CAPRI

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 resort since the time of the Roman Republic.

Features of the island are the Marina Piccola (Small Harbor), the Belvedere of Tragara, which is a high panoramic promenade lined with villas, the limestone masses called Sea Stacks that stand out of the sea (the Faraglioni), Anacapri, the *Blue Grotto (Grotta Azzurra), and the ruins of the Imperial Roman villas.

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.

The beauty of the Blue Grotto was described in 1826 by the German writer August Kopisch. Since then the Blue Grotto has become the emblem of the island of Capri. The grotto was known by the Romans, as proved by the antique statues which were found in the Grotto. This discovery, the remains of an ancient landing place and the work on an underground tunnel, create an image of a natural cavern adorned by statues. 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. The Blue Grotto was used by the emperor Tiberius as his private swimming pool.[citation needed]

The Blue Grotto can be reached by motorboat from the port of Marina Grande, by bus from Anacapri, or by taxi. To enter the low opening to the grotto, the tourist lies in the bottom of the boat as it is rowed in. The grotto cannot be visited during adverse weather conditions.

This grotto was mentioned in the book "Red Sails To Capri" by Ann Weil

CAPRI is part of 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 separate commune of *Anacapri is located high on the hills to the west.

CAMPANIA is a region of southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,595 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country. Located on the Italian Peninsula, with the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west, the small Flegrean Islands and Capri are also administratively part of the region.

Throughout much of its history Campania has been at the centre of Western Civilisation's most significant entities. The area was colonised by Ancient Greeks and was within Magna Græcia, until the Roman Republic began to dominate. During the Roman era the area was highly respected as a place of culture by the emperors, where it balanced Greco-Roman culture. The area had many duchies and principalities during the Middle Ages, in the hands of the Byzantine Empire and some Lombards.

It was under the Normans that the smaller independent states were brought together as part of a sizable European kingdom, known as the Kingdom of Sicily, before the mainland broke away to form the Kingdom of Naples. It was during this period that especially elements of Spanish, French and Aragonese culture touched Campania. Later the area became the central part of the Two Sicilies under the Bourbons, until the Italian unification of 1860 when it became part of the new state Italy.

The capital city of Campania is Naples. Campania is rich in culture, especially in regards to gastronomy, music, architecture, archeological and ancient sites such as Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum. The name of Campania itself is derived from Latin, as the Romans knew the region as Campania felix, which translates into English as "fertile countryside". The rich natural sights of Campania make it highly important in the tourism industry, especially along the Amalfi Coast, Mount Vesuvius and the island of Capri.

*ANACAPRI is a Community on the island of Capri, in the province of Naples, Italy. Administratively, it has a separate status from the city of Capri. The most important sight in the village is the Villa San Michele.

The Villa San Michele was built around the turn of the 20th century, by the Swedish physician, Axel Munthe, on the ruins of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius' villa, on the Island of Capri, Italy. Its gardens have panoramic views of the city of Capri and its marina, the Sorrentine Peninsula, and Mount Vesuvius. The villa and its grounds sit on a ledge at the top of the Phoenician Steps, between Anacapri and Capri, at 327 meters above sea level.

San Michele's gardens are adorned with numerous relics and works of art dating back to ancient Egypt and other periods of antiquity. They now form part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.

The history of the villa is described by Dr. Munthe in his book entitled The Story of San Michele, published in 1929. There have been numerous reprints since.

French composer Claude Debussy was a regular visitor to Anacapri. He even named one of his preludes from the first book, No.5 "Les collines d'Anacapri", in homage to the community.

There is a bus service, via numerous hairpin bends, from Marina Grande and Capri to Anacapri.

One of the tourist attractions in Anacapri is the chairlift (seggiovia) to 589-m Monte Solaro for picturesque views of the south-facing coast.

The etymology of the name Capri can be traced back to the Greeks, the first recorded colonists to populate the island. This means that "Capri" was probably not derived from the Latin "Capreae" (goats), but rather the Greek "Kapros" (wild boar).

ANCIENT AND ROMAN TIMES

According to the Greek geographer Strabo, Capri was once part of the mainland. This has been confirmed by geological surveys and archaeological findings.

The city has been inhabited since very early times. Evidence of human settlement was discovered during the Roman era; according to Suetonius, when the foundations for the villa of Augustus were being excavated, giant bones and 'weapons of stone' were discovered. The emperor ordered these to be displayed in the garden of his main residence, the Sea Palace. Modern excavations have shown that human presence on the island can be dated back to the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

In his Aeneid, Virgil states that the island had been populated by the Greek people of Teleboi, coming from the Ionian Islands. Strabo says that "in ancient times in Capri there were two towns, later reduced to one." (Geography, 5, 4, 9, 38). 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.

Augustus's successor Tiberius 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 CE, Tiberius permanently moved to Capri, running the Empire from there until his death in 37 CE. According to Suetonius, while staying on the island, Tiberius (accompanied by his grand-nephew and heir, Caligula) enjoyed imposing numerous cruelties and sexual perversions upon his slaves.

