Some of My Favourite Holiday Places- Capri

 Many of us have favourite holiday places, these are places that are memorable, sometimes we visit only once, others we return to again and again. I always think that there are too many wonderful places in the world to just keep doing the same thing each year. But its personal. As I haven’t travelled now since Autumn 2019, I have been thinking more aboutt past holidays destinations.

Italy is a beautiful country with lots on offer, I think my favourite place is the island of Capri. This small island is just off the coast of Naples on the Amalfi coast.  Some may feel that’s it's an expensive over-commercialised destination crammed with day-trippers. But no-one can deny that Capri has earned it's fame for many reasons. It’s natural beauty, delicious cuisine, world-class shopping, walking trails, historical buildings and stunning vistas.The combination of island simplicity, natural beauty yet with a busy, cosmopolitan lifestyle, offers something for everybody.

There are two separate towns on the island of Capri as well as the port. Capri town, with its well-known attractions and famous shopping streets has a tangible deluxe feel to it. Anacapri (Old town) is more residential with quiet lanes and a traditional feel. From here you can take the chair lift or funicular to the top of Monte Solaro.I am scared of heights but this was worth it. So take a few deep breaths.

This peaceful Mediterranean retreat yet fashionable meeting place has been popular since roman times. Despite its size it was a destination on the grand tour attracting everybody, from philosophers to princes, wanting to spend at least a week, if not months, experiencing the dramatic land and seascapes and the hospitality of the islanders. Many of these visitors decided to stay for the entire year. It was the place to see and definitely the place to be seen. You can fully understand why it has been a long preserve of celebrities and the super-rich needing a hideout to rest and let their hair down for a few weeks.

Steep cliffs rise majestically from an impossibly blue sea with elegant villas covered in wisteria and bougainvillea. If you take a stroll along via Tragara, this is the path that takes you past the once luxurious private villas that are now 5-star hotels. You will discover the Faraglioni rocks, the symbol of the Isle of Capri and be rewarded with spectacularly, wonderful views. Take a bench seat, they are s placed around the lookout area and marvel at the view of the glorious coastline and sheer drops.

In this unique and enchanting spot, Villa Lysis, was built in 1904 by Count Jacques d'Adelswärd Fersen. Villa Lysis is as eccentric as the nobleman himself, who withdrew to Capri in self-imposed exile to escape a series of scandals in his home country. Edouard Chimot, was commissioned to design a Neoclassical decadent refuge, which Architecturally was mainly  in a Art Nouveau style, his elegant, luxurious home was both reserved and opulent at the same time. The villa was Dedicated to the youth of love and the Latin inscription above the front steps “AMORI ET DOLORI SACRVM” was a shrine to love and sorrow. In 1985, Villa Lysis passed into possession of the Italian state and the building was restored in the 1990s by the Lysis Funds Association (founded in 1986) and the Municipality of Capri. In 2014 the Apeiron Association began a restoration program to transform the house into a cultural centre and event venue. I visited in the mid-90s and loved the feel and vistas of this romantic villa, having seen the more recent pictures perhaps it has lost a little of its charm. 

Close-by, is where the Roman emperor Tiberius had built his Villa Jovis two millennia earlier. Tiberius made it his home when Rome became too hot. If his biographers are to be believed, he got up to all sorts of scandalous behaviour inside his imperial cliff-top villa. You can still visit the ruins of his villas. For more than a decade in the early part of the first century AD, this picturesque Italian island was the principal home of the emperor, Tiberius. (Known as the Tyrant)  He lived a life of extraordinary debauchery, fortified by the finest food and wines served by nude handmaidens. Troupes of beautiful youths of both sexes, gathered from all corners of the Roman world and he hosted endless summer orgies, so by all accounts a good time was had on Capri.

In equal measure to his lechery, however was his bloodlust, he watched his enemies being tortured before being thrown 300ft off the cliffs into the sea below. Close to the Emperor's apartments was a precipice called Tiberius Fall, because from it, he would dispense with unwelcome visitors or disobedient servants, rumour has it even unwanted wives. Putting aside the gruesome history, its still one of the stunning places, I have seen and there is a peacefulness. (Even with the hordes of tourists)

Capri is definitely worth visiting, whatever your budget as you’ll enjoy some sublime moments and take lovely photographs, it what must be one of the most iconic photographic settings.