MY TRAVEL STORIES
Anacapri — The City of “Dolce Far Niente” on the Island of Capri
Capri is one of the most beautiful islands in the world, despite its small size
It enchanted me with the wilderness of nature, stunning panoramas, and the gardens filled with lemon and orange trees.
It’s a place full of romance, being a refuge for emperors, poets, artists, who found peace and intimacy here.
I will support what I said by listing a few personalities who chose to live on the island of Apragopolis (“the city of dolce far niente”), as it was named by Octavian Augustus, who also built a palace here.
Emperor Tiberius built several villas, retiring here in the last years of his life, and the physician and writer Axel Munthe built villa San Michele and wrote the autobiographical novel “The Story of San Michele” here.
We reached the island of Capri by ferry from the port of Naples, which has several terminals: Molo Beverello, near Castel Nuovo, and Calata Porta di Massa, about 1 km above. There are several companies that transport passengers to and from the island of Capri, and the price of a ticket depends on the time and the company, ranging between 20 and 30 euros.
We woke up early in the morning and had to choose between the slow ferry operated by Caremar, departing at 9:00 from the Calata Porta di Massa terminal and arriving on the island at 10:25, priced at 15 euros, or the high speed ferry operated by NLG, departing at 9:30 from the Molo Beverello terminal, arriving at 10:20, and costing 22 euros.
The next ferry to Capri was at 11:35, too late for us as tourists. We opted for the 9:30 one, as the terminal was closer to the port. The unpleasant surprise was that due to the high speed and the fact that the vessel was small-sized, the pitching was very strong throughout the cruise, so that more than three-quarters of those on board suffered from seasickness.
However, on the return journey, we chose another company, Caremar, with a larger ferry, including for vehicles, so we didn’t feel like we were riding the waves.
On the island, there are 2 main towns: Capri and Anacapri. The town of Capri is visible as you approach the island, but Anacapri, located higher up, is the perfect destination for those who love tranquility; there are fewer luxury shops here and more artisans.
The transportation options on the island, from the Marina Grande port, include the bus, taxi, boat, as well as the funicular to the town of Capri and the chairlift from Anacapri to Monte Solaro.
We decided to visit Anacapri first, which holds the most important tourist attractions on the island: Villa San Michele, Monte Solaro, and the Blue Grotto, although we didn’t visit all of them.
To reach this town, we headed to the bus station on the left side of the port and took the bus, which like all other means of transportation on the island, is small, with 8 seats per bench. During our visit, it wasn’t very crowded, but I imagine it’s quite chaotic in the summer season.
We got off in Anacapri, but not at the last stop, because we wanted to walk through their narrow streets, among houses with gardens full of lemons, oranges, and pomelos.
The main road where the small cars go winds around the island, has no sidewalks, with pedestrians having separate paths that intersect with the main road from time to time.
We enjoyed strolling, mingling among the locals, and peeking into people’s courtyards, at the terraces adorned with tiles and lemons hanging from trees, which are the characteristic fruit of the area used to make Limoncello, a liqueur used as an aperitif and digestive.
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On one wall, we discovered a few verses written on a marble plaque by the poet Alma Siracusa Vuotto, which “sang” about “green Anacapri.”
We reached the Casa Rosa, painted in “Pompeian red,” with arches at the windows and crenellations at the top, built around a small fort called Torre Aragonese, by an American colonel in love with these places.
He collected artifacts from the island and from the Grotta Azzurro, and today the house has been transformed into a museum, which we, however, did not visit.
We descended to Piazza Vittoria, strolling and admiring the terraces, the shop windows where all ceramic objects, plates, dishes, mugs, baubles, and yellow lemon-shaped bells. Also here, in the center of Anacapri town, is the starting point of the funicular that goes up to Monte Solaro, the highest point on the island (589 m).
We headed towards Villa San Michele, open daily except on Tuesdays, from 9:00 to 15:30 (last entry at 15:00), with an entrance fee of 10 euros. This villa belonged to the Swedish-born doctor and writer Axel Munthe, who built it alone or with the help of locals, without architects.
He discovered many artifacts from the Roman times because it is said that one of the villas of Emperor Tiberius was here, and he decided to include them in the current villa, such as statues that decorated the gardens and terrace, inscriptions embedded in the walls of the house.