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

MIDDLE AND MODERN AGES

After the end of the Western Roman Empire, Capri returned to the status of a dominion of Naples, and suffered various attacks and ravages by pirates. In 866 Emperor Louis II gave the island to Amalfi. In 987 the first Caprese bishop was consecrated by Pope John XV.

In 1496, Frederick IV of Naples established legal and administrative parity between the two settlements of Capri and Anacapri. The pirate raids reached their peak during the reign of Charles V: the famous Turkish admirals Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha and Turgut Reis captured the island in 1535 and 1553 for the Ottoman Empire, respectively.

The first famous visitor to the island was the French antiques dealer Jean Jacques Bouchard in the 17th century, who may be considered Capri's first tourist. His diary, found in 1850, is an important information source about Capri.

RECENT HISTORY

In the latter half of the 19th century, Capri became a popular resort for European artists, writers and other celebrities. John Singer Sargent and Frank Hyde are among the prominent artists who stayed on the island around the late 1870s. Sargent is best known for his series of portraits featuring the beautiful local model, Rosina Ferrara.

Also in the 19th century, the natural scientist Ignazio Cerio catalogued the flora and fauna of the island. This work was continued by his son, the author and engineer Edwin Cerio, who wrote several books on life in Capri in the 20th century.

Norman Douglas, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, Christian Wilhelm Allers, Emil von Behring, Curzio Malaparte, Axel Munthe, and Maxim Gorky are all reported to have owned a villa there, or to have stayed there for more than three months. Swedish Queen Victoria often stayed there. Rose O'Neill, the American illustrator and creator of the Kewpie, owned the Villa Narcissus, formerly owned by the famous Beaux Art painter Charles Caryl Coleman. Gracie Fields also had a villa on the island, though her 1934 song "The Isle of Capri" was written by two Englishmen. Mariah Carey owns a villa on the island.

The book that spawned the 19th century fascination with Capri in France, Germany, and England was Entdeckung der Blauen Grotte auf der Insel Capri, 'Discovery of the Blue Grotto on the Isle of 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. Claude Debussy refers to the island's hills in the title of his impressionistic prélude Les collines d'Anacapri (1910).

As well as being a haven for writers and artists, Capri served as a relatively safe place for foreign gay men and lesbians to lead a more open life, and a small nucleus of them were attracted to live there, overlapping to some extent with the creative types mentioned above. The 19th century poet August von Platen-Hallermünde was one of the first. Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen wrote the roman à clef Et le feu s’èteignit sur le mer (1910) about Capri and its residents in the early 20th century, causing a minor scandal. Fersen's life on Capri became the subject of Roger Peyrefitte's fictionalised biography, L'Exile de Capri. One of the island's most famous foreign inhabitants was Norman Douglas; his novel South Wind is a thinly fictionalised description of Capri's residents and visitors, and a number of his other works, both books and pamphlets, deal with the island, including Capri (1930) and his last work, A Footnote on Capri (1952). A satirical presentation of the island's lesbian colony in the 1920s is made in Compton Mackenzie's novel Extraordinary Women (1928).

Memoirs set on Capri include Edwin Cerio's Aria di Capri (1928) (translated as That Capri Air), which contains a number of historical and biographical essays on the island, including a tribute to Norman Douglas; The Story of San Michele (1929) by the Swedish royal physician Axel Munthe (1857–1949), who built a villa of that name; An Impossible Woman: The Memoirs of Dottoressa Moor (1975) by Elisabeth Moor, who worked there as a doctor from 1926 until the 1970s; and Shirley Hazzard's Graham on Capri: A Memoir (2000), about her reminiscences of Graham Greene.

Novels set on Capri include the eponymous Kapri (1939), by the Latvian novelist Janis Jaunsudrabinš, who represents the island as a sort of prison for Europeans who have run away from their normal lives and responsibilities, and I Love Capri by Belinda Jones.

TOURISM

Typical taxi of Capri.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 and expensive restaurants.

During summers, the island is heavily touristed, often by day trippers from Naples and Sorrento.

TRANSPORTATION

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. Boats call at Marina Grande, from where you can take the funicular up to the village of Capri. A chair lift takes passengers to the top of the island.

ANACAPRI


Anacapri is a Community on the island of Capri, in the province of Naples, Italy. Administratively, it has a separate status from the city of Capri. The most important sight in the village is the Villa San Michele.

French composer Claude Debussy was a regular visitor to Anacapri. He even named one of his preludes from the first book, No.5 "Les collines d'Anacapri", in homage to the community.

There is a bus service, via numerous hairpin bends, from Marina Grande and Capri to Anacapri.

One of the tourist attractions in Anacapri is the chairlift (seggiovia) to 589-m Monte Solaro for picturesque views of the south-facing coast.

San Michele's gardens are adorned with numerous relics and works of art dating back to ancient Egypt and other periods of antiquity. They now form part of the Grandi Giardini Italiani.

The history of the villa is described by Dr. Munthe in his book entitled The Story of San Michele, published in 1929. There have been numerous reprints since.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacapri