Capri

Why go

A limestone island that emperors chose — Tiberius ran the Roman empire from here for a decade. Two towns, two characters — Capri town for the piazzetta, Anacapri above it for the quiet. The walks — Via Krupp, the Arco Naturale, Monte Solaro; most day visitors never leave the shops. Light on water — the Blue Grotto is a cliché because the physics genuinely work.

The character

Capri is a block of limestone three kilometres off the Sorrentine peninsula with no natural harbour worth the name, and that awkwardness is its history. Augustus swapped Ischia for it in 29 BC; Tiberius built twelve villas and governed Rome from the island for the last ten years of his life, which tells you something about how far three kilometres of water can feel.

The modern island was made by writers and eccentrics rather than developers: Axel Munthe built San Michele at Anacapri in the 1890s, Norman Douglas and Compton Mackenzie wrote it into English literature, and by the 1950s it was the summer address of those who wanted to be looked at and those who came to disappear, often in the same restaurant. Both traditions survive. Between eleven and five the funicular disgorges day-trippers from Naples and Sorrento into a piazzetta the size of a tennis court; after the last hydrofoil the island belongs to five thousand residents and whoever booked a room, and the difference is total.

Places of character

The piazzetta at eight in the evening — four cafés, one clock tower, and the entire social life of the island. Via Krupp — the hairpin path cut into the cliff in 1902, closed for years by rockfall and worth checking before you go. Villa San Michele, Anacapri — Munthe's house, with a sphinx on the parapet and the best terrace on the island. Monte Solaro — the single-seat chairlift to 589 metres, twelve minutes each way, and the view of the whole bay. Villa Jovis — Tiberius's palace on the eastern cliff, a forty-minute walk from town and usually empty. I Faraglioni from the water — take a boat around the island; the rocks only make sense from below.

The way to do it

Stay overnight — this is the whole difference between Capri and a day trip. Base yourself in Anacapri if you want quiet and better value, Capri town if you want the piazzetta. Walk: the island is small and the paths are the point. And go early or late in the year, when the boats run but the crowds do not.

One perfect day

Breakfast on a terrace before the first hydrofoil, then walk to Villa Jovis while the path is cool and empty. Down to the Arco Naturale and the Grotta di Matermania, then lunch in Anacapri away from the port. Chairlift to Monte Solaro in the early afternoon for the bay and the Faraglioni from above. Swim off the rocks at Marina Piccola when the day boats start leaving. Aperitivo in the piazzetta at eight as the island exhales, dinner in a garden restaurant with lemon trees, and a last walk down Via Camerelle when the shops are shut and the lamps are on.

Grand hotels

Grand Hotel Quisisana — 1845, originally a sanatorium, then the island's social centre for a century and a half. Punta Tragara — a Le Corbusier-designed villa above the Faraglioni, later a wartime meeting place for Churchill and Eisenhower.

When to go

Best expression: late September and early October — warm sea, thin crowds, the light the painters came for. Consider: May, before the season, with everything open and the paths still green. Avoid if possible: August, and any day when three cruise ships are in the bay of Naples.

The frame

Ideal stay 3 nights · Minimum 2 nights · Best arrival hydrofoil from Naples or Sorrento · Airport NAP, 40 km plus ferry · Walkability excellent, steep, no cars for visitors · Best without a car cars are effectively banned