef. Fersen's life on Capri was also the subject of Roger Peyrefitte's L'Exile de Capri.

What particularly attracted Douglas, Fersen, August Graf von Platen, and other artists at the time to Capri and Naples was not just the beautiful landscape, but also the opportunity to live out their homosexual leanings. Local fishermen's sons were usually available for sexual adventures, and this was tolerated by the Capri populace.

In fact, as described by Peyrefitte in his carefully researched novel, Fersen had at times a strained relationship with the locals—not because his lover, Nino Cesarini, was a teenage boy, but because Nino was from Rome and not from Capri, which violated the pride of the locals (and also hurt them economically, as Fersen's money and his house was effectively tied to a Roman and not a local boy).

Tourism

Overlooking the island from Anacapri.

Capri is a tourist destination for both Italians and foreigners. In the 1950s, Capri became a popular destination for the international jet set. The central piazzetta of Capri, though preserving its modest village architecture, is lined with luxury boutiques, expensive restaurants, and paparazzi chasing celebrities.

During the summer, the island is heavily touristed, often by day trippers from Naples and Sorrento. To savour the wonderful light and atmosphere of the island it is best to be out and about early in the morning and late in the day and out of the high season.

Capri is served by frequent ferry and hydrofoil service to Naples and Sorrento, as well as many other boat services to the ports of the Gulf of Naples and the Sorrentine Peninsula.

External links

Movie - Contempt aka Le Mepris

Capri Hotels and Accommodation in Isle of Capri Italy

Anacapri on Wikipedia...