By testament, Axel Munthe left the villa to the Swedish state, thus it became a museum, administered by the Swedish foundation bearing the name San Michele. About the house, Munthe said:
My house must be open to the sun, wind, and the voices of the sea — like a Greek temple — and light, light, light everywhere.
On the ground floor of the villa, there is a dining room filled with Renaissance furniture from Bologna and the kitchen, with Swedish dishes from the 18th century.
At the entrance, on the floor, there is a copy of a mosaic from Pompei representing a skeleton holding a jug of wine in one hand and a pitcher of water in the other, which could have two meanings: an encouragement to moderation and balance or a recommendation to fully enjoy life while there is still time.
Munthe had simple tastes when it came to food, offering guests spaghetti, vegetables, and wine from Capri. He ate many vegetables and believed that after 50 years one should give up meat.
From the kitchen, we stepped into an inner courtyard paved with hexagonal marble tiles in white and gray colors, in the center of which is a fountain from Roman times. In two niches, bronze busts are placed, one of them representing the wife of Augustus. On the wall, portions of inscriptions from Roman tombstones are embedded.
We climbed the stairs to the upper floor of the villa to reach the bright rooms that make up the apartment. It starts with the spacious bedroom, separated by the arched wall supported by a column, into two areas, the sleeping area, and the office area.
Statues representing nudes, as well as an animal, are found among other elements from Roman times embedded in the wall. The furniture is dark wood and leather, and the floor is covered with a Persian carpet in shades of red, navy blue, and beige.
In the next room, the furniture consists of a hexagonal table, several chairs, a smaller table, and a desk, where Munthe preferred to write. Above the desk hangs the head of a Medusa in white marble, which is presumed to have been found on the seabed near Palazzo a Mare, an archaeological site in the northern part of the island of Capri, in the Gulf of Naples, but its base comes from the temple of Venus in Rome.
Such a Medusa head is also found in the Vatican museum.
The floor has a mosaic representing mythological animals, and the walls are embedded with ancient bas-reliefs.
The last room is the Venetian salon, named so because most of the rococo furniture comes from Venice, such as the 18th-century gilded wooden mirror.
We stepped outside the house, reaching the so-called open gallery, full of bronze or marble statues, vases, amphorae, even a table with five stone legs, which Munthe brought from a town near Palermo, where it was used as a laundry table for ironing clothes.
Among the arches of the gallery, in a small garden, the statue of Cupid completes the decor.
The gallery continues with the alley covered with a pergola stretched over white columns and pots of multicolored flowers on both sides. The sea is not missing from the landscape, which opens to the left of the alley, and to the right, the garden with typically Mediterranean plants, including some endangered species, such as the Kochia saxicola, which exists only on the island of Capri.
Through the vegetation of the garden, another white building can be glimpsed, with the entrance formed by three arches supported by twisted columns, the chapel rebuilt by Axel Munthe over the ruins of the old San Michele church.
On its roof, in one corner, facing the sea, is the statue of a sphinx, which was initially placed in another location, on the terrace of the chapel. And since we mentioned it, I can say that it is the most instagrammable spot of the villa, with the panorama opening over the turquoise sea and the island being wonderful.
On the edge of the balcony is fixed a granite statue, half lion, half woman, the Egyptian Sphinx, dating back to the 13th century BCE, which now occupies the place of the one I had seen on the roof of the chapel. Axel Munthe wrote in his book “The Story of San Michele” that after a premonitory dream, he found the fantastic creature here, facing the sunrise from the east.
The Sphinx has become, in a way, the symbol of Villa San Michele, Munthe admiring very much a German poet who used to compare the island of Capri with a Sphinx.
I admired the landscapes in silence, wandered unhindered through the garden, returned to the villa’s terrace, and ultimately parted from this romantic and at the same time mysterious place.
From Villa San Michele, the Phoenician Steps begin, the old path built by the Greeks, linking Anacapri and Marina Grande, a path that Munthe also traveled, thus falling in love with the island.
It is not recommended to descend these steps, as they are high and steep; therefore, we turned back, heading towards a bus station that would take us to the other town of the island, Capri. Along our way, we came across a cemetery, which caught my attention due to its impeccable cleanliness and the well-maintained graves, covered with fresh natural flowers.
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